Why, oh why did I buy her the Broadway Kids albums? That started the belting around the house… which led to voice lessons so she wouldn’t damage her voice… which led to youth theater… which led to… She wore out the VHS tape of “Into the Woods” We replaced with a more durable DVD. She has known this is what she wanted to do since she was very young - 8 or 9… she finally convinced us by middle school that it wasn’t just a fantasy.
For my MT daughter, it wasn’t any of the shows being mentioned here. She truly got into MT around age 4. Her sister was in a professional musical then (she was 6) and the 4 year old would watch rehearsals as we lived too far away and had to stay during them. They ended up letting my 4 year old into the show. That was her first musical. From then on, she was involved in lots of MT (plus music and dance). Both sets of grandparents took the girls to many Broadway shows and we also saw tours. For a long while, both my kids did MT, though it was one of many of their extracurricular endeavors. My MT D dropped all her sports by 8th grade. My MT D was a walking encyclopedia of musicals. She did an independent study at age 8 on 100 years of Broadway musicals, and presented a report, illustrated time line, and performed excerpts from all these shows to her grade 1/2/3 class. The elementary school even put on musicals. I recall many particular “show phases” she went through when quite young…like during elementary school she had her Cats phase, RENT phase, and eventually a Ragtime phase. She did independent studies in elementary school writing original musicals. She wrote a 30 page research paper on Jonathan Larson at age 11. I even recall her figure skating routine as a kid was to CATS. She started going away to theater camp at age 9 every summer until she left for college. And so on and so forth all through middle and high school. Wanting to be a performer was her deep passion since preschool. I also have a fond memory of when she was 8 or 9 and performed Adelaide’s Lament in a few different settings. My parents would ask her to perform it in front of their friends. My Dad used to refer to her as “Ethel Merman!” (always had a big belty voice) There was no one show that started it all. It seems like it has been part of her life since preschool and her direction never wavered. Even her nursery school narrative “report card” talked about her some day being on Broadway, LOL. I recall walking by NYU one day when D was 12, on a trip to NYC, and she said, “I’m gonna go here one day!” And she did.
PS, to @kategrizz …my D listened to those Broadway Kids CDs over and over again in the car when she was very young too.
@kategrizz - Broadway Kids CDs - yes! Likewise voice lessons as to not injure the voice due to belting all the time. (Maybe Broadway Kids should put warning labels on their CDs!). Youth theater audience member from toddler years turned into youth theater performer beginning at age 9. Was a competitive figure skater but most loved the spotlight/showcase events - her favorite - wore a giant wig and skated to You Can’t Stop the Beat from Hairspray. Playing Gertrude in Seussical as a middle schooler sealed the deal. Decided after that to audition for and transfer to PA magnet for high school. Other childhood inspirations: the Nutcracker, Beauty and the Beast and Hunchback of Notre Dame at Disney World. Also had a beloved VHS tape of Cathy Rigby’s Peter Pan. And also loved Anastasia. Writing that down it is obvious her passion, but not sure we realized it back then.
This is an interesting thread. We are a family that while loving the arts never promoted that field of study for our kids. We strongly discouraged our kid from pursuing singing, dancing,acting, as a career until it became clear in HS that the only time she was truly happy was when she was dancing, singing and acting. So very late in the game, i.e. January of her HS Junior year we started to explore how to make a career out of wanting to sing, dance and act:). I do not think any one thing influenced her, she just loved all that stuff! She loves Fred and Ginger movies as much as much as the Color Purple musical as much as the opera Carmen. I hope she can get though college and find a way to satisfy her arts side. All the arts are such a tough business, we have friends who are actors, fine artists, opera/classical singers,film makers, furniture makers, graphic artists, etc etc and it is just such a tough world. Wish it was not:)
Age 7: “Mom, I really don’t like soccer, gymnastics or swimming…can I just practice singing somewhere instead?”
I googled voice lessons for kids.
Age 8 - cast in first role. Same year we won the Wicked lottery in Chgo…front row seats w/ booster chair (well I didn’t use a booster) I’ll never forget the pure joy and amazement in her big eyes.
Yes…Broadway Kids songbook!!
Started with boy choir in elementary school. When he was about 11, he had two solos with professional symphonic orchestra - Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children. When he walked to the front of the stage in front of all those people, it was like he was walking into his living room. He was at home. Around the same time, a dear friend’s mother passed away and she gave us her tickets to tour of Joseph. S walked out of the theater and said. “THIS is what I want to do”. Dance and Acting classes started as soon as the next semester started. Started watching videos of Michael Jackson, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, anything Fosse. In 6th (?) grade, I had to go shopping for a woman’s “shiny” shirt (blouse) with big collar so he could dress like High School Musical’s Ryan Evans for Halloween. Been buying/making costumes and dance wear ever since. Last night, I got to see him in a college performance of Fosse’s Rich Man’s Frug, wearing a costume from a national tour of Fosse. A dream come true. The singing and dancing roped him in, but now he’s angling for the creative end of all things MT.
I love hearing all your kids story and have tears in my eyes as I think of my D journey! For the first time she will be with pears that share the same passion as her and can recite every musical! It’s all so wonderful !!’
@vvnstar Our D’s have a lot in common… mine also figure skated… showcase was her favorite event… she “retired”" after middle school, and making the final rounds in all her events at National Showcase!
My daughter did the typical little girl thing with wanting to be a veterinarian. She is an equestrian and brought home any animal she could find. As she got older she wanted to be a heart surgeon (she loved Grey’s Anatomy). I even sent her to a two week camp at UCLA for young aspiring doctors. During her childhood and adolescence she always participated in the school plays and musicals. Her junior year in high school she directed Damn Yankees. One night she came home and asked to talk to me. Said it was serious. We sat down and she began to cry (imagine what I was thinking, pregnant? gay?). She said she didn’t want to be a doctor she wanted to be in the theatre. Was afraid I would be upset. She new that she would not make very much money in the arts. I reassured her that I didn’t care what she wanted to place her heart an soul into, just that she find a spot to thrive and be happy. She has never looked back. She now plans to be Christina on Grey’s instead. 
I have two older brothers, and we were all into many sporting activities (I was a figure skater too, lol). Enrolled son in many different sports and made him see the season through, and tap dancing at age 4, but he finally said, “Mom, I’m just not a sporty kind of guy.”. He is a musician and wanted to be a Death Metal Drummer, then was involved in Jazz Band, Symphony Band, Concert Choir, started an A Capella group and decided to audition for a play in ninth grade hoping to get a part where he would kiss a girl He also got into the game late, mid-Junior year. Can’t believe he finishes his Junior year of college in a week.
We have always joked that my D is a reincarnated Grande Dame of Broadway, lol. When our NC born gal began speaking, she had a distinct NY accent. It cracked us up. Then at about age 3, when we would play make believe, she would give me my “part” (“you be mommy ducky and I be baby ducky”), and then exclaim, “Mom, say your lines!” NO idea where it came from-but every day I was given direction! She had so many interests growing up, and in hindsight I regret not having nurtured the MT stuff more-because she has had to play catch-up, especially with voice. But then again, I am proud of how well she has done in school (which has made for some great scholarships, regardless of path), and that she has intellectual curiosity-which I think is her greatest strength, when it comes to acting and script analysis. D had some really cool “safeties”-Sport Management at NC State, Media and Journalism at UNC, waitlisted for Broadcast Journalism at Syracuse. But I think that she loves the challenge of MT because of its creativity, subjectivity, and the risk-taking aspect. Sometimes you flop, and sometimes you nail it.
I love all the stories. I think the rise of the Broadway Disney Musicals probably brought a lot of kids into MT.
I know for my D it was seeing Sierra Boggess in The Little Mermaid on Broadway. I think she was 6.
That combined with the realization that she could make an audience of people laugh while dancing at the age of 3. (she was a rogue baby ballerina) Sealed the deal!
She has known she was in her first musical at age 7 that she wanted to do MT as a career. She had been in a couple of children productions that were straight plays before that, but I assumed she was like every other person in my family and that she couldn’t sing… but I was really wrong.
I hope when it is her turn she gets into one BFA program that makes her happy.
We started D in piano lessons at 5 because we knew she wasn’t being challenged at all in kindergarten. Her piano teacher also had her do a little singing. She was also one that told you what to say if you played dolls with her. Eventually she would just start saying your lines for you because you weren’t doing it right. She spent many hours on the sidelines of the soccer field watching her older brother and sister play but never sparked any interest in doing it herself. We started looking for something else and found the local children’s musical theater organization. They had a studio class that you went once a week for 6 weeks and then put on a show at the end. She loved it. She had to wait a bit before she could do one of their full productions, her first one was at age 9. When that was over and I ask her if she wanted to do the next one, her answer was OF COURSE I DO! From then on it was 4 shows a year at several different theater companies in the area. At some point she started taking voice lessons and sometimes her voice teacher would make a comment like “well if she wants to do this in college…” I would just laugh to myself. Even as it became clear in high school that this was the direction she was heading, I wasn’t sure. As much as I knew she loved it, she wasn’t one of those kids that blasts nothing but show tunes or hangs out at the theater even when she doesn’t have rehearsal. I just wasn’t sure she wanted to practice singing, dancing & acting all day everyday. She went away last summer and did 3 weeks of training, I thought that would be a good test. She came home more determined than ever. She said, I just want to see how good I can be if I don’t have all this other stuff to worry about and can make it my main focus. So here we about to send her 3000 miles away so she can sing, act and dance!
It was The Sound of Music (movie version) for D. Borrowed it from the library for the first time when she was probably 2 1/2. It immediately became her favorite. We renewed it as often as we could - you had to actually return it at some point and wait a few days before checking it out again - the worst! We finally found one (pre-Amazon days!) to buy thank goodness! We also had the CD for the car. (Broadway Kids came later!) Was always putting on shows - director and star - with dolls or neighborhood children. Read a chapter book aloud to her 2nd grade class during reading time, using all the voices & loved being the center of attention! Tried sports, but she was too busy singing & dancing on the sidelines or in the outfield to pay attention. Started theatre classes around age 7 or 8 & never looked back!
She graduates from college next weekend.
We signed the boy up for an audition for summer Shakespeare when he was 12 with less than 24 hours of lead time. He learned the “The fault dear Brutus is not in our stars” mono in no time flat and got cast as one of the Dromeos in The Comedy of Errors and boom, life changed forever.
I was a theatre major and my husband is a musician. We never wanted to force our S to do the things we were interested in–we wanted him to make his own choices. Therefore, we tried every sport under the sun. He swam for 7+ years and played Water Polo. But, in the 7th grade, he auditioned for Bye, Bye Birdie and got Randolph McAfee and 8th grade auditioned for Oliver! and got the Artful Dodger. He was hooked! (I should have known from all the costumes he wore when he was a toddler… lol.) And in HS, he played Bass with several student bands. It’s been so wonderful for us that in the end, he has the same interests that we do!!!
My daughter was about 7 years old and I enrolled her in a 2 week theatre camp mostly because I needed childcare while I was working. Prior to that, we had gone to see local theatre over the years with her. They had the end of the summer show and we had no expectations with our daughter except that it would be fun to see her on stage. Well, when she came out and belted/acted out conjunction junction from schoolhouse rock, my husband and I just looked at each other in shock ! We had no idea she could sing ! Even to this day, she rarely sings in front of us, but becomes this totally different person on stage.
When my D was 2 or 3, we were sitting at church and the kids’ choir went up to perform. They started singing, and my D ran up and started singing with them and dancing in place! I was mortified, shocked, and in awe that my D, who was not one to draw attention to herself like that or do anything like that, did it! I also couldn’t believe how comfortable she was onstage. The director loved it and asked if she could continue to be a part of the choir even though she was too young. The audience loved it, too, and talked about it often even years later!
At 4, D auditioned for and was cast in her first show, a play at a regional theatre. As she walked back from her audition with the directors, they laughed and said it seemed like she had auditioned a million times before because she of the way she carried herself onstage. D was oblivious to what they were talking about, but she was hooked, and from that time on, hardly any time went by when she wasn’t in a production. In fact, sometimes when she wasn’t in one, she’d get in a little funk until we realized that she was in that mood because she wasn’t in a show.
She started voice lessons a little young with someone who specialized in classical and MT voice so that she didn’t hurt her voice since she was singing onstage often, anyway. She decided to start dance classes at around the same age (9/10) because she didn’t get a part due to dance. Back then, she was pretty uncoordinated, and she didn’t absolutely love dance classes, but she kept trying and actually got better pretty quickly, and she grew to adore them. It amazed my H and I when she later showed real talent in dance; it definitely did not come naturally for D in her early years.
It’s been a fun (and sometimes nerve wracking, lol) ride in theatre since D was little, and I always just assumed she’d continue with theatre after high school. She also loves nature, and the only other thing I could’ve seen her perhaps wanting to pursue professionally was something dealing with nature studies. Theatre was it for my D, though; she didn’t consider any other majors or paths.
So this is a random question is it totally unheard of to send a couple of deposits and visit after May 1st to make a final decision? I just have no idea how to make such a tough decision in less then two weeks.
I’m pretty sure you are only supposed to send one deposit to one school.