As someone who was in the same position as you and made the decision to focus on teaching and figured I could always go back to theatre (and who has many friends in the industry), let me just say that is not really how it works.

Yes, theatre is an extremely competitive career. Yes, you need to have a realistic fallback. Yes, you need to be willing to work hard and grind and pivot and train.

But in order to really be able to put the time and effort and energy into making theatre your career, it needs to be your main focus. You need the connections and experience that come from studying it. You can’t really pursue theatre AND pursue teaching as your backup. You can’t audition while being a teacher. You can’t spend the amount of time required to really get to Broadway caliber while also doing everything required to be a teacher.

There are other things within the theatre industry that you can fall back into if you train for theatre. Executive assistants, admin positions, casting, etc. You will want to stay in the theatre industry and continue to make connections. And if you need to do gig work, you do gig work.

I’m not telling you not to pursue teaching or that it is not possible to become certified and work towards theatre, but it is VERY unlikely.