<p>My husband and I will be going to parent's weekend. My daughter is in Stella Adler. We, too, will be seeing Sweeney Todd. We'll be at the 3:00 show, I just hope there is enough time to make it from the studio on time! All the literature assured us it would be okay.</p>
<p>It will be nice to see the feedback from the various studios. That would have been so helpful to us a year ago!</p>
<p>We seem to follow the path of the other Tisch parents. My daughter started out a very young age as a dancer, but discovered her voice. Through her voice, she discovered the stage and immediately fell in love. I thought that MT would be the way to go for her. But during the audition, she told the auditor it would not break her heart if she did not get into Cap21. They were great about having a nice heart to heart on her choice and the method of acting she would be most comfortable with. As it turns out, her studio does almost all straight drama and she couldn't be happier.</p>
<p>Book recommendations:
Self-Management for Actors: Getting Down to (Show) Business
by Bonnie Gillespie
Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre
by Keith Johnstone
Auditioning for the Musical Theatre
by Fred Silver
Next! : Auditioning for the Musical Theatre
by Steven M. Alper
The Singing and Acting Handbook: Games and Exercises for the Performer
by Thomas De Mallet Burgess, Nicholas Skilbeck</p>
<p>All are part of my D library and the MT program at her HS.</p>
<p>How important do you think it is to have dance training before entering an MT program in college?</p>
<p>I have not had much training, but was told by a teacher that I catch on quickly, and if I commit to an intensive, 5-day a week ballet schedule, I could potentially make up for a lot of missed time. This teacher began dancing when he was 16, and moved into the advanced class the next year- so he is a firm believer in the whole "what you put into it is what you get out of it" idea, and he's said he's taught many a late bloomer who've ended up to be better dancers than some of the students he's seen go through years of training. Obviously, I am not expecting to surpass my dancer friends, but I would like to be competent, more so than I am, in dancing. My concern is the time committment. Unlike many of your children (soozievt in particular!!) I have not seemed to have been able to conquer the issue of limited amounts of time. And since school is my top priority (enforced by my parents), I usually give up dance classes and acting lessons when I'm in a show. Since I'm doing my school show AND a show at a local professional theater company, I've not been taking dance or acting- and still have some problems managing my time- my friends constantly tell me it would do me good to break a limb and stay in bed for awhile cuz im the "busiest person" they know. However, my shows will be done by January, my schools show will be over by the end of this month. But I'm still not sure if investing THAT much time in dance is a great idea, especially since the outcome of it all isn't definitive. What do you all think? And soozievt, how has your daughter managed to stay on top of her schoolwork, do 6 dance classes a week, voice training (how many days a week?), acting training, AND a show? share the secret!! </p>
<p>Everybody on this site -- While I was reading the thread and trying to catch back up to speed I noticed someone mentioning scholarship information. Has anyone put together a list for theater scholarships? Certainly as a mother of a daughter at NYU who is receive no financial aid whatsoever I'm definitely interested in any information anyone has to share. When we were applying last year our attention was more towards gaining admittance. As her parents we are willing to make this dream come true for her, but we have told her that we think she should make any attempts she can at obtaining scholarships. Her stats as listed a few posts back look good, but are just average at NYU. I spoke with someone in financial aid who told me to obtain academic scholarships she would need to have had an ACT score of 35; that tells you a little about the bright students you find in drama. </p>
<p>I have discussed the Princess Grace foundation and Donna Reed scholarships and am hoping this year she will make an attempt. Last year we totally missed the dates as we were immersed in the application process. I also understand that the NARTS (is that the proper acronym) is only available to freshman;anyone know about this?</p>
<p>Thanks for any information available, especially for sophomores in college and above. It was definitely difficult turning down the $10,000 and $11,000 offers that were made at schools were tuition and room and board was only $30,000. Also, she received an Illinois Merit Scholar scholarship of $1,000, but that could only be used at any Illinois school or WestPoint, Naval Academy, etc. </p>
<p>Maybe it's a project I can look into and post any information I can gather. Thanks for any input.</p>
<p>DizzyDani88--My D has extensive dance experience, so we've been looking for programs with a strong dance component. Some programs don't even have dance as part of the audition process, so I think it really does matter where you plan on applying. While watching my D grow I've met many individuals that didn't start dance until college and now dance beautifully. Three individuals teach professionally and are in professional companies even though they were 18 before they started!!!! See if you can squeeze a community college jazz class into your schedule. You will find many people in the same position as you.</p>
<p>fosselover, thank you for those suggestions! I'm fairly sure that my D has two of them but I'll check for the others.</p>
<p>theatredivasmom, I feel your pain on the scholarship issue! As I've mentioned before, we were told by an adcom at NYU that, had my D applied to CAS instead of Tisch, she would have been one of their presidential scholars which means $25,000/yr. plus included study abroad programs at no extra cost, etc. However, Tisch does not have the kind of scholarship $$ to award that CAS does. My D did receive a merit scholarship from Tisch but it is a fraction of what she would have received as a presidential scholar. The ironic thing is that Tisch's tuition is the highest of all seven colleges which make up NYU. It's not fair! :)</p>
<p>alwaysamom - Thanks for the acknowledgment of knowing the tuition pain from NYU. In retrospect, I do wish my daughter would have taken her SATs and submitted those scores, because every little bit does help, and I think that would have assisted in obtaining a small merit scholarship. When the advisor said that an ACT of 32 was perceived as average I realized what kind of competition she was up against. The one silver lining is that I look at paying her tuition and room and board as an investment in the best thing I can think of -- her future.</p>
<p>Dancersmom and others--thanks for responding to my question. I appreciate the time and thought that has gone into the responses. And it is reassuring to hear that not everyone who gets in has been living for theatre since they could read. I was glad to read what you had to say about the - what shall I call them - less prestigious? - programs. In fact, that is what I was hoping to hear, that you can get an excellent education, but probably not the contacts and maybe the other students won't be what they are in some of the other schools.</p>
<p>Another question. I know Muhlenberg doesn't have an MT major. I know you can combine theatre and dance. Can you combine theatre and voice? Anyone know much about it?</p>
<p>newmtmom--I don't know yet, but we are going to visit Nov. 11. My D wants to combine all 3!!! So we will be asking lots of questions. She is hoping to either double major and minor or single major and dual minor. So I will let you know.</p>
<p>This is from the website:
Opportunities in Musical Theatre are extensive in this program. In addition to staging at least one major musical production during each academic year, the department encourages students to take individual vocal training, dance instruction, and special topics classes to enhance their skills and to participate in campus choral and opera groups. Students are also given the extraordinary opportunity to audition, perform, design, dance, and work with the Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre, the regional professional theatre company. The Summer Music Theatre presents three major musical theatre works on the Muhlenberg College campus each summer with Equity guest artists, professional directing and design staff, and full orchestra.
From the catalog:
Students in the theatre major must opt for one of two concentrations: theatre
performance (acting, directing, or stage management) or theatre design (scene design,
lighting design, or costume design). Students majoring in theatre may double major or
minor in dance. Students with a strong interest in musical theatre are encouraged to
double major or minor in music.</p>