There seems to be a negative stigma surronding Greek life in a lot of media these days, but Greek life seems to get an even worse rep among many people involved in the theater community.
What’s even worse is that most of that negative attitude doesn’t come from the other students in the theater department–but professors! I’ve found that it can come more from professors and directors, and this negative attitude that the professors are giving off can really hurt the image of the Greek community to many potential new members and can discourage them from going through recruitment. The decision to go through recruitment should totally be one’s own and not influced by others, especially your professors.
To all of the theater kids who want to go through recruitment: it’s possible to do both. Just one example is Kristin Chenoweth, who was a Gamma Phi Beta at OCU. Yes, it may be more work and you will almost always be busy, but it can be done! Here are a few tips on how to do both!
1. Get a really good planner.
A planner is so important in college, but if you’re trying to be involved in theater and greek life, then you will need a really good planner AND you’ll need to religiously use that planner! Writing down dates of auditions and rehearsals for your theater commitments and dates of sisterhood events, workshops or philanthropy events for your sorority is going to be your saving grace! If you are organized and have everything written out in front of you, it will make it so much easier to be sure you make it all of the events that you have to be at! Time management is KEY when you’re invovled in both!
2. Find another theater major who is Greek.
Now, don’t violate any rules of inappropriate contact (your recruitment counselors on campus can tell you more about what is and isn’t allowed before recruitment), but find another person who is doing both and doing both well! Ask them for advice on how they do it and if they have any tips for you. They could talk about some situations that they’ve encountered (like when they had tech rehearsal but also a philanthropy event on the same night) and how they handled it. Use upperclassmen as a resource and learn from them. They’re obviously still invovled in both, so they have to be doing something right!
3. Don’t let the negative attidude of some members of the theater community discourage you.
Theater is like a family, so a lot of those involved in theater don’t understand why you would want to go Greek if you already have your family in the theater. It’s not that they’re against Greek life, they just don’t understand it. If you have professors or castmates or directors who make any negative comments about Greek life to you, ignore it. You have the chance to have not just one family, but TWO amazing and different families on campus! Once you join and they see how happy you are doing both, that negative attitude will probably go away.
Just remember, college is what you make of it!
If you love theater but have always wanted to be involved in Greek life, don’t let your busy schedule stop you from going through recruitment. There are so many amazing women who are involved in both the theater department and their sorority here on campus, proving that you can do both. Before you know it, you’ll have all of your sisters at your shows supporting what you love to do. Plus, the more theatre majors and minors who become involved in Greek life, the less the negative stereotype that exists in that community will be!
Go my dramatic Collegiettes, and rock both the stage and recruitment!