Current Musical Theater College Students and Parents Share Experiences

<p>I love this thread Collegemom, it's great to hear how everyone is making out. Thanks for mentioning M's and our experience at the convocation Ericsmom, and thanks for the well wishes BiGismama & SoozieVT! We were all certainly stunned, to say the least, to hear her name read among the amazingly accomplished few freshmen who were mentioned. Needless to say, there are MANY MANY standouts entering Elon this year, as their average SATs were 1260 (ish?) and their average GPA was 3.9, with 20 Valedictorians (including Ericsmom's S!)
M has found a great group of girls to hang out with, and loves her new digs. Classes started today, and she called to report just how amazingly busy she is with all of the activities...and now homework. BTW, she is in Ericsmom's son's acting class!
She also told me how she took great care separating her laundry into lights and darks today, only to add bleach to the darks!! LOL
It is a good feeling to know your kid is happy where they chose to attend, and helps make the transition that much easier on us parents.
Congrats also to anothermom-w-q, mtmommy, nytheatermom, 2DsnMT and BiGismama. I'm glad your Ds are happy too, and good luck to drum87, & IJElkiss hope you have a fabulous year!</p>

<p>Daughter moved in Aug 18 and has been "having the time of her life" exploring the city and meeting people from all over the world. Her dorm room looks out on the outdoor Shakespeare theater. She had orientation last week and started classes this week. This is a audition based BA program. It was not initially what she thought she wanted but she is VERY happy. One of her gen eds is history of theater the other is an Art History class. Otherwise she is taking acting, ballet and voice as well as the freshman writing class. She was also contacting the costume department to look at perhaps adding that as a class or at least doing her tech work for them She has always done a lot of costume design on the side and wanted to continue this in college. If anyone applying has questions about American we would be happy to answer them to the best of our ability.</p>

<p>Rock on Drum87!!!</p>

<p>Melsmom,</p>

<p>Congrats on the mentioning of Mel at the convocation. It was so exciting to hear her name and say, I kinda know her. I don't think she a Lex have connected up yet. Hopefully they will soon. Again, Congrats what a wonderfully accomplished lady (already)!
Lexismom</p>

<p>Hi everyone!! Sorry I haven't posted for the longest time but as some of you know it's been a rather stressful six months for our family. I did want you all to know that there is life after not getting accepted to MT programs! Jess was asked to fill an opening in the cast of "B and the B" at our local dinner theatre back in February and fit in so well that she continued there in the cast of "Big" and then in the cast of "Millie" even though she had to leave the show before it ended its run as she started at UF last week. She's majoring in Theatre Arts and Public Relations with a minor in dance and is thrilled with her dance and acting classes there...she auditioned for "B and the B" at the community theatre in Gainesville and just called to tell us she's in the cast. We're very pleased that she's at UF (a very good school academically and less than three hours from us--we go up for all the football games so we will see her and her older sister a lot in the next few months) and she continues to grow and enjoy her experiences in MT.</p>

<p>More later when I have a chance to read all of these posts. Hope you are all doing well and I promise to write a bit more when I can.</p>

<p>seg</p>

<p>Scogor, wonderful news for Jess! I think she has found the perfect place, even if it was so stressful last year and not everything went as hoped. Congrats on her three shows she did locally and wahoo on being cast at a show in Gainesville already! She is off to a rip roaring start. The minor in dance sounds perfect for her as well. Hope to be hearing more updates.
Susan</p>

<p>Josie...I am not sure I realized that your D landed at American. I have been recommending American to several students and I think I have some who are applying this year and so I may keep your D in mind as someone for them to contact if they wish and your D is willing at some point. While the BA may not be what your D thought she originally wanted, so often once kids explore and find a school, they end up very happy and just never really realized that the school would be what they wanted after all. Sometimes when kids want other schools, their perceptions are so colored by those preferred schools that they don't really "see" how great other options are as well. Once they try them or visit in depth, they discover that there are many wonderful options out there, not just a handful. I guess your son is heading back to Brown. My D who goes to Brown is going abroad this semester to Italy. But she is going to visit everyone at Brown for two days this weekend before heading back out of the country on Monday (she was in France all summer until a week ago). Sounds like both your kids ended up at places where they are happy and that, to me, is all a parent could want...happy kids.</p>

<p>scogor - I'm so happy to hear how well it is going at UF for your daughter! We thought of you when we were at Elon and our wonderful time spent together there. You have a special daughter who will thrive in college as she has in the local theatre. I'm so glad her major / minor and classes have worked out so well for her.</p>

<p>Lexismom - I've already promised Melsmom that I'm going to get you together at parent's weekend.</p>

<p>Ericsmom</p>

<p>Sound good! I look forward to it.</p>

<p>Thanks
lexismom</p>

<p>PS Lex says all of the students are so nice that she has met. She has even found someone to take her to the airport next week for her brother's wedding. I was pm by his mom on this site several months ago.</p>

<p>Again, how lucky we all are to have discovered CC and to have these wonderful connections to take us and our kids into the future. I feel truly blessed, and am so happy to hear news of our kids' successes, in spite of some misses along the way.
Scogor yours is a story that exemplifies how things really DO work our for the best and I am happy to hear that J is doing well at UF...in spite of the puddles from Ernesto! NC is getting hammered by him now!
I too can't wait to get back to Elon in Sept & see everyone at the football game tailgate party...I really am jealous of those kids there! My D's friends include a girl who was a runner up for teen Miss **** (drives a caddy?!) & another is a voice major so I know she's having a great time with variety of people to hang out with. Now if she can just get into a dance class, all would be well in her world...</p>

<p>I was just reading a review of a local production of Funny thing Happened..Forum, and saw that Drum87 was in the show. He got a great review as Hysterium. Way to go Drum!</p>

<p>11 days ago, at about this time, I was having a tearful conversation with D about going off to college. She was certain that she could not do "this"...leave home, friends-her comfort zone. I tried to convince her that within a week, she would be in her routine, have new friends and enjoying the whole experience. Well, I was wrong...it only took a few hours. She tells me repeatedly in conversations that she is amazed at how easy it has been to get to know the kids, the staff and she feels at home...by the way, she is at Shenandoah. Her room mate is wonderful. She actually spoke with her through this forum!! She has gotten to know a great circle of friends. So far, this has been a great experience. Yes, ups and downs happen, but she is glad to be where she is. For all of you starting this journey...I hope the best for all of you. I look forward to reading about the upcoming adventures that we will all go through this year!</p>

<p>Due to some financial issues I chose to go to a new program at Coastal. I was very nervous, BUT it is awesome. Very talented students with a staff filled with amazingly brilliant people. I am a freshman and was blessed enough to receive a role in the first show of the year, "Forever Plaid." Wow, is it time consuming. However, there are only 4 guys and you have to learn every song along with your part in the harmony, but still, I have been eating, sleeping, and flat out living Plaid. It is a HUGE committment. But it's been fun. </p>

<p>We just had call backs for The Great American Trailer Park and Sordid Lives. I had only heard a couple of people sing previously that were in the room, but for the rest that I, wow, they were just great.</p>

<p>So thank you for the help last year with the audition process. Everything is going great. And thanks CollegeMom for not forgetting about us CC kids in college :)</p>

<p>Congratulations TheatreJock!</p>

<p>Sounds like your first semester will be challenging, rewarding and fun! Good luck with your callbacks...and please continue to let us know about your year.</p>

<p>:)</p>

<p>TheatreJock,
Way to go! How fantastic that you, a freshman, got a role like that! Have fun this year!</p>

<p>For all of us who have kids in school this fall, would it be possible to put the name of the school in the place under your screen name (to the left of the message)? I can't keep track of where everyone is (esp if it's not mentioned in the post!) and it would really help!</p>

<p>Move D to NYC on the 13th for orientation at Neighborhood Playhouse on the 15th. All systems go!</p>

<p>This is a great thread, by the way.</p>

<p>Chrism, good idea about putting our kids schools up on our profiles.</p>

<p>I like the idea too...I changed my profile...this is a test to see if it worked. I put a whole lot of info there.</p>

<p>In a bit...once classes have stared, I'll talk about what CAP 21 is like for this thread. But as of right now, the city of NYC is amazing (who would have guessed?).</p>

<p>Great idea about listing the school! Lets see if it works! Just spoke to D online, still loving it and feels so very comfortable. She was just telling me of the incredible talent around her. Her words were...WOW! As I told her...she is among her peers now! (I know, sounds like a proud mom!) I will write more as events occur. Thank you to all who have helped us down this road to the place we are at now. You are all so great!</p>