<p>Just out of curiosity, and sorry if there is already a thread that has been posted in the past about this, but when it comes to MT auditions, and even auditions for Acting programs, how saturated are the audition pools when it comes to a comparison between males and females?</p>
<p>Estimates vary by school, but I’ve heard numbers ranging from 60-75% female candidates. That being said, many of the male candidates are highly trained and competitive, unlike some school and community theatre productions when being male is enough to be cast, regardless of skill level, so being male is not a golden ticket into colleges.</p>
<p>I have seen the same range of numbers that MusThCC is quoting. I agree that while male applicants are in no way guaranteed admission to any program, overall they do have a better chance of being admitted than female applicants as many programs balance their admissions with an equal number of male/female applicants, and there are just fewer male apps out there. I would also say that males who can dance have a better chance of admission. I also believe from what I have seen, that many programs tend to give more scholarships of a higher amount to their male students. I don’t have any stats to back this up, however maybe someone else out there does???</p>
<p>i don’t have stats to back it up either, but it would make sense that the majority of scholarship $ would be spent to sweeten the pot and attract the best male prospects, simply because there are less of them, and they will likely have more choices/offers</p>
<p>Yes, D and I have observed a large number of well-endowed females (and NOT only in the chest sense) seeming to be included in certain classes, possibly to help foot the bill for the males’ tuition. Also, many top programs do admit more males than females.</p>
<p>There are so many insanely-talented females available to programs that it’s almost hard to fault them for selecting only the prettiest and best able to pay full tuition.</p>
<p>OTOH, this is pure conjecture on our part so YMMV. ;-D</p>
<p>all of those things definitely make sense. I was just curious for people who went to audition days and also for people who went to unifieds if there was a really obvious lopsidedness in the gender ratio. Even just from walking around for example.</p>
<p>ctdk0523 - D did LA Unifieds in 2010 and there were more than twice as many girls as guys.</p>
<p>Oh yes at Unifieds/NYC it was overwhelmingly female and adorable.</p>
<p>… overwhelmingly female and adorable. </p>
<p>Yes, I must say that D has the most GORGEOUS (and of course talented) group of girlfriends one could possibly imagine! ;-D</p>
<p>yes- we also did Unifieds/LA in 2008 and 2010 (my D ended up transferring so we were lucky enough to go thru all of this TWICE! lol). Very obvious that there was an abundance of girls vs. not-so-many boys. And of course all of the girls are adorable and talented… My son used to do a lot of theater but gave it all up for sports. We keep telling him that he really ought to give it another try as that is where all the girls are!</p>
<p>We have a friend who applied to a school NOT as a Theatre major at all, (It was either Business or Engineering, I think), but saw that the school offered a theatre scholarship. Applied via dvd and was given an $8k scholarship even though he made it clear he is NOT going to be a Drama major!!!</p>
<p>And Takeitallin, we have an adult friend who did just that. Looked around in both High School and College, said, “Hey, this is not just where the girls are, but where the HOT girls are!” and had a very good time in both HS and college!!</p>
<p>I know a talented guy who went to a non-MT school for business…and the theatre department gave him a big fat scholarship provided he appear in their productions. And he was fabulous.</p>
<p>Boys have an enormous advantage when it comes to this field…whether for college or actual jobs in the “real world”! </p>
<p>On our University of Michigan week end, i counted 17 boys and 57 girls…that was non-scientific and i may have missed some on either side, but my guess is it was in the ballpark! That’s not to say that the boys who do get in to schools/get cast in shows aren’t normally quite talented, it just means they are competing with fewer other boys for the spots available. My guess is that most of the talented boys will get at least one offer, some of the very talented girls may not get any.</p>
<p>I had an interesting conversation with the Mom of a boy at Chicago Unifieds. She essentially told me that she was almost embarrassed by the attention her son got at auditions. He is tall, very good looking and can sing pretty well(though “not amazingly” were her words)…he was getting accepted on the spot in many cases and being offered scholarships at almost every school he auditioned for. I understand that completely. You need boys to do shows…and tall good-looking ones who can sing, are at a premium. </p>
<p>My girlfriend and i have been joking that it would be interesting to convince our “tall- good-looking -sons -who -can -sing -pretty -well”, who are currently several years away from college and who don’t have any real interest in this field, TO AUDITION…just to see if they would fare any better than our “very-talented -very-adorable-very-passionate daughters”! Of course that is just a joke…but it would certainly be interesting.</p>
<p>After having lived through the process (though still waiting for a couple of responses), what i can say is that whether you are a girl or a boy, the audition process is what you make it…we enjoyed every second of the process together. My daughter has lived through some big disappointments and had some nice surprised along the way…very much what real life is like, whatever field you choose to be employed in.</p>
<p>This is a recent post from Paul Russell Casting on Facebook:
</p>
<p>That’s the real world.</p>
<p>I tried to convince our D to audition in drag, but unfortunately she was having none of it. She’d make a kickin’ tenor! ;-D</p>
<p>Possibly the most talented MT male (and tall and very handsome) D has ever known auditioned this year… for ONE school… and of course got in, while being pursued by several schools he didn’t even apply to.</p>
<p>During his audition (on campus) they apparently kept him, alone, for over an hour and had him sing through his entire book… because “we could just sit here and enjoy your singing all day”.</p>
<p>My son is an Irish Dancer and reeped many benefits of being a boy in a mostly girls sport! Some guys just know how to find the girls :)</p>
<p>Without doubt, there were more females than males auditioning. If the spots are 50/50 or even 60/40 in favor of the girls, the odds are statistically against them. As to the quality of the males vs females, I cannot tell you. One hears opinions, but how true it is, I don’t know. I saw plenty of very handsome males, gorgeous girls, enough to fill the roster of even the largest MT programs at my son’s auditions, so I find it hard to believe that there is a dearth of talented, tall, handsome males for the spots. As for talent, the little glimpses I saw, showed a amazing abundance of talent. Very competitive field with a lot of very competitive kids.</p>
<p>I was told at one school that they won’t be putting on West Side Story anytime soon . . . about 75/25 female!</p>
<p>Of course out here in east Texas where the men are men, (eyes rolling) in our little local productions, the requirements for a male to be cast consist mainly of a) they showed up at the audition b) they are breathing c) they are within two decades of the age range. One with actual talent is a rock star.</p>
<p>Same with dancers. There is a boy about 5 years older than my daughter who, along with his sister, went to our dance studio, and as soon as he was old enough he was in the community ballet Nutcracker, every year for several years. He is good looking, very smart, and a decent enough dancer; he was interviewed by the paper one year and they asked him how it was to, er, be involved in, you know…<em>dance</em>…maybe not such a MASCULINE sort of activity if you catch our drift…he laughed and said he was surrounded by BEAUTIFUL girls in tights all day long and he absolutely adored dance.</p>
<p>He then went on to get a full ride at a good school intending to be pre med and then changed his mind and joined the Marines. lol. The dahnsing Mahrine.</p>
<p>He is still a huge celebrity when he comes home and every girl in our studio claims him as a big brother. Looking back I wish I’d put my son in dance too; he has musical talent and is fairly graceful, I bet he’d have liked it. He probably could have acted if he wanted, he can mimic and do really good impressions but it wasn’t anything that ever occurred to him.</p>
<p>He’s going for nursing now but I think I might suggest he try out for one of the plays some time, just because I think it’s a great experience for a guy.</p>
<p>Hmmm… we also have a tall, handsome S with amazing musical abilities, plus he’s got some great soccer moves. Maybe we can press him into theatre service, so he can gun for those full ride MT scholarships. ;-D</p>