Theater – Requirements and In the Balance.

Are you Theater Material?

You should be:
#Gregarious, focused on the task you’ve set for yourself, and skilled in human resource management.
#Talented, and have the necessary skill for creative writing. #“You also need to be willing to keep working,” believes award-winning playwright, R. Ramanathan.
#Disciplined – It calls for intense discipline of mind and body. You have to go over each step many times until you can execute it perfectly. This calls for patience.
#Confident and have a firm faith in yourself as this positive belief will carry you through the ups and downs of this very competitive and demanding field.

You should not be:
#”Hasty, angry, impatient, overly optimistic or quick to take offence,” warns Joy Fernandes, reputed stage actor-director-writer, also film actor and writer.
#“Arrogant, stubborn, lazy, unreliable or afraid of manual work,” says theatre personality Divya Bhatia. Actually, whether you are a director or a technical person, the willingness to do manual work should be an important part of your personality.
#In it for money It’s not a career option. A playwright does not make too much money. If you are lucky you get a royalty per show or at the end of a batch of shows. Marathi and Gujarati theatre give the playwright a royalty ranging from Rs. 50-1000 per show.

In the Balance:

The good bits:
#“The joy of creating a play in a collective effort is unparalleled,” feels director-actor Rajat Kapoor.
#”The joy of being on-stage and connecting with the audience, even for a moment, is a high that cannot be matched. What you get out of it is tremendous, but intangible. Why do people have babies? Mainly for the joy they bring, right!”

On the other hand:
#”Rejection during auditions is something you have to be able to take in your stride. You spend long periods being without work. It’s a constant struggle.”
#Divya Bhatia, workshop consultant and Joint Festival Director for the Prithvi Festival, 2003, adds, … “Your parents will throw you out. Everyone will ask ‘what do you do,’ regardless of the number of times you tell them. Also, there’s a constant struggle for money. Raising money for a production can be a challenging task!”jokes Rajat.
#”This is not a 9-5 job, so even the best in the field keep at it. You need a certain amount of discipline because you are working with yourself,” he explains.
#“There is more stress on stage, because stage is performing live without any cuts” – Smita Jaykar – famous theatre personality, and Aishwarya Rai’s mother in the movie “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam”.

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Higher education from diffrent stream

The following query was received from a student:
I am a student of class XII Science, but I think I might like to switch to Economics or Political Science for my higher education.
 
Can you please tell me about some good career options that one can look at after doing graduation in Political Science or Eco? I am looking at careers, which will encourage me to make good use of what I learn in anyone of these fields.
Jaspreet (Chandigarh)

Reply by our FutureMap counsellor:
Dear Jaspreet,
For a satisfying and fulfilling career, it is important that you develop goals and plans based on your interests, values, education, skills, personality type, and lifestyle preferences.

Once you have a plan, you can manage your career to take advantage of changes in the job market, rather than become a victim of change. A good plan will allow you to fine tune and make adjustments in your career as needed. Think through why you are switching science.

However to study economics in college the first step is to get good percentage at you +2 level so that you are in the good college, remember peer group and environment do matter to certain extent.
A programme in Economics opens career options in government agencies, business firms, non-profit organizations, and academic institutions. Some of the graduates even enter the accountancy profession and some find employment as managers and administrators in areas such as market research, advertising, sales and personnel.
There are opportunities for advanced professional degree holders in management, finance, law and public affairs. Newspapers provide economics graduates with opportunities to write reports on economic and business events. The demand for economics teachers in educational institutions is growing in India and foreign universities. The Institute of Applied Manpower Research, New Delhi; Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi, National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi and Indian Council of Social Science Research offer ample job opportunities to economists.
Financial institutions like the Reserve Bank of India, private and foreign banks and insurance companies offer good openings to postgraduate degree holders in economics.
The UPSC conducts Indian Economic Service Examination every year. It is open to graduates in Economics in the age group of 21 years to 30 years. Various international organisations like the World Bank and the International Labour Organisation offer ample job opportunities to well-known economists.
Political science program do lead openings with government and private concern including NGO’s. You can also go for higher studies like international politics, MBA, public administration etc. UPSE and other state level examination would also lead you good career opportunities.

Understanding + Honing your creative potential.

Today, career avenues for those with a creative bend of mind are innumerable. The list has expanded beyond traditional arts such as writing, dancing or theater, to encompass new and varied fields such as jewelery design, photography, industrial design and graphics design. This plethora of lucrative avenues makes it imperative for anyone who is looking into their career options, to examine their creative potential and consider methods of harnessing it.

Are you creative material?

You need to:
#Love to travel. There’s no better way of broadening your horizons and refreshing your outlook than travel. It exposes you to new people, customs, ideas and ways of living.
#Associate yourself with creative people. Look for people who are fun to talk to and have a keen sense of interest in life. #Be an individual who can stimulate your thought process is what you’re looking for.
#Interact with children. A child’s world is filled with fantasy, and yours can be too, if you interact with them. Try the association game. Playing with children will get you back in touch with your imagination.
#Love to read and write. But not all reading is good creative exercise. The key to using reading as a creative exercise is to read selectively and actively.
#Have a good sense of humor. Buy and read a few issues of magazines and have a go at writing some stories and cartoons. It will greatly enhance your powers of perception!

You should not:
#Be scared of trying out new things in life. Because ultimately art is nothing but seeing the same things in different ways.
Think in terms of “what will others say if I do it this way”.
#Work too hard. Surprised? Well it’s true, you need time away from a problem to be creative after periods of intense focus.

What can I do to enhance my creativity?

Improving your creativity is understanding and accepting the fact that you are a creative person, and that you can improve your creativity with practice and concentration, but first must come a basic belief in your ability to be creative.

To become more creative, you must nurture and learn to listen to your inner ‘voice’, your intuition. When involved in a pursuit requiring creative solutions, be open to a wide variety of possible solutions.

Don’t be afraid of failing within any given avenue of exploration; even a negative result from one line of questioning can lead to a new idea or possibility.

Study books on creative thinking techniques and put them into practice.

Keep a daily journal and record your thoughts, ideas, sketches, etc. as soon as you get them. Review your journal regularly and see what ideas can be developed.

Relax! Listen to music; indulge in sports to give your mind rest and time for the sub conscious to digest information. Develop an interest in a variety of different things, preferably well away from your normal sphere of interests. For example, read comic books or magazines you wouldn’t normally get. This keeps the brain busy with new things. It is a common trait of creative people that they are interested in a wide variety of subjects.

It really helps to think of creativity as a skill or set of skills. By practicing, one can get better at using them. So whenever you have a chance, try and do mundane things in novel ways- it will make them more entertaining and you will get more used to expressing your abilities.