Day in the Life of a College Theatre Student

Marleena Garris / Lindenwood University »

As a theatre student, you are innately part of a group on your college campus that is lively, unconventional, motivated, and downright wacky to say the least. The beauty of studying theatre in college is that you still have control over your schedule, but you get to work in productions alongside students who have the same passion as you do, all bringing a variety of backgrounds to go with your training.

The Theatre Student’s Schedule

A typical day as a theatre student includes getting up and attending your regular classes. At Lindenwood University, I spent my first two years taking both my general education classes and my theatre classes. As an acting major, I took acting studios that introduced me to performing at the collegiate level. Often, students like myself will have a day filled with regular classes—including the core mathematics, English, sciences, and history—and a night filled with rehearsals. Rehearsals are usually around 6pm to 11pm, changing depending on the size and scope of the production as well as where we are in the process. 

The day depends on whether you work on campus as well. I had an on-campus job, so I would time my classes with my work schedule in order to make it there and to rehearsal. Needless to say, you are busy from when you wake up all the way from to when you go to sleep! It’s important to have a schedule and a routine—it takes a lot out of you, and you need to be able to balance your regular classes with theatre classes, which include memorizing, working on shows behind the scenes, and observation.

During my theatre classes, we learn how to apply performance to our current shows that we were assigned or learned techniques that we could apply to our auditions later on. When classes and rehearsals are done, I would go home and work on homework for the day, or gauge how much I needed to do for the week. With that, I’d head to sleep and get ready to wake for a new day going forward.

Community in Class

I love being able to work and go to my other classes knowing that I have a performance that night. During the day, some of the theatre students have traditions, such as wearing the same shirt, color scheme, or catching a group activity before or after opening night. Being a theatre student gives that inherent sense of community when you all are working together to put on a show, all while juggling their other classes, work, and obligations to share art with others by the end of the night. I wouldn’t want to do anything else, and I love that every day brings a new challenge!