@ParachuteBoy Agree agree with your post. My first thought when this discussion arose was, well wow think how great all the talent at regional, smaller city theaters is going to be:):). But you are right you need the audience. We love classical music (symphonies, chorus ensembles, baroque groups, etc). Opera, MT, Classic plays, Modern plays etc and go to all, but all these arts are struggling, not to mention Art museums and galleries for up and coming visual artists. I really really wish I could find a way to generate interest in those under 30 in all these wonderful experiences.
Just got home from attending the Ballet in my MidWestern city. Based on her actions and vocal exclamations, the woman directly in front of me (in her 30s or 40s) had never been to the ballet (perhaps her date won the tickets at a benefit raffle??). She was obviously enjoying it - in the same way someone would enthusiastically enjoy a rock concert (no thought for the person behind her who was having trouble seeing the stage, or the others sitting in the row of seats structurally attached to hers). I think “Ballet” has just won over another fan. It’s great when a “newbie” gets an opportunity to attend something they’ve never experienced before and “falls in love”. Hopefully, this woman and others like her WILL buy more tickets to Dance and Theater events for years to come, providing more jobs for our kids. (It’s too bad “educational outreach” did not reach this particular woman in her formative years. She seems to have instantaneously acquired the “appreciation and interest” w/o the corresponding “how-to-be-a-good-theater-neighbor” lessons. It’s possible that alcohol consumption was also a factor.)
Educating young kids in theatre is key . Taking young people to shows is so important and involving the kids in theatre camps and thereby pulling in the parents! I never went to shows really as a young person until my D got involved in theatre as an elem student. If your child gets involved in it it sucks you in and you develop an appreciation for it . My husband and I would be sitting around listening to eighties music if it weren’t for my D getting involved years ago! Now we know all the music and shows . We go all the time with and without her .
@mom4bwayboy
Yes the dance world especially classical ballet is struggling, we also go to our local professional ballet company productions. You are so right that so many are just not exposed through any medium. As corny as it sounds, the radio used to expose people, the TV variety shows, schools, etc.etc. Not anymore, very quick bites of information via the internet on phones or screens is not as conducive to sharing some of these arts, or maybe those who love these arts need to figure out a better way to use the current medium of choice to woo the younger generations:)I hope we can do it as I think all the arts are important for society as a whole, as is good literature and journalism.:)
People largely agree that the arts important, but they wouldn’t choose to spend their Friday going to see a production of a musical. It is super freaking expensive and young people don’t have that money. They just search for cheap entertainment. Some people think musicals are really cheesy or all the same. I’m glad modern musicals are pushing boundaries by being super hilarious like Ave. Q, Book of Mormon, etc. and some are crossing genres like Hamilton. I also see people getting interested in shows like Fun Home because it’s more artistic and less like the stereotypical Cats or Phantom of the Opera.
I love hearing the stories of someone who hasn’t experienced something like theatre or ballet fall in love. When I was in a community musical that did a lot of publicity for newer people I met so many with the same experience. Many men come because they were “dragged to the theatre” by their wife, and then they tell me they ended up loving the show so much more than their wife.
My H has become a Ballet enthusiast and an MT mostly-enthusiast (we’ve supported our S through years of both and now H “gets it”). He sees ballet dancers as athletes of the same callibre as pro football players - except they tell better stories. He used to hate MT shows (I’ve been dragging him since our college days) where the townspeople spontaneously burst into song and everybody knows the songs through some kind of mind meld, but now he “gets” that in good shows the songs are integral to the storytelling. Fortunately for me, we are now season ticket holders for the Ballet, Broadway Across America and one of our local theaters. Not football.
We are doing our part to support an Arts landscape that will support our S’s future subsistence living w/o hosting shows behind a sheet hanging in our garage.
Yes, it is frustrating to see that theatre is so expensive. In NYC, it seems that everyone connected to the business is in constant pursuit of compted tickets or heavily discounted ones. Actors, directors, production, marketing people will hardly ever pay full price for a ticket, so it’s hard to expect that their friends will unless it’s an exceptional show. Hamilton comes to mind. Sometimes people will pay full price for house seats at the last minute, so they can have the experience of perfect seats for a special theatre outing.
Seems like the vast majority of full price ticket sales are for the tourist market, which explains why Cats is coming back to Broadway again.
I agree again with Soozievt, in that there are both many more programs available now, but the traditional ‘top’ programs seem roughly as competitive. For instance, I do happen to know that the year my S auditioned for Purchase in 2006, there were over 1450 applicants for Purchase (they said so).
However, the Uk programs are definitely increasing in visibility for Americans. And then of course boutique or rising/strong programs are increasing in applications.
This is a very competitive business, both to start off, and to sustain yourself. The stats are daunting. Percent of equity actors working weekly is steady at around 12%-13% (look up equity.org). And that is equity, and all actors of all ages.
I love that MT and ballet etc are getting more visibility. The irony is that in NYC I think you can see a show cheaper than outside the ares, in that there are many student & discount offers that aren’t as available on tours. I do have to say that going to a basketball or football game can be at least as expensive as seeing a show, so I don’t think it’s just money; I think it’s interest.
My D is graduating this year and I admit I’m nervous, but she’ll have to figure it out herself. I can’t support her financially. It helps considerably if you diversify your skills, like Soozie’s D. I do believe you should follow your passion when you’re young as long as you are strategic about it.
Cats is coming back?! That’s the biggest shocker on this thread so far… 
I agree totally that one of the biggest differences in the last 5 years is the prescreen. One big change is the advanced deadline.It used to be that kids had to be ready after the first of the year for auditions, and now that deadline has been pushed up. Some colleges want a prescreen as early as October. I don’t know if this early deadline is a good or bad thing, but it has certainly been a “game changer” in the audition room. Colleges are personally auditioning only those they feel are a potential fit for their program. That could be why they say the talent level is more competitive nowadays.
It is hard for us to assess talent as parents and advisors. We think our own kids are remarkable. Those who are in the room and evaluating are really the only ones who know the skill level of these kids, and even that opinion is subjective. But the coaches from the popular Northeast services who see these auditions have remarked as to the fierceness of the talent and its getting better each year.I have heard college professors/auditors joke that they could not even get accepted to their own alma mater these days with the rising level of talent competition! Not to take anything away from those here who had kids go through this 5-10 years ago or longer. Competition for the top programs has always been highly selective. I guess that could be the one thing that has NOT changed in 5 years
Definitely the prescreen is one of the biggest changes. They were not around when my kid auditioned. It forces earlier preparation for sure. My kid entered NFAA YoungArts and so had to have some material ready by October in her year as well for that. But she only did one college audition before the holidays.
In terms of assessing talent, of course we, as parents, cannot fairly assess our own kids’ talents. Just impossible. Sometimes kids do have some benchmarks from the “outside” and that helps to know if they are a competitive candidate in a national playing field. Having observed some top talented youth over the years, and particularly the ones in my own kid’s peer group, many of those who were standouts prior to college, are now doing very well in the professional world. Competition to top programs was fierce at the time and still is. Many of these talented competitive candidates back then, landed at well established programs.
I think it would help anxiety a great deal if the prescreen process were tighter. Indiana passes only 90 or so of the frew hundreds they receive. It seems to me that roughly 45-50 women competing for 6 spots is plenty. The schools know already what they need for type that year. They have narrowed it down to people they think have what’s needed to succeed in the program. The live auditions give them the time to assess the candidates.
Letting 500 people audition for so few spots is probably not necessary. Especially the top 10 schools. It would save these programs a lot of time and manpower if they would scrutinize the prescreens thoroughly and do the cutting there. Students would not have the expense of travel and anxiety of waiting. If they really wanted to keep their options open for the lone diamond in the rough, they could still hold limited calls at Unifieds.
Probably won’t happen.
I couldn’t agree more @ManVan,
All 3 of my kids are pursuing careers in the performing arts and my oldest is 26 and graduated from a performing arts school. No one used MT coaching services back then! You had your voice instructor and perhaps an acting coach to help with the monologues, and that was it.
@MTTwinsinCA My daughter is apart of that phenomenon you spoke of, “of kids who really don’t need coaching, using coaches.” My daughter has been working professionally since she was a young child and attends a performing arts high school. She has phenomenal voice, dance and acting teachers so we weren’t planning on using an MT coaching service, UNTIL… we spoke with many of her friends who had recently been thru the BFA MT process. Those that used them said they were extremely helpful, and many who didn’t said they really wish they had. These were all really talented, working kids who had been training for years. Many of these college coaching services are involved with the heads of these programs and they know the college process. They also helped keep us on track with regular emails telling us where we should be in terms of applications and prescreens, and deadlines. I’m organized, but still found it an overwhelming process. While the coaching was great, that wasn’t why we used them. What we found the most valuable of all was the mock auditions and the master classes. The master classes do get expensive so she picked two and audited the others, but she found it very helpful to see and hear what the heads of these programs were all looking for. I believe she sat in or participated in master classes for most of her acceptances. I really can’t believe how much more competitive and stressful this process has become in just a few years, but having them did help reduce our stress a bit, and I believe they were helpful, although perhaps she would have done well without them. We’ll never know. I honestly wish they weren’t necessary, cause I feel that it gives some kids an unfair advantage. I prefer the days when a kid could get into a program based on raw talent and potential.
I feel like we were very naive going into this process. My D had her local voice teacher and worked several times with a friend of mine who is a B’way actor and that was it. We didn’t realize how prevalent coaching was and it would have been a stretch for us financially at the time since my husband was between jobs. We will never know if coaching would have garnered her more acceptances, but I don’t like to dwell on what-ifs anyway. She is extremely happy where she is. She is learning and growing, and I can see that growth in her already. No two kids will have the same experiences or path to success, and talent is only one component (important, but certainly not the only thing that matters). That said I think some schools focus more on “potential” and some don’t need to because they get the kids that are already more polished.
I’ve thought a lot about the help D received from her audition coach and it had nothing to do with polishing her performance. It was help with choosing material, opportunities to practice in front of industry professionals, which boosted her confidence, and helping her select where to apply. The polishing came from her local voice and monologue coaches, which it seems most kids have these days.
@uskoolfish …“Seems like the vast majority of full price ticket sales are for the tourist market, which explains why Cats is coming back to Broadway again.”…that made me lol!!!
I wondering if there is more work overall for performers than there was even a decade ago. More touring companies, all those cruise ships, Cabernets coming back, dozens of cable series and shows, movies made to go straight to video, et. It’s just maybe not the quality of work our kids dream of, and building audiencefor so many outlets. There is still only 24 hours in a day and I often wonder how even the good cable shows get an audience. The same for theatre, even an avid theatre goer can’t possibly get to all the shows they would like to see(myself included). So work is there, but just like in the business world ( same issues with jobs) , people that would have been stars years ago can’t get those opportunities. But they say many in the business world today will be middle managers and 20 years ago would have been ceo’s. So still the cream rises but there is a lot more cream!!! I had a cousin that ran a high school theatre department for years and performed in local theatre. I think she was /is very happy and loves her life. So there are many many ways to use your talents.
I’m not sure that there are that many more opportunities for actors now than there were 5 or 10 or 15 years ago. I think if you look at the employment figures for Equity or SAG members, they are always pretty depressing and I don’t think those have changed to any definitive degree. When 90% of actors are unemployed in any given week, that is, or should be, daunting.
I believe that it was emsdad who posted some interesting stats on this a few years ago. I thought I had the thread bookmarked but can’t seem to find it now. Perhaps a search would find it.
@alwaysamom is correct. Broadway employment (“Playing Weeks” in Equity parlance) did move up nicely last year (an increase of almost 10%), but there was no growth between 2000 and 2014. Any growth during the period was offset by a rather steep decline from 2010-2014. It will be interesting to see if this year’s upward tick in jobs is a trend or an anomaly. Over the past 30 years, the CAGR (compound annual growth rate) for Broadway employment has been less than 1.5% per year, with most of that growth occurring prior to 2000. Since 2000, the CAGR for Playing Weeks has been just over one-half of one percent (about 0.7%) per year.
Over the past five years, attendance is up slightly (less than 5%), but the number of new shows is down 10%. The biggest rise has been in average paid admission prices - up more than 20%. Broadway attendance grew dramatically during the 1990’s, but has largely leveled off since 2000. Attendance is up only 10% over the past 15 years, for a CAGR of less than 1%.
Source: https://www.broadwayleague.com/index.php?url_identifier=season-by-season-stats-1
I believe that the growth in Broadway attendance in the 1990’s was primarily due to the revitalization of Times Square and Broadway based to a large extent on the influence of Disney and commercial real estate development which drove more tourism business to the area.
The thread that I wrote on employment for actors a while back can be found here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1418008-more-freakonomics-life-upon-the-wicked-stage-p1.html - caution, the numbers are not pretty.
I view the many recent stories of things getting out of control during the wee hours of the morning when actors create informal lists for open calls as some indication of a growing oversupply of young actors, but D has had no personal experience with that yet.