Theatre and Leadership, The Perfect Marriage

As my four years at university are ending, I begin to critically think about my choice of study and ask, “did I make the right decision?” I am choosing to not go into my field which I spent the last four years studying, devoting my time to, and learning about and instead pursue my new-found passion for leadership. Many times when I explain my decision I am met with the follow up question of “why study theatre,” especially if one is not going into acting or directing. This question of “why study theatre” often leads me to question and analytically break down why society should continue to teach theatre in schools and why as I student I should continue to study the subject. I begin to ask myself many other questions like, “why is theatre relevant now,” “how can one benefit from a theatre education,” “how can I apply my theatre education to another position,” etc. Throughout this thesis, I will argue that theatre is a relevant and important topic to study. I will show how others like myself can utilize their theatre training to help benefit them, no matter what subject or path they follow, by transferring these theatre based concepts to my leadership development. I will be asking about why society should continue to study theatre and what benefit comes from continuing theatre. Furthermore, I will be asking how leadership and theatre are intertwined and utilizing other actors and actresses as my examples to show that the skill sets are a perfect marriage and that theatre is universal