Tickets are generally cheaper in Chicago, too, so you see more young people in the audience.
I always tell my D she doesn’t have to live in NYC to have a career! So many great cities for theatre!
Major film studios are also “discovering” our “cheap” towns - and often hire local talent to fill out the cast and crew.
I’d add Cleveland to that list. Columbus is not there yet, but it’s trying.
There was also an article recently all about how Philadelpia is a great place to be in theatre because actors/actresses can actually afford to live there (including sometimes buying a home) and it has a vibrant art scene.
So far- NYC has been GREAT for cheap tix for D. There are so many organizations for students and or last min choices (todaytix and tix4stduents are 2 she uses often), as well as lotteries. She hasn’t’ paid more than $40 for anything since she started last year- and it is often cheaper for her to see theater than to see a movie. Case in point- she saw Lea Salonga in Allegiance for $10 the night before she came home for thanksgiving.
Although this conversation has veered from its original intent, this is a great discussion and one that we should all be having on an ongoing basis with our kids. As they move toward adulthood, their priorities may change, but it’s good to talk about this so that their own internal dialogue can keep reminding them of their priorities. Let’s talk to our kids about what their professional goals are and what success looks like for them? Does success mean making it in NYC? Or does success mean working professionally regardless of geography? Does he/she want a family, house, etc, or is that not an interest? Of course, we’re not judging their choices, just helping them to hammer out what will work for them. I live about an hour’s train ride outside of NYC and know a few performers who live nearby in their own suburban homes with families and children. Some work more steadily than others, and all have a second income in their households to make enough money to cover their needs. That being said, I work in a public school and also need a two-income household, so not being a performer isn’t a guarantee of financial freedom either >:D<
This is important to talk about when the kids are deciding what to do after college, but it may also be important to talk about as they head into college. It can help them decide what they want. My oldest, who is a senior BFA insisted on a traditional campus experience because she knows she’ll likely live somewhere urban as a professional. My middle child, who is auditioning now, prefers a traditional campus for the same reason, but is open to a few urban schools knowing that it could help his transition to a profession and adulthood if he understands the urban theater scene.
We can wrap it back around to talk about financial aid by using this discussion to help our kids figure out what it means to have to pay back a student loan if they’re living in NYC vs. a smaller city environment (vs. living with us)!
I agree we’ve strayed off topic, but do think that before selecting a school (and shouldering the attendant costs) is exactly the right time to get serious about figuring out life goals and understanding how/if college expenses/debt might undermine them. I know our D clearly understood that by selecting an expensive college she was forgoing post-college parental support, and she felt that was the best choice for her (so far so good), but that might not be the preferred choice for others.
I also think it’s important to really understand what different schools mean by “aid” and recognize that for some schools that means loans while for others it means grants and scholarships.
Good advice but in a practical sense if your goal is for your student to be financially self sufficient post graduation this may not be the magical answer that turns off the support spigot either unless your student has their own nest egg.
It costs money to relocate even if you are lucky enough to couch surf with a friend for a while. It also takes time to find a new survival job and to establish contacts in the theatre world. Even if you move home for a while and your parents live in a hot theater market. While you were out earning your degree, guess who was back home getting the jump on establishing contacts and has become the go-to actor that is used again and again? The young actors that never left town and maybe never went to college and perhaps also came up through the theatre’s youth education program ranks as well as the students from any performing arts college or university within reasonable striking distance of the area. Sure there are newcomers that crack the code quickly (especially males which are often in demand). But at the other extreme if you are a Caucasian female that they have never worked with or maybe did years ago but they have forgotten, it may take a while before someone takes a chance on you especially for jobs that pay something anywhere near a living wage.
I’ve thought about this for our daughter. We actually do live in one of those hot regional theatre markets and we would certainly let her live at home to try to save money for a period of time. But the decent paying theatres hold season auditions here when she is not here because she lives on the opposite coast. So if she wanted to work here and live at home for at least a little while, who is going to pay for the cross country travel to/from these auditions which of course offer no guarantee of employment? Same question if she wanted to audition in Cleveland, or Chicago or any other regional market.
So echoing what @momcares is saying in post #66 above, it is indeed important to think about life goals and how/if college expenses and debt might undermine them. We also went the expensive college route so believe me, we want/need the party to be over. I don’t think that we were as clear in our thinking as momcares was with her daughter even though we sent the same message and thought we were clear about it at the time. There was a lot I didn’t understand four years ago including fully grasping how little these students earn in the summer as well as how little time they have for part time work while in school. Hence I am now struggling with the reality of the situation and trying to figure out what to do if the worst happens and she just can’t make it. Which keeps bringing me back to the question of what is the difference between the day before graduation and the day after? Are we looking at a runway leading to take off or is she jumping off a cliff with or without a parachute?
@halflokum - As you know, our D has had several lucky accidents that helped her launch pre-graduation, but I do think her non-theatre student jobs (both work study and a higher-paying job off campus) during the years before she started doing steady paid theatre work her Senior year served several important purposes. First, they kept her from spending down the small nest egg she started college with, which helped her pay for a couple months off this summer to travel (we gave her a round trip ticket as a grad gift but she paid for everything else). Second, they let her experience different types of work and realize she was capable of earning $ even if no one cast her, and that there were aspects of each job she actually enjoyed. Third, there is nothing like a Telemarketing job (good pay) to light a fire under an actor to drum up theatre work… haha!
So far she has found that by staying in her current city, not being tied to a lease so she can occasionally couch serf in the not-unusual weeks between contracts and seeking out sublets (so far all with friends) within her budget based on what she’s paid each contract (so far all Equity-level contracts) she has been able to save a surprising amount of $ while still occasionally paying to fly herself to NY for callbacks. She has so far been able to do initial submissions by film and usually only flies for second callbacks or if a theatre pays her travel, but I think she would also pay to travel for a significant General audition at a Theatre she really wanted to work for.
All of this is still fairly new to her (she only graduated this June but has had steady contracts since a year ago July), and I suspect that before long she will want a less transient living situation, so a year from now I may have a very different story.
I can’t imagine that anyone here judges anyone else’s choices, since every family’s finances, values, priorities and kids are so different, not to mention that we all know how very difficult it is for actors to cobble together a living. All I know for certain is that our kids are very lucky to have parents who are as interested as CC parents are in helping them to launch successfully!
I think that paying for travel to a very promising audition would be one of the ways we would be happy to help our S, if he needed it. (I bought his ticket to Boston for NETC last year, for instance, though I’m not sure I would spend $400 on THAT again.) I also think that people in their early 20s are pretty connected and willing to lend a couch to friends who are in town for a day or a week. If your daughter wanted to be in Chicago or LA or Philly for an audition, it’s hard to believe she couldn’t find a place to stay among her Tisch contacts, especially if she was willing to reciprocate in NYC (the most expensive city of all to find a hotel room, IMHO).
I think I inadvertently coined a new term in Post #68…
Couch Serf - One who is bound to friends who own a couch, as part of the theatrical feudal system.
^^ Love it!
This made my day!
My terrible spelling, coupled with extremely poor typing, is a constant source of entertainment for myself and those around me. These are only two of the many services I offer. 
Spelling, schmelling. “Terrible” spelling often correlates with brilliance in other areas - especially creative ones. You have coined a new term that has “perfect” meaning, at least to those of us on CC’s MT forum (who may ALSO be spelling challenged). This dude named Shakespeare is credited with coining hundreds of “new” terms and phrases still in use - with all their lovely shades of meaning. He was known to spell words in different ways within a single manuscript. Spelling errors = genius? If we text “couch serf” to our children, and they text two friends, and they text two friends, and so on - you could be credited with a new entry in the English lexicon.
Haha… maybe with the extensive revenue from this newly-trademarked term I can someday buy my favorite serf a couch of her very own!
Back to the OT… are there any countries that provide free education to promising young MTs, or would it have to be an Olympic sport for that to happen?
Haven’t you heard of the budding MT industry in Norway?
Huh. That was supposed to be a joke and I was about to post it but then I found this: http://musikkteaterhoyskolen.no/
The joke is on me.
Nice! I also feel that Paris holds endless promise for good MT, so if someone would like to start producing shows there I can recommend a willing employee and a bonus audience member…
So if you’re an almost 6’3" male, would it be more advantageous to be an MT “shorty” in Norway? Or a “giant” in Paris? Hmmm. . .
@haflokum I’m almost certain that’s the school that Shenandoah sent some of its juniors earlier this year and some of their students were at Shenandoah for a couple of weeks. A few of them were in the spring semester musical.