I present this; not for kids/parents to say “we got into School X without a coach”-but as a place for those of us who used a coach to proudly acknowledge that our particular person/team aided the process-and specifically, how. I’ll start 
My D had a lot of validation going into her original BFA MT audition season that she would yield a happy outcome. Because she’s a high academic, and has lots of interests outside of MT, H & I naively thought that by the time she applied for college, she would be seeking a journalism, environmental science, stats, or sports management degree. Mistake (of many) Number One. Despite not one lead in her (non PA) high school (lots of callbacks and positive feedback) -D confidently, and without our help sent in a prescreen for Penn State’s inaugural Summer program; and auditioned for UNCSA’s High School Drama (Senior year only) program. And received acceptances to both. OK…at this point, H and I halfheartedly acquiesced that D could maybe do this? In March of D’s Junior year, I googled “Penn State Musical Theatre” (or something like that), and found CC! Still, I sent D off to PSU intensive without a rep book (what’s that?); with a half-a$$ headshot; and no idea what we were getting into. Remained clueless throughout her initial audition season, sadly. Really never understood good songs for her voice; good monologues; even a good “look” (she’s 5’6 and blonde.) We made a horrible college list. Horrible. Biggest mistake of this whole process. She only truly wanted to attend 7 of the schools. All of the rest were schools that I had read (on CC) were safeties. I would pitch them to D; and D would say “sure”-because she was confident she would get into one of the 7. She didn’t.
In April of last year, our family made the decision for D to take a growth year. I (she was at school) reached out to two of “the bigs” in the Coaching world: Mary Anna Dennard and Chelsea Diehl. They were both super prompt, gracious, and lovely. A vibe told me that D would respond better to Chelsea. I was correct. Chelsea was, from the first day they met (via Skype) THE most instrumental force in D having a successful audition season this year. Chelsea did all of the stuff that one would expect when hiring a coach: Helped with a school list. Helped with rep. But she and her team did so, so much more. Late Friday night & early Saturday morning “break a leg” texts. Early/late Sunday am texts-celebrating, or commiserating; if an audition went particularly well, or not well. Sometimes Mom doesn’t have the right words. Chelsea ALWAYS did. Now, basically April, as Chelsea is welcoming a new class of hopefuls…she is still ever-available and encouraging to D. She has given advice on FA, programs, how/when to to let a program know that you are declining, etc. For those who say they can’t afford a coach: I get it. I lost my job last year, and my H and I are paycheck to paycheck, pretty much. I will say that if I had a younger S or D pursuing this same path, I would budget for a coach. I truly believe it was an investment that has already come back to us, in terms of artistic scholarships and programs we never knew about.
MTCA-- Instrumental in helping us find monologues and acting the monologues/acting the song; mock auditions got her “ready”. Great for encouragement and tips/tricks along the way from her coaches to validate what I may have already known and told her (i.e. encouraging walk-ins, expanding her list appropriately, pep talks, etc). Great support on-site for Unifieds. Provided tracks for Unifieds (all the best cuts)…a fast and reliable resource we didn’t have otherwise.
Mostly only our own: my D picked most song rep but rec’d validation from coaches and helped select best cuts; I’ve been reading CC regularly for 8 years (since my D decided this is what she wanted to do and never waivered), so I was less naïve in the “process” as others…not that rejections sting any less. We live in an isolated area with no professional theater, one real voice teacher and no professional acting coaches, so we needed the help they provided. All done by Skype. Very flexible with your budget, but you do need to budget for it.
We used Mary Anna Dennard and love, love her. Still in touch and D is out of college now! Like others, we worked mainly via Skype. Help with school list, monologue choices and presentation, song selection and coaching with an associate of hers, on site at Unifieds to hear the good, bad and ugly, always available by phone or text. Her “Moo crew”. Was and still is an invaluable source of info. Kids would tell each other what to expect in the audition room at different schools, kept each other apprised as to when decisions were forthcoming, were each other’s cheerleaders, tour guides and one even became Ds first year roommate! Moonifieds was an incredible opportunity to audition in a much smaller setting for wonderful schools and get some early feedback and decisions. You could use her as much or as little as you needed. Not cheap, but definitely worth it, and you can work within whatever budget you set. If nothing else. For $20, Her book I Got In should be required reading for any family considering auditioning for MT or Acting programs.
@vvnstar brings up a very good point. Your student is automatically a part of a community of peers going through the same process; they give each other encouragement and give each other tips/tricks on what to expect in the audition room/dance call if their peers were ahead of them. They connect on social media and hopefully that network will remain valuable through college and career.
We used Chelsea as well and due to finances and my mom becoming very ill very quickly late summer we were only able to do 5 visits. In these visits Chelsea and my daughter set up a list of schools, found monologues and music all of which she used all season and had great feedback on. I’ve posted on the final decision board but we were very happy with our choices and Em is beyond thrilled where she landed. I absolutely recommend at least an initial meeting to get set in the right direction.
Chelsea and her crew are great. We are on the West Coast and everything was done by Skype. Went a’la carte for what we needed. Reading some of these heartbreaking posts of no acceptances, a realistic school list that is acceptable to your kid is crucial to this process. It’s hard figure that out unless you have an expert.
Mary Anna Dennard and her gracious team were a huge help to us in many areas, namely the following: material selection - both song and monologues, encouragement to be oneself (down to his audition outfits, which departed from the “norm”, but were, in fact, very him), MOONIFIEDS (cannot stress this enough, early audition experience, networking, development of friendships, and fun), and the wonderful community of young artists and their families fostered by Moo and her team.
MY COLLEGE AUDITION: CHELSEA DIEHL My son has always been interested in Musical Theatre and he knew this was always going to be something he would pursue after high school. Early on he did his homework and researched the process and knew this was going to be a daunting application process and he was unsure of who to turn to start the whole process. Unfortunately the high school performing arts program nor the guidance counselors at his school had a clue how to advise him or even what programs to recommend. He and I turned to amazon for books on the process and bought a book titled “My College Audition”. We each read the book from cover to cover and googled the author Chelsea Diehl. Chelsea was not far from us in Boston and I shot her an email. She emailed me back within 24 hours and we scheduled a call (she scheduled the call 2 days after she had her first baby - this is how devoted she is to her business). This is a stressful process but Chelsea was always upbeat and there for my son to answer questions, elevate concerns, and or lend an ear. Beyond Chelsea her entire team brings the whole package together. The only piece for us that we needed to supplement was the dance piece. My son is not a dancer so he needed extra dance lessons and prep to get that piece where he needed it and the filming of pre-screens was stressful and I wish Chelsea and team provided more detailed instruction on how to produce that piece but these are very minor in comparison to the big picture. I HIGHLY recommend Chelsea and My College Audition to anyone who is going to pursue Acting and or Musical Theatre in College. I have recommended her to many of our Acting and MT friends and EVERYONE has come back to say they are so grateful for this recommendation.
This is a very useful thread! Thanks for starting it @owensfolks !
Thank you, @owensfolks for starting this useful thread.
I have a couple of questions for all of you as we are WAY behind you in the process.
- When is the best time to bring on a coach? Junior year? Earlier?
- Does anyone ever use more than one coach? Maybe a kid wants to do Moonifieds with Mary Anna Dennard, but also some master classes with MTCA?
- I think some time in junior year. That gives you time to start making a list and choosing repertoire before you have to start filming prescreens for the fall.
- I don't know of anyone who has used more than one coach, but I suppose it's possible. You'd have to be wary of getting conflicting advice. And I know to do Moonifieds you have to do a certain amount of coaching with Mary Anna.
We also used Chelsea at MCA. What impressed me most about here when choosing a coach was the small staff and the amount of individualized attention she gives to her kids, really taking the time to get to know them and selecting material that showcases their talents. She doesn’t try to shoehorn her kids into some ideal of an MT or acting student, she lets them be themselves with the theory that they will find their best colleges, the ones where they fit, that way. My daughter had a lot of professional audition experience, and still college auditions were by far the most stressful time for her and, by extension, me. I’m not sure we would have made it out in one piece - never mind with her thriving at a top program - without MCA.
I have my third child in the process and had not used a coach until this round. With the advice of others who have been through the process recently, we chose MTCA mainly because we knew we’d be using the services ala carte. D did not need assistance with her list or monologues but did need some help deciding among different options for song rep. and evaluating her package overall. I highly recommend the mock auditions. As @loribelle mentioned, I feel it made her more “audition ready”.
I would recommend starting spring of junior year. It is an incredibly time-consuming process and, given the rise of prescreens and plethora of fall auditions, it helps to have much of the work done (or well underway) before the start of senior year.
Another happy Chelsea Diehl client here! She’s intuitive, sensitive, engaged, level-headed, helpful, positive… One regret from D’s audition year is that D didn’t start with Chelsea before September of Senior year; I wish we had contacted her winter of Junior year. We had a great team in place, and we were stretched financially, so we thought we were fine. Then, D panicked a bit about her monologue choices and her final school list, and we contacted Chelsea. Fantastic decision! We used the services “lightly” and a la carte, but she was still available when D or I needed/wanted her (which was pretty often)—and not because she didn’t have many other clients, but because she’s caring and responsive. We could tell that from our first communication with Chelsea, which is why we chose her! Plus, I had read a blog post by her and sensed that she was possessed of the characteristics I’ve mentioned—and she does.
We started with Mary Anna in the Spring of Ds junior year. And spent summer before senior year preparing materials, getting our school list ready, figuring out prescreens and getting ready to apply to schools as soon as possible when applications opened in the Fall. Mary Anna does offer a variety of different master classes and mock audition opportunities and we did one of those that summer also. I would recommend beginning with a coach sometime during your junior year to make sure you are ready to go when your application and audition season begins.
There are many good coaches and you need to find the one that you best click with. We found Moo to be extremely personable, helpful, available and affordable. We only used her for what we needed. Moonifieds as I mentioned before was a fantastic opportunity. And again, the camaraderie among the Moo Crew students was incredible and friendships and contacts made are still helpful to this day.
We do know some people who have used multiple coaches. I did not see any benefit to doing so in terms of their results. It was a bit of overkill. There are lots of qualified coaches out there. Just make sure you choose one who really understands the college audition process. College audition coaches are not there to improve your vocal technique, dance skills, etc… they are there to teach you to be successful in the audition process itself. How to showcase your abilities and pick schools who will appreciate the skills you have, while being able to take you to the next level with their training. Not every school is right for every applicant and not every coach is right for every student. Just like when choosing a program, when choosing a coach, make sure you understand what you are signing up for and that you will receive the help that you seek in this crazy process.
@vvnstar I do also hear that some families are using more than one coach and teacher. It may have been that way for a while. Do you think parents and students are happy with Skype as a teaching/coaching format? Maybe they are used to it.
Just chiming in with another glowing report on MTCA. We used them starting at the end of D’s junior year, 2014 Audition cycle. Nearly all of our sessions were via Skype, which we found to work exceedingly well - even when her coach was traveling, they could still meet up! The support system that MTCA builds around your child and you as a parent is absolutely fantastic - and continues beyond your audition year. The coaching teams often attend college senior showcases of their alumni! They will help you as much or as little as you need - we had some pretty strong support here at home, so needed more help with monologue selection, reviewing song rep, learning how a college audition works, and building a balanced school list. We did make a trip to NYC to participate in Mock Auditions (WORTH EVERY PENNY!) - and some part of the MTCA coaching team is on-site providing support at all three Unified auditions. If I had to do it all over again, I’d choose MTCA all over again. (Thank goodness, my MT girl is my youngest - and graduates from college a month from tomorrow - so I do NOT have to do it all over again!)
@Notmath1 - we used Skype for most of our sessions with Mary Anna and it worked very well. I think using Skype is pretty common. It certainly makes working with some of these coaches more accessible and affordable. We did work with Mary Anna in person once and also attended one master class. But that was sort of extra and not really necessary unless you want to. And of course she was there to help at both Moonifieds and Unifieds. And always available by phone or text.
And yes, we know people who used multiple coaches. Perhaps it’s kind of like getting a second opinion from a doctor? To me it seems like it could muddy the waters if you get conflicting advice. Not to mention the cost. But I guess if you want to do it and can afford to work with multiple coaches that would be a personal decision.
We are in NC; so my D did Skype with Chelsea and her coaches. I think they had their first session in mid to late May of last year: I would have researched and reached out a couple months sooner, had this been D’s Junior year, and we knew about coaches at that point. For my D, it worked out fine, because she was already examining on her own why her previous list was imperfect-and of course: High school classwork, standardized tests, etc were out of the way. D attended a weekend December Master Class/Mock Audition with Chelsea and local college reps (BU and Emerson) in December. By then, D already had 3 auditions under her belt-but we still feel like it was very, very helpful going into January on-campus auditions and Chicago Unifieds. Plus, she got to meet her mentors (Chelsea’s team) whom she had been Skyping with-folks that I feel confident will be in D’s network for a long time. Chelsea was also present at both NY & Chicago Unifieds: She had a literal “warm, safe place” where her students could warm up, socialize, de-stress, vent, etc.
We actually started last year with MTCA and switched to Mary Anna. It was a better fit for our son’s style - Mary Anna keeps on top of you. We very much liked the MTCA coaches, it was just a style thing.
I will strongly echo that Moonifieds is the hidden gem. It’s where programs get an early look at your student and possibly, if the fit is right, gets them thinking about ‘holding’ a spot. They obviously can’t make offers in November, but it is clear where the chemistry happens.
In addition to Moo, our team looked like the following:
Wife/Mom - runs a college admissions consulting business. Applications, essays, tests, deadlines. The queen!
Me/Dad - Travel coordinator, financial aid negotiator, and therapist when the process takes it’s toll.
Acting/performance coach - Took Moo’s monologues and songs and made them authentic
Vocal coach - Worked on the cuts, and getting the technical aspects of the song just right.
Dance coach - He did 4-6 hours of dance per week of various styles in addition to the base training at the academy
Finally, my son does online school at home and is part of an arts academy in our city that is run by long time stage veterans (25 years of Broadway and tours, professional level coaching, etc.) He’s at the academy anywhere from 10-25 hours per week depending on how much is going on down there (Company, Jr. shows to help with, set construction, hanging out). All of the coaches above (except Moo, of course) are teachers at the school, and it acts as a one-stop for us.
I’d love a description of “Moonifieds.” Are they auditions, like Unifieds? Or are they more like in-person pre-screens?