# Going the Professor track



## tk2k (Jul 5, 2012)

Hey CB,

I know few of us do this, but the idea of post-mfa working as a LD for a number of years, then semi-settling down with a teaching position at a college (with some outside designs still) is extremely appealing to me. I love what I do, and wouldn't trade it, but I don't see many 45+ LDs with families that still design regularly, and are not either rep or associated with a college. I know the MFA is a must for employment in higher ed, but I was wondering if any LD profs here might have some insight on the track they took, or the tracks of others in their field.


----------



## ruinexplorer (Jul 7, 2012)

I am not a professor, so I can't speak on the career path for that goal. I must ask, what is the motivation for going the educational path as opposed to working towards working for a theater company? After all, if you are successful as a designer, then why wouldn't you want to keep designing? If you aren't successful as a designer, why would a college/university be seeking you out? 

For colleges, a Master's degree may be all you need, but many universities require a PhD as far as I have seen.


----------



## derekleffew (Jul 7, 2012)

ruinexplorer said:


> ... For colleges, a Master's degree may be all you need, but many universities require a PhD as far as I have seen.


Not to teach design/tech they don't. The MFA is the terminal degree. One would be hard pressed to even find a doctorate program in theatre design. By example, Yale offers a DFA (Doctor of Fine Arts) only in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism. Others at Doctorate in Drama and Dramatics + Theatre Arts, General . More at A Ph.D. in Theatre? .


----------



## josh88 (Jul 7, 2012)

And to answer your question ruin, where I went to school professors still designed. So my wanting to teach college age kids while still being able to do some work is why I've considered going that route.. But haven't yet


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk


----------



## ruinexplorer (Jul 8, 2012)

derekleffew said:


> Not to teach design/tech they don't. The MFA is the terminal degree.




I stand corrected. In the short term where I considered teaching as a profession, all colleges where I applied required a Master's degree and the universities required more. Maybe they were expecting too much, I don't know; I didn't look at it any further. When the educational system would not consider professional experience as a requirement over education, as in they would take a recent graduate over someone who had real world experience, I stopped looking. This is why I put forth the question.


----------



## MNicolai (Jul 8, 2012)

The BFA program I'm in has professors with MFA's but zero teaching experience, certifications or training. Couple adjunct professors don't even have MFA's.

They get by on the school's "Artist-in-Residence" program, which recognizes professional experience in place of educational experience.


----------



## Grog12 (Jul 8, 2012)

ruinexplorer said:


> I stand corrected. In the short term where I considered teaching as a profession, all colleges where I applied required a Master's degree and the universities required more. Maybe they were expecting too much, I don't know; I didn't look at it any further. When the educational system would not consider professional experience as a requirement over education, as in they would take a recent graduate over someone who had real world experience, I stopped looking. This is why I put forth the question.



Funny enough the worst professor I ever had had no degree but booka design expierence. Just like having a theatre design degree doesn't nessecarily mean you can hack it as a designer, having crap tons of professional design expierence doesn't mean you can teach.

Honestly the best profs I had did just what the OP described: they continued designing while teaching.


----------



## cbrandt (Jul 12, 2012)

I've always wanted to keep this option open for the future, but I can't seem to justify the time and expense of getting an MFA, when the only thing it would SEEM to get me is a checkbox on an application. Then again, none of the local colleges offer a program that I'd be interested in, so I guess it is pretty out of the question anyway...


----------



## ruinexplorer (Jul 13, 2012)

Grog12 said:


> Funny enough the worst professor I ever had had no degree but booka design expierence. Just like having a theatre design degree doesn't nessecarily mean you can hack it as a designer, having crap tons of professional design expierence doesn't mean you can teach.
> 
> Honestly the best profs I had did just what the OP described: they continued designing while teaching.



I agree that having professional experience does not guarantee someone to be a good teacher, but neither does soemone who has an academic degree with no experience. You are correct that a combination of experience is most likely the best candidate. Since my degree was obtained at a smaller college in a town where essentially the only theater was academic theater, the teachers did not have a lot of opportunity to work outside of the institution. When I changed to the extremely large university (and degree program), the theater where I worked all but refused to hire any of the theater students because of being stuck in the academic rut. Sometimes it just depends on the person, not just the training. I used to think that anyone could be a manager, or at least take a class to learn how, but over the years I have found that not to be the case.


----------



## chausman (Jul 13, 2012)

ruinexplorer said:


> I agree that having professional experience does not guarantee someone to be a good teacher, but neither does soemone who has an academic degree with no experience. You are correct that a combination of experience is most likely the best candidate. Since my degree was obtained at a smaller college in a town where essentially the only theater was academic theater, the teachers did not have a lot of opportunity to work outside of the institution. When I changed to the extremely large university (and degree program), the theater where I worked all but refused to hire any of the theater students because of being stuck in the academic rut. Sometimes it just depends on the person, not just the training. I used to think that anyone could be a manager, or at least take a class to learn how, but over the years I have found that not to be the case.



In my opinion, someone who has to work hard to learn things well (and usually struggle with it) seem to be better teachers/leaders then someone who instantly "mastered" whatever they are trying to teach. (And no, not everyone can be a good manager, again, IMHO)


----------

