Advice for Current Juniors and Parents

<p>txtxyeha: Vocal range isn’t necessary, but is sometimes listed. Instead, you might consider list “Voice: tenor” or similar. Choir is also typically not relevant, you might want to limit it to theatre-related experiences.</p>

<p>I’d include vocal range as well as type, if it’s for MT. Just include it with the stats like height and eye color, so it needn’t take up valuable space on the one page resume. (As a practical note, sometimes they ask for the vocal range on an audition form, and it’s very handy to have all that information on the resume you’ve already brought with you! My son can never remember.)</p>

<p>I’d definitely include all-state choir somewhere, though not the scores, because it does indicate a certain level of musical training and discipline.</p>

<p>You’re smart to start working on the resume now. It’s good to keep an updated resume around. I can’t tell you how often we’ve needed to shoot one off for my son – we’re near a big city and often submit him for auditions and things. (Sadly, he hasn’t been getting many gigs lately. He’s 17 and looks older, and everyone wants the actors playing older teens to be 18. It’s an awkward age since he’s not a kid actor but not a legal adult either!)</p>

<p>Thank you for the great feedback! MTCoach, the link especially and Prodesse for the info that range is asked for on auditon forms- I’ll pass on to my S for sure. Hopefully things will pick up for your S after his next Bday! :)</p>

<p>Some audition forms ask the weirdest stuff. My favorite is “If required, can you grow facial hair?”</p>

<p>When at Unifieds in Chicago-University of Wisconsin told my D never ever ever put your weight on your resume. They are the only ones who said something like that and many times I’ve heard people say to include it or its a personal preference thing.</p>

<p>I can’t speak for everyone, but on the resumes prospective students bring to us we are interested in choir, dance, backstage experience, etc… We allow these resumes to be more than one page, though. This would not necessarily be the case for professional resumes (we do not advise our current college students to list these things on their resumes), but for college auditions we are trying to get a sense of the whole student in relationship to the performing arts.</p>

<p>I also do often like to see the vocal range listed on a resume. Voice type (ex. tenor, soprano, etc…) is helpful, but the vocal range helps put that into a more specific context.</p>

<p>All that being said, I would not really sweat too much about it for college auditions. The resume is looked at, but it is often not a HUGE deciding factor.</p>

<p>I agree with one of the other parents about staying out of doing too many auditions. Apply to the schools you’d really want to attend, and let the others go. After all, if you are admitted, and you don’t really want to enroll, what is the point?
What I saw were many University reps calling out names in the hall, and the kid not being there. Kids were walking up seeing if they could move things around because they had a conflict, etc. We had a short list, and that even was tough. My kid had to dash upstairs to change between a dance call and an interview/singing session. I don’t see how should have done that several times. We saw girls having to dance in their interview dress because their schedules were so tight. I can’t imagine having a great performance under such pressure.
I witnessed a very stressed out kid tell her Mom " I hate you!" because the mother had not made sure she had soy milk in her latte. “This is the most important day of my life and you screwed it up! It’s a latte, not rocket science!”
If your kid thrives on chaos, go for it. But, if that school is not somewhere your kid has 100% interest in attending,why audition? it seems like stress for no reason.And expensive. I wonder about how much money these events are generating, isn’t it in the school’s interest to have many, many kids apply?
That may be cynical, but I have to wonder.The parents who are willing to fly all over for these auditions, put the kids up in hotels, eat meals out, pay for audition coaches, audition dresses, dance outfits, gadgets so the kid who can play their music have to be affluent. They are mainly parents of girls. They are largely white. And, how many of our dear darlings are going to be performers at the end of the day? And is it the lifestyle our kids really want? Or that we want for them?
It is easy to second guess yourself when you are down there in the hotel basement, watching kids go in and out of auditions. My daughter wondered whether she’d applied to enough schools.But, I stand by our decision to keep her schedule light, to have non-audition programs on her list.I could hear incredible voices through the doorways. There are many very talented kids. Many are beautiful and handsome. I am sure many are lovely people. The odds are bleak!
I support everyone’s kids who are wired differently, and that want a BFA in musical theater no matter what, and are willing to audition for dozens of schools. But I think all families should remember: Our kids are kids. Their brains are not fully developed. We need to be supportive, but push back when their decisions may not be in their best interest.</p>

<p>Great post, lucymom, with much food for thought.</p>

<p>Lucymom…a reasoned voice on the Musical Theatre Major page…how refreshing!</p>

<p>Glad to hear there are others who don’t completely drink the Kool Aid! I appreciate the support.</p>

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<p>I like your chutzpah too lucymom as I recall also enjoying when you questioned the need for summer intensive programs a while back. With respect to those not yet fully formed brains, I’m hearing now about kids that wanted MT at all cost and 1 semester in are realizing they’ve made a mistake and being “all in for MT” is just not for them. This after all those years of training, private audition coaching, all of the auditions etc. </p>

<p>It’s hard to know that you’ve got one of those kids going into it but you might as well be prepared to be flexible if it happens. My daughter’s best friend in her program (extremely talented) just announced at the start of this semester that she is leaving the program immediately. Not transferring to another MT program simply decided she doesn’t want to major in it after all. My daughter is so bummed to lose her company in her studio classes and can’t imagine it but it happens. I know of another regular poster here in CC whose daughter made the same decision to leave her BFA program. So indeed they are kids and their brains are not yet fully developed so keeping it all in perspective and being flexible is probably the right way to go.</p>

<p>Read Lucymom’s post very carefully. She is insulting almost everyone here including your children. The colleges make the rules. They make you fly there, and bring stuff, and buy stuff. Your children are smart and talented and driven. They know what they want. Is it ridiculous because it’s MT and not medical school? Well there are thousands of parents and kids flying to Stanford, and Harvard, and Princeton and sitting outside interview rooms with their well honed resumes. They have spent $$$ on traveling, and tutoring, and SAT classes. This is the system. This is what they make us do. The latte girl is not us. WE are smart people with talented kids who do what is required.</p>

<p>Lucymom, the only thing I really agree with in your post is that your kids should only apply to schools they want to attend. Why bother applying to schools just for the sake of applying? My D had 16 schools on her list, and everyone told us it was “top heavy,” and asked why we weren’t applying to non-audition safeties, BAs, and some of the BFA programs that seem to be a tad easier to get into. My response was always that my D was convinced she wanted a BFA, and she did not want to go to any of those schools.</p>

<p>But, I agree with theatremomma that what is happening with college prep is not only in the MT world. People hire college coaches, essay coaches, SAT and ACT tutors, etc. They spend tons of money on these things, and sign their children up for trips to Israel and Africa and other exotic places so their kids can volunteer (b/c it looks good on their resumes). Do I WANT my D to do this for a living? Absolutely not! She is #1 in her class, and there are a million other things she can do. But MT is her bliss, her passion. And who am I to tell her she cannot try? Yes, she is only 18, but she has made mature adult decisions and sacrifices to get where she is. She is far more mature than many of her peers. She has given up proms and parties and dances and show choir and vacations and all sorts of things to work her tuchas off to get better and grow in her field. her father and I have made sacrifices to pay for her coaches. And yes, we are flying all over the country to go to auditions, b/c the schools that appreciate her voice type don’t come to Unifieds. </p>

<p>Is the process fair? No. But it’s the entire college admissions process, not MT. I know brilliant kids who have to go to state colleges b/c their parents make too much for financial aid, but not enough to pay for the private school their child wants to go to. Will all of our kids end up on Broadway? No. But they are trying to make a career doing what they love. Better to be a failure at something you love than a success at something you hate. I am not pushing my D…she is pushing herself. And kudos to her for having a passion and the drive to follow that passion.</p>

<p>So, my advice to parents of juniors is this: don’t apply to schools your child would not really WANT to attend. But let them follow their bliss. Because what is life without dreams?</p>

<p>Gosh I didn’t read it that way at all. I saw 2 central themes in lucymom’s post both of which I agree with:</p>

<ol>
<li> Focus:</li>
<li> Don’t bother auditioning for schools you have no intention to attend</li>
<li> Keep the list reasonable so that you maximize your performance at the places you do want to attend</li>
<li> Perspective: </li>
<li> They are kids with a whole lot of living to do between now and whatever career path they follow</li>
<li> There is an awful lot of talent out there so you need to weigh the costs vs. benefits of doing more, more and still more. Push back if it makes sense.</li>
</ol>

<p>I also have the impression that if lucymom was insulting anyone, she was throwing herself and her daughter under the same bus. She WAS at unifieds with all of the expense that comes with it and her daughter is going through the motions of securing a spot in MT just like the rest of our daughters and sons. And let’s be honest, it is mostly white girls at these auditions and sure, it is terribly hard to do everything that is needed to be done to participate in auditions if you don’t at least have some resources to do so. Rich? Maybe not but you can’t be entirely without means unless somebody or some organization or individual reaches in and helps you out. There are stories of kids that we occasionally read about in CC that are going it alone with zero support and it is terribly hard for them. Not sure how well it works out for them.</p>

<p>As I read the story about latte kid, she wasn’t saying that this wasn’t a perfectly wonderful kid… it was an example of a highly stressed kid who perhaps had bitten off more than he/she could chew and used as an example to illustrate her point. Anyway, I had a different take. Perhaps what bugged you was the “drink the Kool Aid” comment? That may push a button or two and perhaps could be rethought because it suggests something other than all for one and one for all.</p>

<p>theatremomma, are you not the posterchild(parent) for focus and knowing when enough was enough? I thought that was really smart (and brave) when you called things early and admired it greatly. There should be more of that.</p>

<p>I apologize. I overreacted. But it annoyed the heck out of me. These kids are applying to “schools they don’t want to go to?!” because they are scared to death they won’t get in any. There is a difference between a school WAY at the bottom of your list and one you really don’t want to go to. Schools at the bottom get very attractive when that’s all you have. There are literally thousands of way these kids can earn a living with these skills. It’s all been said. Again, they are the same age as KIDS who choose “smarter” majors in college and you would never see these things said about those kids. There is a huge drop out rate in every major. I love all these theatre kids.</p>

<p>I happen to agree with monkey13. While of course nobody should apply to schools that they truly do not want to attend, and nobody really needs a list of schools beyond 14 at the most in my opinion (my kid applied to 8 btw)…I think the rest of the stuff monkey13 said is spot on with my personal experiences as the parent of a MT kid. Why shouldn’t a kid follow their bliss? I don’t agree that letting a kid pursue a college program in MT is somehow not in their best interests. It’s a college degree and they can do many things with it when they graduate. Would someone say this to a kid planning another major? And kids in all sorts of college majors change their direction once in college. Many 18 year olds don’t know what they want yet and that is normal. But there are some who are very driven with a deep seated passion and do know. My MT kid has been passionate about MT since preschool and it has never wavered. And she went off to college at age 16, not 18 and knew just what she wanted. She is now almost 4 years out of her BFA program and is still immersed in her field of passion. </p>

<p>I am really glad we supported our kids’ interests, no matter what they happen to be. And if they changed their minds part way through, that would be fine too. My thoughts on an education and/or career in MT really do not differ in my thoughts if my kids majored in any field.</p>

<p>soozievt, Thank you for saying what I was thinking- you were much more eloquent.</p>

<p>I think you are filling in the blanks with things that were never said by lucysmom. Don’t see a single thing that implies this college chase thing is unique to MT. I saw it as a cautionary tale that happens in her case to be about MT because that is what her daughter is chasing. Insert any major. Insert the SAT/ACT prep and on and on and on. Insert chasing med schools, ivies, blah blah.</p>

<p>As also parent of a top student (like monkey13 and soozievt had as well) who could have gone in to so many things that are known to produce more secure employments choices, sure… if she had been open to that would I have breathed a sigh of relief? Of course I would have but never ever at the cost of her not following her bliss. Thus, we’re in it for MT with my daughter for whom to this day, theatre is her bliss and she’s good at it. So is lucysmom as far as I can tell. Perhaps she’ll get back in this discussion and it will turn out she did mean what you are thinking and I’m wrong but I just don’t see it anywhere in what she wrote and frankly, I could easily have posted the exact same thing except it so happens I didn’t. And no way would I have been claiming that doing what it takes to get into MT is crazier than doing what it takes to get into med schools or an Ivy if that’s your thing. Part of me thinks it is all crazy thus the focus and perspective messages resonated with me greatly.</p>

<p>I have been saying for quite some time hear that I fear we are not letting our kids be kids. It saddens me when I read about kids that forego proms, parties, dating in high school. And I feel that way regardless if it’s MT kids, athletes, etc. I do think as parents it’s our job to help kids in high school recognize and deal with the complexity of the decisions these MT kids seem to be faced with. </p>

<p>I am one who is fortunate to be in the position where we can get my D to auditions in different cities. But it was her decision, with guidance from her parents, to only audition for 10 programs with most within a day’s drive so she could come back to watch her little sister perform. When I suggested she do more, she was adamant that she did not want to give up her senior year just for auditions. She has loved her senior year, loved being president of the show choir, being in plays, going to football games, etc, etc. And she’s gotten good feedback from several schools at auditions.</p>

<p>We all have different kids, different parenting styles, and so on. No one is right or wrong here. All I know for mine is that she has made carefully considered decisions and when all is done she will be at peace with the ultimate outcome. I tell her all the time that she will perform the rest of her life: what we don’t know just yet is if she’ll do it for a living or for fun. Best of luck to all.</p>

<p>Maybe we all are saying the same thing. But when Lucymom said: </p>

<p>“The parents who are willing to fly all over for these auditions, put the kids up in hotels, eat meals out, pay for audition coaches, audition dresses, dance outfits, gadgets so the kid who can play their music have to be affluent. They are mainly parents of girls. They are largely white. And, how many of our dear darlings are going to be performers at the end of the day? And is it the lifestyle our kids really want? Or that we want for them?”</p>

<p>I took that to mean that we may be pushing our kids into this, maybe in the face of something they don’t want, and are only able to do it b/c we were white, affluent, parents. Her post also implied, and maybe even came out and said directly, that our kids may not know what they want.</p>

<p>I think what I’m saying, and soozievt and theatermomma are saying, is that some of these kids (at least ours) DO know what they want. And if they decide down the road that they made a mistake, that’s life. But it’s still education, and a life experience that will help them. (Frankly, I am pretty confident my D isn’t going to change her mind, and I know soozievt’s didn’t!) But we, as parents who are fortunate enough to everything that we can to get our kids to succeed, are going to help them the best we can. And parents in other majors are doing the same. To me, that’s what a parent does. You do what you can to get your kid to succeed.</p>