<p>baymom...I am happy you made a decision you feel comfortable with. It's going to be an exciting time for your family. Enjoy every minute!</p>
<p>Congrat's baymom, to your son and to you. Sounds fantastic, and we will all want updates.</p>
<p>Congratulations! What a wonderful opportunity! Good luck with the chaotic week ahead...all the best to your son and your family!! We look forward to hearing about your adventures in DW.</p>
<p>Safe journeys!
:D</p>
<p>I'm so excited for your son that your update brought tears to my eyes! He sounds very sensible, mature (and, of course, talented!).</p>
<p>Yowza!That is incredibly exciting! Good luck, and here's to a moooving week! Bring out the crying towels early, it brings tears to my eyes, too.</p>
<p>Thanks for the good wishes everyone. I have been superemotional the past few days and crying towels are definitely packed already. Going down to Bloomington will be hard tomorrow to undo what we just did less than two weeks ago and say goodbye to that lovely campus that I thought we'd be frequenting a lot this year. The spring musical is "Into the Woods" and S said that he really made his decision when they were in rehearsal and the line came up "Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor" followed later by that beautiful song with the lyric "No one leaves for good." So the path is set, he's on his way - we're excited, a little nervous, and very grateful. Thanks again to all for your help and support.</p>
<p>I love that musical precisely because the worda are so haunting in their relevancy to loss and finding one's path again. Best of luck to your son, and to both of you in the year ahead!</p>
<p>Bumping for tashmu</p>
<p>Baymom, you must be so proud of your son -- what an opportunity. Was he offered the concert tour or the musical production, or both? I understand the concert tour is running in 30 cities in two months... wow. That's a tough schedule, but incredible exposure for a young performer.</p>
<p>I asked the head of the department at SU just this question last week when we were there. He said that at SU, once you're in, you can always come back. They encourage students to audition during school. Go for it!</p>
<p>Sarahsmom</p>
<p>HI Again!
I just thought I'd 'bump" this post up and ask if your son is going to be in the WDW Christmas Parade which is always shown on Christmas morning? The latest Disney articles say that the " 4 leads" will be in the parade and are just as star-struck as the kids that are watching! Let us know what your S looks like so we can all keep an eye out for him! Merry Christmas!</p>
<p>Baymom - just thinking about your son as the concert tour was here last week. Wondering if he is with the concert tour (as friends with younger kids went and said the male lead was not the one from the movie) or if he is in the musical production. If he's doing the musical production - is it being performed at Disney? My MT daughter and I will be at Disney in March and would love to see the show/your son - just to sit in the audience and feel that we "know" someone in the cast. At least that we know some of the story that got him where he is. And we know that he's another cc'er who followed his dreams and is seeing success.<br>
Best of luck to him as the year continues.</p>
<p>It has been so long since I had a chance to log into CC but now notice there have been questions about my S. I would love to update all of you especially since you were enormously supportive during the whole decision making process.</p>
<p>This experience has been a real education in the business! Definitely would not trade it for anything but it has been a whirlwind. </p>
<p>As you know we packed S up from IWU and brought him down to Disney in FL in September. Subleased him a beach condo (couldn't be more different from the dorms!) and got him settled. The first High School Musical show they put up was small - a cast of five, 3 leads and 2 dancers but was tempoarary as they mounted a bigger production with 10 back up dancers and huge stage. They rehearsed the first show for two weeks, performed it for a month and then went into rehearsal for the bigger show. So he was perfomring and rehearsing two different versions of the show pretty much 7 days a week. They also have to tech as overnights when the parks are closed so he had a really crazy schedule. Of course he was in heaven!</p>
<p>The new show opened and then came the shocker. The Monday after Thanksgiving (thank goodness DH and I were there visiting) they called a full cast/crew meeting and announced the show was closing on January 6! Everyone was stunned. They said that because the show was so incredibly popular, they were going to make it even bigger, take it out of the Magic Kingdom and move it to the MGM Disney Studios which attracts more tweeners and teens and needed a new blockbuster. The cast was told they could reaudition but all parts were up for grabs. Almost nothing was known about format or anything. </p>
<p>Auditions were scheduled for December 7 and S went through the five hour (!) process (multiple agonizing cuts). They had about 200 people auditioning for what they learned were one male and one female Equity lead for each of two casts, plus 2 subs for each role. After the first day, S and one other girl were the only ones left from the original cast. The callbacks were the next day and they had 12 guys and 12 girls up for each part. Call backs were intensive dance, vocals of all the songs in the show and basketball drills for the guys. They then told them they'd hear in 1 -2 weeks. </p>
<p>Well it was an incredibly difficult two weeks as we thought through scenarios (go back to school, stay at Disney and try to get another job, take time off, etc.) All the more diificult because S LOVES Disney! It has been an incredible experience for him. Three days before the auditions, he was up at 4:00 in the morning for the filming of the Christmas Parade. He and three other cast members were the stand-ins for the four leads from the movie. They learned all the dancing and blocking for the parade and then taught it to the stars who came in about three hours later. S was the stand-in for Lucas Grabeel (who plays Ryan in the movie) and had an awesome time with him - showing him the dance, moves etc. and just talking about the business! He said all four were so down to earth and open - more than willing to answer questions, talk about their experiences, etc. It was quite the experience.</p>
<p>Well to make a really looong story short, they called him on December 21 when he was home with bronchitis (!) and told him he had been cast as the lead in the primary cast (the one that performs the most often). Many tears of joy all the way around. So they went into rehearsal for the new show the day after the old one closed. The show was dark for two weeks and then opened on January 22 at Dsiney MGM. DH and I went down for the opening and it was fantastic. S sings alot more - solos and a charming duet with his female lead. Plus they enter on a huge float that turns into a stage so they are singing and cheering along a parade type route and S has to fire up the crowd (which he is really good at!) He pretty much plays the "Troy" character though they don't use those names (the previous show was the "Ryan" character) and so he is experiencing having "fans" for the first time. When we were at dinner, there were middle school age girls giggling and pointing at him and then a mom and two daughters came over and asked for his autograph and to have a picture taken with him. When walking out there were girls blowing kisses at him - really strange experience!</p>
<p>He did decide to get his Equity card which arrived in the mail last week (he needed to perform 14 weeks to get it). I think it was a good decision. He is a little bothered by the differences in treatment between the Equity leads and the non-Equity dancers but otherwise it's positive. The pay is sure good and he's amassing quite the savings account for lean times.</p>
<p>All in all - a good lesson in the uncertainty of this business - even when you think you have a contract anything can happen with the 2 weeks notice clause. S still talks about going back to school though I know it will be a huge adjustment (dorms vs. beach condo?!?!) Plus he's made incredible contacts down there. The casting director for Disney World really likes him and told him before the second set of auditions that he should call him if the HIgh School Musical show didn't work out because he could use him other places. The second director (who was from LA) also really liked him alot and told him to keep in touch. </p>
<p>Bottom line - the right decision, invaluable experience, and connections with a great company. The future - who knows???</p>
<p>You must be so proud!!! Please tell your son that we are all puilling for him ( It was hard, because I had another acquaintance who'e niece was up for a part and I knew there were on;y so many roles to go around, so.....). Rock on and perhaps we'll see him next spring if we get to make the trip (D is going to OCU this summer, so there goes all of my $$)</p>
<p>Thanks for the update. And wow, what fantastic news (after a let down no less) and how incredibly exciting! A real success story and your son is having a great time. Much congratulations and continued success to him.</p>
<p>I have seen your son in the show in the Magic Kingdom and he really looked like he was having a great time. (of course he did a great job also!) As a Florida resident we go to WDW often. Best wishes for his continued success and I will make a point of watching the show next time we are at MGM. (not that my young DDs will give me a choice, LOL!)</p>
<p>wow! congrats to him! how exciting!! I'm going to be down at Disney in March, and I will make a point of going to see the show--it will be fascinating knowing the story of how one of the cast members got there, and feeling like I 'know' him =)</p>
<p>Wow, what an experience! Thank you so much for taking the time to share it with us!</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your kinds words. It will be interesting to see what happens as we get closer to the new school year. I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out.</p>