Years ago, I was reading about this guy who had been the (or a) drama coach at Exeter. Because the article was about his legal troubles, they didn’t go into a lot of detail about his tenure in the drama department, except to say that he was well-regarded by students and faculty. One of the reasons for this was that he was strict about making sure drama students maintained their GPA, and this was tied to his assertion that, “Let’s be realistic – no one from Exeter is going on to Broadway.”
But I’m not sure that necessarily follows. Granted, Exeter is not the school to go to if you’re seeking a career in the performing arts. But from what I understand, it’s not like the drama department is an afterthought, either. His reasoning might have been that if you’re attending a private, old-money academy, you’re probably being groomed for the fast track in business or politics, not show business. That’s reasonable, but ISTM that if you’re from the kind of family that sends their kids to private academies, there’s really very little that you can’t do if you want to.
For instance, an Exeter graduate would not have to join the armed forces in order to pay for college, but they might choose to do so for reasons of their own. And I would think that being a trust-fund kid would be advantageous if you were headed literally to Broadway after graduation: you’d have a financial backup during the years you would spend going to auditions and taking classes. If your parents object to the military, or to acting, that would be between you and them; I’m just not convinced that an across-the-board “nobody” applies.
And I’m fairly certain that there are some actors and actresses who attended private academies. Exeter is a prestigious school, but it’s still effectively a high school, and not everyone is locked into their career path by the age of eighteen. So was he right or wrong?
Michael Cerveris is an Exeter graduate. He originated the starring role in Tommy, starred in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (off-Broadway), and won a Tony in 2004 for Assassins, among plenty of other things.
(I only know this because I went to summer school at Exeter, and his brother Todd directed me in Once Upon a Mattress.)
Okay, so that’s a bunch from Exeter specifically. And there are probably successful performers from other elite private schools. I figured it was not that cut-and-dried.
OK, if you’re going to include Dan Brown, then how about including John Irving, who has had five of his novels made into films, and at least one of them (Cider House Rules?) made into an incredibly long play (don’t think it made it to Broadway, though - it was at least 8 hours long). A Prayer for Owen Meany basically took place in a very thinly-disguised Exeter.
Well, I would exclude authors from this. Elite private schools tend to focus heavily on literature, and I would imagine they actively breed writers, or at least don’t discourage them.
I’m just wondering what the guy meant. No one from an elite private academy, in this case Exeter, is going on to Broadway because…why? Because there’s some quality that dedicated actors need that’s rarely if ever present in children of well-to-do families? Because deep down, he thought acting was a lowbrow profession (unlike writing plays or producing them, presumably)? Because he thought actors have to start out poor in order to be driven to succeed? Because he knew, after years of teaching, that his students were bred to follow certain career paths which did not include acting, and he thought it highly unlikely that any of them would break that pattern?
It’s the way the quote was phrased. Not “It’s really difficult to make it as an actor, so don’t risk your academic career for it.” Not “I know many of you have other career plans, so this semester’s show is not the turning point of your life.” Or “If you really wanted to be an actor above all else, you wouldn’t be here; you’d be in a straight-up performing arts academy.” Not even an acknowledgement that further training on the college level would be necessary. If he really said, effectively, “No one from Exeter/any elite academy is going to make a career of acting,” full stop, that’s such a sweeping statement that I figured there had to be more to it.
Having dreams as a young person is all about running into people who make broad, sweeping statements like these, and having no one at all to help you interpret or udnerstand them.
It may well be true that not very many people who went to an expensive private school become actors. I don’t mean just that there aren’t very many of them. I mean that in proportion to the number of students in expensive private schools, there aren’t as manyactors who studied in them as one might expect. Take a look at a lot of biographies of actors. Just like muscians and professional athletes, they tend to come from middle-class (or poorer) families. Expectations of one’s family and friends has a lot more to do with one’s career goals than one might think. A child growing up in a middle-class (or poorer) family would look at a famous actor, musician, or athlete and say, “Wow, that person makes a lot more than anyone I know.” A child growing up in an upper-middle-class (or richer) family wouldn’t say that. The fact is that very few actors at any time make more than an average doctor. The fact is that children in upper-middle-class (or richer) families have more realistic estimates of what most careers make, and, relative to how many people start by planning to be actors, acting is a very risky way to hope to be rich.