Will going to a high school for preforming arts be a mistake?

Go for both. But no, not too much of a problem.

highschool has so little effect on your education, it can’t hurt. Sounds like fun. You may have to make something up later if you don’t decide to get into performing arts, but seriously it couldn’t be much. High school doesn’t matter close to as much as people want you to think as long as you graduate, unless you go straight to some prestigious university.

no school would sacrifice educational value for the arts, any good school would have a solid foundation for both.

I was a terrible student in middle school. Told I would never make it to college. I went to a high school with a vocal magnet program, and singing was my life for 4 years. I also took academic classes, and here I am, 9 years after leaving middle school, with almost 3 separate degrees.

Go for it, and have a blast doing so!

Not if its what you want to do. Always follow your dreams.

Go for it. I’m sure it’s better than the high school I went to. Your peers will be more into being there than at a normal high school. Also, high school has very little impact on the rest of your life other than whether it is a generally good or bad experience. College matters more.

As a director/actress/dancer/choreographer myself, I’d say: don’t specialise so early.

If you do so, you will surround yourself only with a certain type of people, and close yourself off to a very specific type of world. That is the danger of theatre, you can rehearse so intensely that for a while you just exist in a black box in a reality that is slightly different from the one outside.

Ultimately, I think that we want to make theatre about life; that can resonate with the issues of today. So I would say, don’t specialise so early.

I see this problem in Hong Kong, we have only one performing arts school at BA level. It’s competitive, it’s great for networking, but at the same time I feel that as artists, they are really lost when they come out and actually quite similar in colour. Because all they have done for four intensive years is rehearse and learn techniques.

There will be opportunities to create in most normal high schools (and colleges); and you should take advantage of those. But actually the best education for a performing artist is to live more fully as a person, to go to new places, to meet different people. For example, I taught in a village in China (volunteer work); I went to Poland to study with a dance-theatre company; I came to the States from my degree in Peace and Conflict Education; and then finally, finally…. I went to graduate school in Paris (Lecoq – physical theatre), and London. Now I know what I want and I’m creating back home.

The music director I’m currently working with never went to college, or pursued a formal music education, and yet he is one of the most sensitive musicians I’ve worked with because he involves himself with social activist work. So the best education as an artist is society; and finding ways + structures to help you live more fully.

wow thank you lifeflame! I never thought of it that way!

yeah, I still stand by my answer that highschool doesn’t matter that much, but that can go either way, including to support that you can always ‘specialize’ later on.

As a theatre professional, I agree with lifeflame: don’t specialize in HS. Heck, folks in my conservatory program in college figured out they wanted to do different things after Sophomore year!

I see waay too many people in various places who specialized early and didn’t get as broad an education as I got.

There’s even something to not specializing until after you have a Bachelors, but I’m happy with my BFA.

By the way, @goldilocks, you’re really lucky to have found something to be passionate about so early in your life.

i am also a theatre professional, and i also strongly agree that you should go to regular high school.

i strongly disagree with monsoon in that high school doesn’t matter; i’m coming up on my ten year high school reunion and i still highly value my high school experience intellectually, artistically, and socially. i terms of classroom experience, if i had to choose my four years at st. ann’s school in brooklyn or my four years at brown university, i probably would choose high school. (that’s just in-class… out of class experiences at brown absolutely launched my adult life in almost every way.)

when i was in high school, i dated a girl to went to la guardia (the “fame” school) as a vocal major. and you know? she developed a dislike for singing. it became a chore, something she judged herself on. she was, fundamentally, no longer getting joy out of her great talent. i dated her nearly two years and only heard her sing four times.

meanwhile i pursued theatre at a very arts-oriented high school, but one that was academically based. i found i liked it, and i spent all my spare time working in the theatre. it never became a chore because i was never required to do any theatre.

go to a “normal” high school that has a strong arts program that will let you drink your fill of your art without making it the center of your life. you have the whole rest of your life to do that.

I agree with @lifeflame and @samkusnetz in getting as much as you can from a regular high school. I would extend this notion to college to college as well—the broader a base you can develop it seems would be best for your long term development in whatever you want to specialize later. And you can still do performing arts while you are also studying—it can be a huge part of your life, but not all of it.

Make sure that the high school you do go to, if it’s not a performing arts high school, has a solid program in whatever art you’re interested in as well as in academics.

No not if you want a real job in the future

what do u mean by “real job”?

@ goldilocks one that pays real money instead of favors people owe you back

haha ok. I’m only thirteen so I don’t want to make a huge mistake that will ruin my life! Thanks for all the help. There is only one problem with having a normal job. will I sing?

@gooch: ouch! i’m making better money engineering sound than i would flipping burgers! do i have to be chained to a desk for it to be a real job? i love my work, and it pays my bills. real enough for me.

@ Sam the sucess stories in your line of work is small in comparison to other fields. Many people in your industry have hard times that I wish on nobody. Of course hard times and layoff can happen in any industry but when times get tough people tend to give up on the arts for things like food and shelter or something that they can live as comfortable without. I did not mean to step on your toes….I love music, theatre, and many of the arts. My wife is an awesome flute player and plays in an orchestra. Thank God we don’t have to live off her paycheck.

There are some jobs where you can make a buck even if you don’t care about your work and have no passion. But there are also a lot of jobs and a lot of fields where people who have passion and are very good at what they do don’t need to worry about being unemployed.

What most people consider as “real jobs” are in the former. Jobs like sound engineer and musician are in the latter.

@goldilocks: if you go to a high school for the performing arts and are really good, you’ll be able to get work in your field. And as a worst-case scenario, you can always get a “real” cubicle job—most of those don’t require significant brainpower or skills anyway.

@gooch… i hear you, believe me. but just because there are few success stories doesn’t mean it’s not a real job.

i’m glad you’re a lover and supporter of the arts. we need you! we do it for you, and we appreciate you.

@Sam, I didn’t mean that highschool is not important as a life experience, I meant that academically, going to an art school would not hurt you chances in any later-life academic endeavor, nor would going to a regular highschool hurt your chances in later arts related things.

@monsoon… ah. that makes much more sense to me. i think you’re probably right.

@goldilocks Hey!! To tell you the truth this couldn’t hurt you in anyway unless you really don’t think it’s the right thing for you after you’ve tried it. If the high school has well-off academic standards, then I say why not?
You can also meet most of your friends by actually getting into a performing arts program. Believe me high school is a whole different world from junior high or middle school. If any of your middle school/junior high friends also choose to attend this performing arts school, chances are if they aren’t your closest friends, you will become distant. This especially happens if it’s a big high school and if you don’t have the same classes as your original friends, so the reality is being in another program (in your case performing arts) can and will most likely benefit you socially. I’m a high school senior that goes to a school that has specializations in theater, tech theater, visual arts, law, health science, & communications. I’ve been in the communications program for all 4 years of high school. Not only has it helped me in choosing what I would like to do in college, but I met some cool people.
Don’t stress it, you will be learning the very basics anyways, but if I were you I would keep my academics a priority before this specific passion. Remember it’s your grades & your academics that determine if you get into a college, let alone a college that holds your passion/specialization.