@vpvpbp I just looked on website so it looks like they do attend Unifieds? That is a help though on campus sounds wonderful. Is there a lot of crossover between acting and musical theater programs at Texas in terms of auditioning for shows?
@thespis1 I edited my comment above but you might have missed it. copied below and expanded.
At TXST you can take voice and dancing as electives(per Lauren Lane) and Acting students can audition for musicals. We saw the TXST production of Ragtime and there were 3 BFA Acting and 1 P&P(as I recall) in the cast. So, not a huge amount but in talking with the students many don’t audition.
We also saw Anything Goes at BW and only 1 Acting student was in the cast. Didn’t ask students about crossover. BW has a well known ballet boot camp in the am on weekdays that is open to Acting students, too. Never inquired with students to see if many attended.
You are correct TXST does do unifieds (Chicago and LA this year) but their on campus experience is incredibly informative and in depth.
@thespis1, my MT D1 (graduated 2017, living in NYC) is a Wright Sate alum. It is an amazing program, not talked about as much on the Acting board, but is on the MT board. There is a lot of crossover in casting and students can audition for both Acting & MT. Wright State doesn’t go to Unifieds, but they do go to Moonifieds (it’s through Mary Anna Dennard’s coaching service, but Dave Clemmons’ kids’ can attend too). There is a Motion Pictures BFA & D1 was in several student films while she was there - she could have done more, but just didn’t have time. Tom Hanks is a huge supporter of Wright State!!! I can’t say enough good things about the program. The Seniors are currently in NYC for Showcase week & tonight is their alumni night, so right now D is at a party with a ton of her friends/professors.
Acting D2 got in Texas State (BFA Acting) YESTERDAY off the Priority Hold list, and she auditioned at Unifieds in Chicago. We haven’t even visited the campus yet!
Both schools are affordable - pretty sure all BFA’s at TX State get in state tuition & at Wright State D1 got a theatre scholarship making it equal to in-state tuition. I haven’t done it yet, but if/when I post to the final decisions thread, finances will be a big part of it. D2 didn’t apply to NYU, Carnegie Mellon, USC, UCLA because we knew they didn’t give good aid & they were expensive. When D1 went through this 5 years ago, our S was in college (computer science - wow he was easy!), and we had D2 (3rd child) at home. Our EFC (Expected Family Contribution) doubled once we were down to 1 child, so even schools “meeting need” did not help us at all. D2 got in and was waitlisted at some really great programs that she had to turn down because they were unaffordable - we were unwilling to take on Parent Plus loans - that is a very personal decision! She was VERY lucky to be admitted to Texas State. 2 days ago we were talking about her gap year.
@thespis1 My S also admitted there. S auditioned at LA Unifieds and then went out for a visit after accepted. He loved the program. I don’t think there is a ton of crossover between MT and Acting, but definitely some. My S said he did not interact with any MT and he was there for over 24 hours. He felt that they have a very, very structured schedule. He had nothing but a great time on his visit. Everyone there is fantastic!
@thespis1 S received excellent scholarship from:
Arcadia U
Rowan U (in-state for theater majors)
Illinois Wesleyan U
Since your S is interested in writing/film opportunities, there are strong BA MT programs that will support wider interests.
http://nuaregistration.com/ - a link with 2019 unified dates. I booked our hotels well in advance and checked the rate often and ended up spending less than $100/night on our hotel in Chicago, a Marriott. BAL!
@MTmom2017 Congrats on both of your kids! I really like Wright State’s film opportunities. Huge selling point for us. @"#booknerdmom, thanks! Trying to identify those BA MT programs that are good??? I will check out Rowan U!
@thespis1 I didn’t mention Wagner College (S class of 2022!), because they have a brand new film studies program. However, Wagner is a BA recognized for its MT training. Also, while S received comparable scholarship $, it wasn’t as much as Arcadia, Rowan, and Illinois Wesleyan.
Wagner is also know for the flexibility of the BA with arts administration and related majors/minors; I’d guess your S could design/add to fulfill his writing studies.
Can experienced parents share advice about finding monologues, especially age appropriate material for girls? We won’t be using a coach–my D’s theater teacher/director is very involved and supportive and D will be doing an Independent Study with her this fall to prep auditions. But D and I want to read a lot as she explores her options. I remember a much earlier suggestion about buying cheap plays on Amazon but haven’t had much luck with that. Anyway–any advice much appreciated!
@yorkside - if at all possible use a national coach for help finding monologues, some offer this service only, alacarte. They have knowledge of plays and characters that would fit your D more than you can imagine. My S did not use a coach, just did his normal work with his local acting/voice folks and said after the fact that his material maybe wasn’t the best. We absolutely feel his local people are knowledgeable in their areas but might not have the necessary knowledge of the college audition process to know how crucial picking just the perfect material can be. My S was uncharacteristically (he was overwhelmed with the process) lax about really delving into picking just the right material and he didn’t want to use a coach when we discussed the option about this time last year. He didn’t want to be artistically “packaged” (for lack of a better way to say it) but he now sees things differently.
But if a coach isn’t an option you can subscribe to Stage Agent and do monologue research on that site. Also, call the Drama Book Shop in NYC-my son’s local acting coach suggested this and he tried but didn’t ever get connected to the right person and wasn’t persistent.
There are many ways to find good material but it is a very important piece! Best Wishes! I’m sure others have different ideas to share, too.
@yorkside that’s not an easy project, but one that you can hammer away at if you have some time and internet research ability. If working with a coach isn’t feasible, you can check out the drama book shop website. They have a link to some monologues. If you’re in physical range of the drama book shop (or another similar shop regionally), you can spend hours browsing all of the plays–my family knows that when we’re in NYC to see a show, we always have to build time in for me to visit there!
You can also look at the college theater department websites and see what shows have been done over the past few seasons. Don’t just limit yourself to the colleges that your daughter is interested in–some may say it’s risky to perform monologues from shows that the school has just performed–especially look at the websites of some of the bigger or more innovative programs. And if there’s a tab to tell you what their student-run shows have been, that’s very helpful too. I love reading plays and look at the college websites often to see what’s new.
You can also look at the websites for regional theaters and see what they’re producing. Even though it can get pricey to buy a lot of plays without any direction as to whether they may apply to your daughter’s needs, you can google the names of the plays that you find and read critics’ reviews of many. That can help you to understand which ones might be good for her.
And finally, check out the college audition coach’s website. She has a section with blogs/vlogs and covers how to find a monologue, and even tells the names of some great female playwrights to check out.
Good luck!
@yorkside I am not going to suggest this is good advice, or even advice, but just one kid’s experience. My son did not use a coaching service to pick his monologues. We didn’t really know much about these services and are not located in a big city where this kind of thing is obviously or frequently used. So we were pretty much on our own. My son went to the library in the summer and read lots of plays and found characters/monologues that resonated with him. He ended up working on two Shakespeare and two contemporary monologues. In retrospect, I think one of the contemporary monologues was kind of generic. It was a somber piece that allowed for expression of sadness and the Denzel tear (which he was happy to have delivered at Fordham! Despite the nice comments and his feeling that he knocked it outta the park, he was not admitted). As I have thought about it, it was probably a monologue that anyone with reasonable talent and preparation could have done well. In short, it was not a challenging enough piece to really differentiate him from the many, many talented kids auditioning. His other contemporary piece was more comedic, had lots of movement, and a wide range of expressions. When I look back on where he had the most success (admits), it was the places where he used the second piece. I believe having a stretch piece with a wide range of emotion and plenty of movement served him well in the end. It also gave the reviewer something to work with. How do you work with the Denzel tear? Can you move the tear slightly more to the left? After his initial auditions, he found an experienced actress in town who had done shows on Broadway and has an MFA from Yale. She was super nice and helpful in improving the monologues that he had picked. The bottom line is that he felt the monologues were a good fit because he had done his homework and selected them himself. I feel like that gave him a level of confidence going into the auditions.
Maybe doing it that way was harder than it needed to be, but it worked out. He knew the material and felt it was a good fit for him.
@yorkside, D2 didn’t want a coach, but we used one with D1 for MT. The coach suggested plays for her to read & then they decided together what she wanted to use. D2 worked with a local coach who has her MFA, but she isn’t familiar with the college audition process. She kept suggesting plays that were on “overused” lists - many college websites have lists of monologues to stay away from. We kept ordering plays & D read a bunch, but just wasn’t finding the right thing. We ended up using Mary Anna Dennard’s (College Audition Coach) monologue concierge service. It wasn’t cheap, but we had to get prescreens taped, and it was a lifesaver for us. Best of luck to you!
@yorkside We purchase a monologue service a la carte because son was spinning wheels, this is the only place where we hired, everything else we did ourselves. Son tends to take a long time with decisions, and we didn’t have the time.
@yorkside My son is a disciplined performer; but he is not a strong reader. Having him cull monologues would’ve ended this process for us before it began. He worked with My Collegen Audition via Skype. While he felt the need to switch up some of his songs, all of his monologues worked for the end tire audition season. MCA, Chelsea Diehl, will work a la carte with you and I found them reasonable (balance the cost against having to purchase plays and time to review).
My kid is a lot further along but still needs new monos periodically. I read the Guardian’s theatre page, make a mental note when plays have a part for my S and order them for him for xmas, bday, just thinking about you presents. You can get a lot of new stuff via the drama bookstore and also a surprising amount from Amazon. He cuts his own monologues and i know for a fact that one of his go to audition pieces came from something i bought him. He really doesn’t need my help anymore but it’s a nice way to think about him and theatre once in a while.
@Jkellynh17 gives great advice on this. It’s a good idea to build up a collection of plays for these kids. Most will have likely already started to do this in high school. Keeping up to date with new plays is also good experience for them for the future. Regardless of what method is used to select appropriate monologues, be sure to have the students read and become familiar with the entire play.
Thanks for all this good advice–particularly appreciate that @Jkellynh17 talks about ways to stay connected with your kids. Our D’s theater work as well as going to theater together, and reading and talking about it nonstop has been such a big feature of our life that I really like imagining keeping that going when she’s off at school–and beyond!
It is an adjustment not being in the thick of it @yorkside, but not so bad if they are happy. Btw if any of you have Shakespeare kids i would highly, highly recommend Hamlet Globe to Globe, a truly amazing book about a Globe Theater production of Hamlet that went to nearly every country on earth.
New to this site! Just starting…anyone willing to give examples of “safety” schools? (I know this varies depending on talent, location, financial need, etc.) Or examples of “Tier 2” schools that you would still consider to be totally worthwhile and valuable? Hoping to stay somewhat near New York City.