Thanks everyone! We are so happy and excited.
One edit I couldn’t make once I posted – I said all programs were BFA MT except Muhlenberg but of course Baldwin Wallace’s was a BM, not a BFA.
Oh my gosh, so many great stories this week! Congrats to @DramaLove2020 , @TheatreDad69 , @rickle1 , @dramamama3 , @MommaCat , @BrennaK and @Dance3Looks3 ! I have so enjoyed reading your stories: it’s wonderful to see all the different paths! Wishing your talented D’s and S’s great success as they embark on their new and exciting college adventures!
If I’ve learned anything from everyone here, it’s that there is no one “best” option or “best” program. I sincerely hope every student finds their perfect fit and gets the training they need to make their own mark on this industry.
Congratulations @BrennaK! You are one dedicated mother. I can’t fathom doing this three times.
Congratulations to @Dance3Looks3 as well! As the parent of a food-allergic child (not my MT kid), I shudder at the thought of adding that consideration on top of the MT craziness. I’d be curious to pick your your brain on how to work that into the search process.
Congrats @BrennaK - Wow! Three years of this! I also have an MT son who at 13 has done over about 30 shows since he was 6 and is now starting to divert to do other things and I have to say, I am not super sad about that! I cannot imagine going through this again. Mine are farther apart so I will get a break but definite kudos to you on navigating this process and enduring all of this 3 times!
@Dance3Looks3 - Congratulations!! Utah is one of our finalists as well!! Maybe our girls will be class mates!
@ElizaDoolittle honestly, I never even thought I had to think about the food allergy thing or the smoking on campus thing – to me in NY, these are just givens. I suspect most larger schools have options. FSC is small and their dining hall is more like a school cafeteria that offers one meal option each day. They do provide refrigerators and microwaves in each residence hall room, but she would have had to be more vigilant than she wants to be in the dining hall.
@Ontheverge let me know for sure if so – my daughter will be excited to welcome yours into the group chats she’s in if she’s not already engaged there. 
@dance3looks3 I will let you know when we know…she is still sort of on the fence but is definitely in group chats with the Utah gang…so they are probably already talking. She is just not quite ready to commit. She is still attending virtual classes and virtual student events at a couple of other schools just to be certain and will surely take her sweet time about it until 11:59 on April 30 
Have you joined the Utah Parent’s group? It is chock full of information!
@ElizaDoolittle @Dance3Looks3 Both of my Ds have multiple severe food allergies. When my eldest, an athlete, was being recruited we talked to every food service manager to get an idea of how she could be accommodated. We definitely took that into consideration before she committed. Surprisingly, the smallest LAC was the most thoughtful in ensuring kids with food allergies were taken care of. This year I discovered my youngest was not eating breakfast at NYU because “eggs were everywhere.” She eventually talked to cafe manager and they started making her breakfast and delivered it to her table directly. Each school we talked to was different, but each made an effort to accommodate. Best of luck.
Thanks, @yellahamma, I appreciate the input. Still a few years before I really have to worry about, but good things to know.
@Ontheverge I don’t know about this parent group but would love to be pointed in the right direction for it! I’m sending you a message! Thank you!
It’s encouraging to hear that schools are accommodating of food allergies. Everywhere she’s ever gone has been fabulous (camps, summer intensives, etc.) and maybe I became wrongly complacent in the college search because I assumed every place just took care of it. Her severe allergy is an easy one to avoid, but the others are harder.
@Ontheverge @Dance3Looks3 One of my students is leaning toward Utah MT! I tagged her mom here - I am sure she would love to chat!! (And find out about the Utah parent group??) @MissyNNT
Let me tell you, I had no idea we would end up where we ended up, but what a journey it has been! For
the late-starters in the theatre/MT world, I submit my entry for a prize! I think other themes for our
experience could be, “trust the process” and “that escalated quickly.”
Programs Applied to:
BOCO, Elon, Michigan, TXST, CCM, CMU, Ithaca, Shenandoah MT, Pt Park MT/Acting, BW MT, UofA
MT/Acting, Cap21/Molloy MT, Ball State MT, Montclair State MT/Acting, Missouri State MT/Acting, Marymount MT, Pace MT/Acting (all 3), Northern CO MT, UNC Greensboro, Minnesota Guthrie, UNCSA, CSUF, SDST
Prescreens passed: Pt Park, Shenandoah, UNCG, Marymount (required for regional audition)
Walk-Ins: Ohio U Acting, Ohio Northern MT, Oklahoma City Acting, SCAD, Viterbo,
Withdrew: didn’t submit an app for SCAD, didn’t audition for CSUF Acting, didn’t submit Viterbo after
audition
Wait-listed at: Northern CO MT, Pace FTVC
Artistically Accepted to:
Montclair State MT, Missouri State Acting, Ohio U Acting, Ohio Northern MT, UNC Greensboro MT
emphasis, Oklahoma City Acting, UNCSA, Cap 21/Molloy MT, Pt Park Theatre Arts, SDST Acting (BA
Emphasis in Performance, Acting)
Coach: MTCA, we LOVE our coaches and the support we got at Unifieds and beyond was invaluable.
Summer Programs: TPAP Panorama
Background:
My D started dancing at age 2, competing at age 4. There’s a highly competitive dance studio every 5 miles around here. Somehow, she has danced for 15 years of her young life! We just kind of got sucked in. She showed early interest in theatre, having fun doing her annual class play (elementary school lol). I tried finding some community theatre, vocal or choir opportunities, but they were hard to find, and what we did find was just ok quality-wise and difficult to balance with her already heavy dance schedule. My D is a fantastic performer. People often stop us and say they were drawn to watching her because she’s very expressive. She feels deeply, and it comes through in all of her art. She also sprouted a love for drawing in middle school, and emotions/ expressions are very clear in her drawings as well. We were sure she was destined for some sort of creative career - she wasn’t going to be a desk job type of person.
She has always loved musicals, but she became obsessed in high school. She wanted vocal lessons but we didn’t have any free time or money leftover from all her dance (she was on the high school varsity dance team and studio team) and hadn’t auditioned for the school musical due to schedule conflicts, so she found tutorials on vocal tech via YouTube and practiced on her own, starting Sophomore year. After some time, I realized she was really serious, so I started looking for opportunities for her summer before Junior year. She did a local five-day summer MT program and loved every minute of it, and she said she didn’t want it to end. We both saw it as an excellent test to see what this all meant. It was one of the first times she had to sing alone, in front of others (besides family karaoke or performances in elementary school), first time doing improv or any acting training. It was scary but she loved it all. For her junior year, she shifted her priorities. Instead of going back to the school dance team, she auditioned for show choir. I started trying to figure out what she might do for college and started reading CC - you know the saga post and a year’s worth (or two) of final decisions and said OMG, no way. That is too intense. She can do a BA at a LAC, do theatre on the side and keep growing in undergrad and find her way through that path if that is what she wants.
Towards the middle of junior year she auditioned for the spring school musical and was cast in a
role where she was onstage most of the show, sang with the leads, had a line or two, and she was over the moon. She still competed in dance with her studio, so her days were full between the musical, show choir, and studio dance comp. The best thing I did that winter was to have her apply for summer programs. It gave us a taste for the application process, finding monologues and songs, submitting auditions, and using Get Accepted. We did an iphone portrait mode head shot, found monologues online and used a Thoroughly Modern Millie song (what did we know – nothing!). She was accepted to the BOCO MTDI and TPAP. She chose TPAP. Her old high school is a very competitive, suburban district, very focused on academics. It was clear she would not get what she needed there, so she auditioned for a performing arts high school to transfer her senior year. Somewhere amid all this (about April), we pulled the trigger and started working with MTCA. That summer, TPAP was just what she needed to grow as an artist and help her feel confident in her path. I can’t say enough good things about that program, the staff/teachers and students are wonderful.
When she got home from TPAP we dove into apps. We work well as a team. We broke everything
down into reasonable chunks to work each weekend. No complaining was allowed (from either of us). I gave up anything extra, especially on weekends, until after auditions. She worked on her pieces. She was literally starting from scratch. She had no song book and had never done Shakespeare, but had to learn that well enough for prescreens, in addition to her songs and other monologues. The “what else do you have” part would have to wait for after prescreens! We got applications and prescreens in early (first week of October.) The responses came pretty quickly; it was a lot of no’s. It was expected but still very hard. She was going to a new school, was just starting to make friends there, wasn’t competing in dance (for the first time in 12 years!) – almost everything had changed. It was very emotional. When we decided to go this path, we knew it was a big gamble and were prepared to take a gap year as a very likely scenario, or figure out her own way forward (go to school locally, find training, do local theatre etc). We knew she was a wild card applicant. With every no or other setback, she gained some insight
and motivated herself to work harder; her ability to see beyond the immediate disappointments helped me feel confident she would make it through this tough process and ultimately this career path. With the passes from Pt Park and Shenandoah, we breathed a sigh of relief, it was just the validation we needed that we weren’t completely delusional. But I did have those late-night “panic buying” moments and started looking around for more schools to add. I had seen a post from Moo re 15 auditions statistically amounts to 2 offers, and after the prescreen “No-pocalypse,” she had less than 15. She had made her original list wanting only MT programs. But when she got the passes for Pace Acting prescreens, we talked about wanting to expand her list. We looked for programs where they offer voice along with acting and allowed everyone to audition for musicals. Through her work with her monologue coach and conservatory classes, she was growing her love for acting. We added more schools to the list:
Guthrie, UNCSA, UNCG and most of the Acting programs where we already applied for MT were added
where we could (mostly added at Unifieds) – basically a full MT track and Acting track. Her MTCA mock
audition in November was invaluable. It helped her feel like she could do it. While she was still very nervous, she got the sense that she fit in the room and that she had strengths that helped her. She had two early auditions in January, BW and Marymount. These were super helpful for getting our system down – what to bring, her audition outfits, how early she needed to get up before audition times, etc.
Cont’d 1/2
Continued 2/2
At Chicago Unifieds, I scheduled UNCSA early Sunday morning, 8 am – it was her first for the week (we arrived Saturday). I wanted her to get there and get focused. Based on the research we did, I told her she should feel totally free in that audition – it’s an arts conservatory, and my daughter is an artist thru and thru. Eventually, the cut list came out and low and behold she made the cut. We were elated. When she came out the second time, she felt great. They were very open and receptive to what she offered, and she felt free to be herself. What more could we ask for? She had a dance call later that evening, which was stress free, so it was a great start to Unifieds. The next day was a total roller coaster. She had a wonderful audition in the morning, then a weird audition, where she came out crying. They gave her bizarre feedback, kept pressing her on it, and told her never to do her monologue again - yikes. That was a turning point. We talked about her different experiences, what they said, and realized it just
wasn’t a fit. She had chosen pieces she felt passionate about and speak to her as an artist and there
were those who would appreciate that. From that point on, she realized that she did have some power in the situation – that she was responsible for finding the fit with them as much as they were assessing her. After that, her attitude shifted, and she was more confident in realizing that this was a part of the process too, that she had a say and was more intent on asking questions about their culture, approach, etc. She walked from there to the PACE acting auditions. She composed herself, and went in. She made the cut there as well which helped affirm our conversation.
The rest of the week she had more great auditions, and some auditions where she didn’t feel
the fit – she took notes after each one. She loved Montclair. I know that is one audition people frequently complain about. I had even given her a heads up about what people had shared. She had the dance call first, early in the morning. She loved the combo; she could tell they were trying to assess different skills, and the MT and Acting directors were in the room watching and very engaged, which she appreciated. She also really connected with them during her audition. They saw her strengths and areas where she needed to grow and were supportive of that. We finished off Chicago, flew home, sent her outfits to the dry cleaner, repacked, and went to LA Unifieds 24 hours later. LA Unifieds were more laid back. We were both pretty pooped by then, so we didn’t add anything for the sake of it and kept her schedule pretty light. She then had a final weekend of on-campus auditions, UNCG and Shenandoah. I have to say, UNCG is a program we were genuinely impressed with. The campus is a good size, very diverse, the facilities are great – they have a performing arts dorm with practice space, new dance facilities, and a great dining hall. Dominick and Erin are absolutely wonderful, and several students said they were the reason they chose the program. The program is small (8 MT and 13-14 Acting) and this is just the 2nd year of the BFA MT program, they work with your student to customize their learning based on their strengths, interests and areas needed for growth. We loved all the students we had the chance
to meet as well.
Right after we wrapped auditions, she went to audition for her school’s spring shows. All her work for auditions really paid off, and she was cast in a play and got a lead in a musical for the spring season.
She went straight into 14-hour days and loved every minute of it. She held firmly onto the idea of not having any expectations or daring to dream about any specific program through the end. She had positive engagement with schools after auditions, and even then, she never got her hopes up. When she did start to get offers we shed a lot of tears of pent up stress and relief that she was going to get the opportunity to train – it was all she wanted. She felt very positive connections with every program she received an offer from, and had a hard time saying no thank you after meeting them and liking them so much (with the exception of a couple school directors she never met due to video or surrogates attending audition). As much as this process is extraordinarly involved, I have seen so much growth in
her as an artist and person. The essays forced her to think about who she is, what she’s endured, what she wants from life and her career. She’s comfortable having candid conversations with adults in
audition settings, and is familiar with so many approaches to training, geographies and focus areas in theatre. I’m so proud of her commitment and focus throughout the process. I admire her emotional intelligence and artistic intelligence and can’t wait to see her continue to grow and thrive over the next four years. I cried on the plane ride home from the last audition because it was the end of this intense time we’ve spent together and that it was likely she’d be off somewhere next year. Totally bittersweet.
Final Decision:
My D will be a Fighting Pickle, joining the 2024 BFA class at UNCSA! It’s such a perfect fit for her in every way. We didn’t have it on our original list because we were just looking at the big MT lists. If you told me a year ago she’d get into a program where she didn’t even dance in the audition I wouldn’t have believed you. I’m glad we kept an open mind and kept adapting at each step of the process. Plus, she grew so much in such a short time, we didn’t know she felt how she felt about acting until she was deeper into her intensive burst of training. My D has never fit into boxes, colored in the lines or fit squarely into a type and I think we found the perfect place for her to be exactly who she is and thrive.
Sending love and thanks to everyone who has and continues to contribute here. I learned SO MUCH from everyone’s stories and we absolutely could not have done this without all the stories and support here. Sending positive vibes to everyone in the Class of 2024, for movement on the waitlists and for the 2025 families in the wings!
1 Like
Congratulations @intheburbs ! For the record I totally agree with you about TPAP - it’s a wonderful place!
Wowza @intheburbs - what a unique and interesting journey! I am sure your D will adore UNCSA and they will help her make the most of her outstanding talent. Congratulations to her (and you) for a fantastic ending - and beginning!
@intheburbs great story! Love the details. Congrats on your awesome outcome!!
@intheburbs Wow! Super congrats on UNCSA! D auditioned on campus. It’s a great place. Amazing resources for Winston Salem. Tons of alums come back frequently.
@intheburbs Wow! Sounds like a perfect fit. Best wishes to your rising star in her training!
Congratulations @intheburbs ! Great story! Best of luck to your D!