When people talk about coaching, they’re usually referring to experts who offer services specifically for college musical theatre auditions - that’s their specialty. MTCA and Mary Anna Dennard are the famous ones. Of course, people can get coaching from their own singing and acting teachers as well! But some singing and acting teachers, while knowing a lot about the craft, aren’t up-to-date with the whole complicated musical theater college audition process, which has exploded over the last few years. So the idea of the professional “college coaches” is that they know what the schools are looking for and guide the students with appropriate song choices, monologues, clothes, and even suggest colleges to apply to that fit their desires and talents.
Other advice from coaches: how to do headshots and prescreen videos, what to expect in the audition room, how to cope with the waiting area, what a typical dance call looks like and how to prepare, etc. For example, Mary Ann Dennard has a complete set of videos available that covers all of these things.
If you haven’t done so already, read “I Got In” by Mary Anna Dennard. It outlines the college audition process and gives you insight in what to expect from a college audition coach. A good coach will cover the things outlined in Fred Silver’s seminal book on the subject, “Auditioning for the Musical Theatre,” and Andrew Gerle’s, “The Enraged Accompanist’s Guide to the Perfect Audition.”
Not trying to promote Mary Anna (although I think that she is awesome). MTCA, Dave Clemmons, and others are excellent as well.
Lots of great points here, but can we move this discussion to the “coaches” thread - although that appears to have been diverted as well. The nature of the beast. . .
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1772238-coaches-p1.html
We are so easily distracted! LOL
This report strives for brevity and levity. While this story is true, any resemblance to actual events from people you know is purely coincidental.
APPLIED TO: BW, BoCo, CCM, CMU, Elon, Emerson, FSU, Ithaca, UMich, Pace, Point Park, Texas State, and a couple of others I am missing.
PRESCREENS: Passed all prescreens except for BW. Those guys are STRICT!
ARTISTICALLY ACCEPTED: That will ruin the story.
PRIORITY LISTED: Texas State
COACH: None, and it’s all my fault.
SUMMER PROGRAMS: None, that’s kinda my fault too.
TRAINING:
Dance: No sustained formal dance training. Boy is next year going to hurt!
Voice: A few lessons from local folks, nothing formal. God save the person’s ears in the back row once she gets some training, volume is not a problem.
Acting: Children’s theatre since age 8. She was awarded a HS theatre scholarship at the hoidy toidy local private school against all odds. Thank goodness, that place is expensive.
Instruments: She has a ukulele with dust on it. Does anyone know how to spell ukulele? She doesn’t play it anyway.
THE BACKGROUND:
Why pursue MT? Soccer didn’t work, she wondered why those kids were kicking her in the shin all of the time. Softball didn’t work, too many butterflies to chase in the outfield when the ball was in play. Volleyball didn’t work, she’s 5’2” and was even shorter then. She was actually pretty good at all of those sports when she gave effort, but the focus was elsewhere. But where?
The Eureka Moment came in the form of a phone call from her summer camp instructor back when she was still a wee little one. “Uh, hi, this is Miss McGillicuddy, your daughter’s counselor. I don’t mean to bother you but, um, well, did you know your kid can really sing? I mean, she can really, REALLY sing. You kinda need to get her involved in our community theatre. I’ve made some calls, and they will be calling you tonight to set up an audition for their next show. YOU NEED TO DO THIS, AND YOU NEED TO DO THIS RIGHT NOW!!! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?!!”
“Uh, yeah, sure.”
(continued)
(more, if you are still reading)
THE JOURNEY:
Had it not been for our excellent children’s theatre and subsequent stellar HS theatre programs, we would have had no idea and no shot about how to get her to this point. The older kids in her school blazed a path and shared the map with us, thankfully. Many of her HS fellow stage-mates were drafted by CMU (a boy), NYU (a boy), Pace (a boy), BoCo (a boy), PSU (a boy), and Texas State (a girl, whew). We hung out with the other Theatre Parents at after-parties of the various shows throughout the years and took in as much information as we could through osmosis. That said, there was hardly any discussions of CC, and there was no discussion about using any particular coach. In fact, no coach talk at all.
Now that I think about it, all of those seemingly nice parents were keeping the whole coaching thing secret from us. We were supposed to get together next week for a lovely Parent’s Dinner. I think now that I shall sneer at them if my wife will let me. Those sneaky bastages, I don’t like them at all now.
There were spreadsheets.
There was hope, and a prayer.
There were parental doubts. Big ‘ol serious ones.
And there was a kid who never wavered, and never doubted herself.
The D Who Sings started audition season with a visit to Point Park in December to get the feel of things before the thick of the schedule started. Then, she had a couple of regional auditions with Emerson, and BoCo. Before going to NYC Unifieds, a nice acceptance letter arrived from Point Park. Nice isn’t the word – we were absolutely ecstatic, and incredibly relieved! All of our doubts of D not being ready, of not having dance experience, of not having acting as a primary strength (yet), of not being 6” tall all were wiped off of the face of the Earth with that one little letter. My kid was going to MT School. She put all of her chips on the MT part of the roulette wheel, and it hit.
Then life happened. D, who still wanted to go through with the rest of both NYC and Chicago Unifieds, comes downstairs the very morning of our flight to NYC with - you guessed it - severe laryngitis and a whopping fever. She could barely speak, and she certainly could not sing. Cancel? A fleeting thought, but our bags were packed, and we were ready to go. We were leaving on that jet plane, common sense be damned.
What a miserable experience NYC was. Tantalizing parent pitches from those schools, one better than the next. I want my kid to go there, no there, wait, that program seems perfect. The better each program seemed, the further away they were from ever being interested in my kid. She just didn’t - couldn’t - have it for them. She tried valiantly, my brave little singer. This wasn’t easy, this was downright grueling. She recovered a bit for Chicago Unifieds, good enough to perform at least, but changed up some music to be able to get through it. Still, so difficult. Unless you are at your best, and all things come together to deliver the magic moment, gaining a coveted spot was not going to happen.
The waiting, the anticipation, and the honest knowing that each communication by letter, by portal or by e-mail was likely to bring disappointing news. We were realists, certainly so by this point after seeing all of your kids out there. Damn they were good. Did you see those first 5 girls called to audition for CMU? They looked like the fricken’ Broadway Cast of Chicago, by gosh. They were all 6 feet tall and dancer’s legs straight up to their shoulders. D had no hope – not without her best stuff, and certainly not while feeling the way she did. I wanted to do that Superman thing and reverse the Earth’s rotation and roll back time for her. Unfortunately, I don’t have the physique for that kind of work. Only a glimmer of hope from Texas State who put her on the famous priority hold ‘cuz she wowed ‘em with an unrehearsed Aretha Franklin number. You could hear that from the street. Still, we were not holding our collective breaths, as that was easily her best audition moment in Chicago, but far from her best audition during the whole process. Ultimately all of the Unified answers came, and into the trash can they went.
Home, recover, recuperate, and thank our lucky stars that her first audition was good enough to get in. Chalk up the experience to, well, experience, and wait for the final rejections from the few schools who notify a bit later in this vicious cycle. She immersed herself into her final Senior play, and reset her outlook on life. We drank heavily.
Then the little portal from that pricey conservatory school in the Northeast decided to play with us a little bit. Well, with me actually, because I was the one who saw it first. You bet I had the secret passwords. There was a beautiful letter with blue and green logo colors on it, and some pretty nice feel-good words all in black that my daughter might want to read. I printed that sucker, got into my car, drove at break-neck speeds to interrupt the final rehearsal at her school, and….nothing. They were all gone. Rehearsal ended early. WHERE IN GOD’S NAME WAS MY DAUGHTER?!! Thankfully, Mom called having tracked her to the local coffee shop and sent me toward her. Off I went, at even faster than break-neck speeds with a now very worn letter in my hand. There she was, sipping her green-tea whatevertte peacefully with her bestest friends at her side. I go bounding through the door like - you guessed it – Superman – and I scream “YOU GOT INTO BOCO!!! YOU GOT INTO BOCO!!! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?!!!”
“Uh, yeah, sure. Mom just told me.”
[QUOTE=""]
Crickets<<
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Three smug High School kids, just sitting there and smiling back at me and at all of my awkward silliness, with those giddy little knowing grins, knowing that I was now likely to go off and kill my wife. Those girls did it to me yet again.
FINAL DECISION: Boston Conservatory, like, as if.
LESSONS:
-
Don’t trust your wife.
-
Get a coach.
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Have a kid with so much talent that she actually realizes her dream despite your well founded fears that you are an unfit father, totally incapable of getting her to dance enough, act enough, or sing well enough while she’s deathly ill.
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Be lucky. Point Park and BoCo auditions were not at Unifieds. Both were done before any acceptances were known. Both were done while she was hungry for it, had energy, and had her edge.
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Don’t be intimidated by those Cast of Chicago type auditionees, though you should be. They were gooooood.
Congrats to you @DaddyDoRite - your retelling of your journey made me laugh!!!
LOVE it, @DadddyDoRite! Sounds to me like everything went just right! Congrats to your awesome D!
OMG this is by far one of the best background posts I have read - mainly because it made me LAUGH instead of CRY! Thank you for sharing - congrats to your daughter!
That was awesome–so funny and realistic! Thanks for the lightheartedness, and congrats to your D!
Love this
@DaddyDoRite, if your D has inherited just a wee bit of your sense of humor, I think she will be great friends with my crazy D at BoCo. I hope we cross paths in August! Congratulations to you and D!
@Bogeyw our D is headed to BoCo too! It’s gonna be a great year. See you all there in August!
I wasn’t going to do one of these. But it seemed fun. So.
Applied (10) - Hofstra BA Drama, Penn State, Otterbein, Ithaca, Michigan, Elon, UArts, Point Park, Montclair, AMDA.
Withdrew (2) - Montclair, AMDA.
Walk-in (1) - Utah
Prescreens (5) - Michigan, Ithaca, Elon, Penn State, Otterbein. (Passed all, to great surprise.)
Rejections (4) - Ithaca, Michigan, Penn State, Elon.
Waitlist (1) - Otterbein.
Acceptances (4) - Utah BFA MT, UArts BFA MT, Point Park BFA Acting, Hofstra BA Drama.
Final decision (1… obviously) - UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS!!!
Coach - none.
Voice - just under a year
Acting - high school drama class
Dance - seven years, ballet, jazz, acro, modern, lyrical, contemporary.
Summer program: I work. I did a local show. No fancy Interlochen or MPulse or anything.
At the beginning of this year my voice teacher very kindly tried to mentally prepare me to not get into any schools. I had never had voice lessons and no one thought I was ready. But my parents and I figured, we’ll try it out and if she gets in nowhere then we’ll just wait another year. Flash forward to February and I’m waitlisted for Otterbein, have three great BFA acceptances, and (less of a big deal) won both my ballad and uptempo classes in our local musical theatre festival and am missing my prom to go to provincials. I improved so much this year and it’s a shame the schools couldn’t have seen that progression - they only see what you can do in the five minutes that you’re in their room. It’s also a shame I improved so much AFTER auditions!!! But anyway:
Best moment of the process: Stepping into downtown Chicago for the first time. I had never been to the States before and Chicago is exactly my kind of city. It felt glorious. I was in love. Also: getting accepted to UArts. I had already been accepted to Utah but UArts was my second favourite audition behind Otterbein, so getting in was a great moment for me!
Biggest heartbreak: Getting that close to Otterbein and then getting rejected two days before decision day sucked. They have an amazing program and I just felt like I was so close. Plus they kept commenting on how much they liked my dancing. I am the “fat girl” (not fat for a regular person but for a dancer) at an intense competitive studio and even my parents don’t actually think I’m that good at it. Needless to say, it hurt when I finally got a no from Otterbein. Lesson learned: don’t fall in love with a program until you’re accepted!
Other lessons learned:
- Apply to more schools. I can name at least six more I would have auditioned for. I think fifteen is a good number but it depends on the person. I wish I had shot for more. Also I wish I had applied to a couple in Canada.
- You don’t necessarily need a coach to be successful.
- It really doesn’t hurt to be in the Facebook group (the 2020 group is called The Troupe, in case y’all were wondering). Network! I am Facebook friends with many of the people I met in auditions. One is headed off to CCM, one to western Michigan, one to Wagner, even one to Catholic. And I just saw Michigan’s collage - I met one of the accepted girls at the dance call in Chicago! You never know who you’ll run into in the future.
- You can never have too many pieces. I had three monologues and four songs and I wish I had had more. Four songs per era - two uptempo and two ballad. Also a pop song.
Process:
Chicago was amazing. All the kids I met were freakishly talented. It was scary. The trip brought me much closer to my mother. We got deep dish pizza and that was glorious. I fell very behind in school and may or may not have failed a math test, which never happens to me. And I missed a lot of rehearsal for my school show, where I’m playing the lead. Director wouldn’t have me doing campus visits in another country when he needs me for his high school musical. (I know. This show is way more important than the next four years of life.) Anyway, by March I was back on honor roll and stuff. That was pretty cool. And then acceptances started to roll in and I felt much better.
The decision:
University of the Arts is perfect for me. I knew when I got out of the audition that I would be super happy there. I also kind of figured I would get in. I did an aerial (cartwheel with no hands) in a dress. I felt great about my audition. Philadelphia is a great city for me. I even have roommates now! (Shoutout to @MTVT2015 who is one of them!) I think the new director of the program, Joanna Settle, is fantastic and will do great things for it. And I love the proximity to New York. I have never been and want to go sometime this year. Mostly I know UArts will give me what I need and I’ll have the time of my life.
This is going to be super fun.
Anyway, I’m pumped to write my exams and graduate for real and start doing what I love religiously in an amazing city with amazing roommates and an AMAZING program!
Yay @theimmortalfish!!! I loved reading this and I am so glad you posted! You know I am already planning NYC trips 
I was also one of those people who prepared to get into 0 schools (because I don’t have a naturally fantastic voice and singing is really hard for me despite years of lessons). Worrying that you’re “not competitive” can be really scary. But it does make the acceptances feel 10 times better! This year I learned that in every area of life but especially MT, talent matters much, much less than willingness to prepare and do the work.
@theimmortalfish - so glad you took the time to post this. Any dream really WILL do - coach or no coach. You got grit, girl. Congratulations and welcome to the States!
Thank you @mom4bwayboy and @MTVT2015 I look forward to our NY trips! Nice to hear that I’m not the only one who had actual nightmares about across the board rejection. 
way to prove people wrong!
Where did the sharing / venting thread go?
Yay @theimmortalfish! From one Canadian to another, welcome to the wonderful world of studying in the States If you PM me, I can add you to a Facebook group that caters to international students studying theatre in the US. We talk about weird logistics stuff we have to deal with (what cell phone plans to get, the best way to get a social security number, how to work summer stock jobs on a student visa, how to take your OPT after graduation)…the fun really never ends, haha.
@theimmortalfish, congratulations. I urge you and also MTVT2015 to reach out to MichaelNKat via PM with any questions about UArts. His daughter is a grad and he lives in Philly. He has generously shared his knowledge here on CC for several years, although is less active now that his daughter is out in the working world. Philly is a great theatre town and UArts is a good school. I’m involved with a theatre company in Toronto and one of the actors we’ve used for several of our shows is a UArts grad who is very, very talented.
Wishing lots of good luck for you in the coming years. As a Canadian, you are going to face many more challenges than the American kids in booking work in the U.S., in this already challenging field, so seek advice when you need to and accept advice and assistance when offered from various reliable sources.