What Grad Students Talk About
I realized last night that the majority of conversations I have ever had as a graduate student are not deep, intellectually exciting conversations about the meaning of theatre and life and art … rather they are about 1) being overworked 2) bitching about how graduate school sucks up your life 3) details of assignments 4) departmental politics 5) career planning 6) the mechanics of teaching.
Sometimes we talk about what shows we’ve seen.
Sometimes we talk about our personal lives.
Sometimes we talk about nothing.
Very very very occasionally we talk about what theatre means, really means, to ourselves and to our society.
Why are we doing this if we aren’t excited by the ideas, by the concepts and theories. Hell, excited by our very learning. And if we were excited wouldn’t we talk more about the substantive aspects of theatre and learning and teaching?
Or is it just me?
Resisting the mundane and tiresome elements of life requires a great deal of fortitude, an open and energized mind and a freshness of spirit. Is it possible to retain such attitudes in a PhD program?