<p>Woo Hoo! S finalized his audition songs, one weight lifted. And I can tell he absolutely loves them. Sometimes he seems too wise for his 17 years, I find this in several of his MT friends they just seem mature or something. He said "Mom I do not want to look back on these auditons and wish I would've went with my gut. These songs move me, I love the shows they are from and they are a good fit for my voice" enough said... Sheet music purchased, now they are off to his music teacher to help select and mark the required bars. </p>
<p>So 3 applications of 10 submitted, songs selected...monologues...meh...still a work in progress.</p>
<p>If ONE person would have told him to start reading more plays last year he'd be much further along, I wish I found this site sooner. But...he'll continue to work on apps, rehearse his songs and read plays. We had a goal to have all apps and prescreenings in by the end of September.</p>
<p>MTMajorCook congrats on your S getting his songs picked, that’s the hardest part for me right now! At first I thought the monologues were going to give me the most trouble, but ironically enough they were a piece of cake. Looking back they seemed to almost fall into my lap with how easy they were. </p>
<p>The songs on the other hand are proving to be quite tricky. I thought I had those picked out as well but the contemporary one does not cut as perfectly into 16 as it does 32. Now it has me frazzled over whether I should do a separate song or not for the 16 schools or work out a good cut in the original song. Ugh, wish it was easier!</p>
<p>Congratulations on having songs selected. That’s an area I mostly stay out of. D and voice teacher are working on that. I’ve just been making sure that she has covered a number of genres, but I have NO clue what the songs up for consideration are. Kudos to your S for singing what he loves!</p>
<p>So far 1 college application in out of I think 12. More will go in soon. Monologues are picked and one has already been used for an audition for the fall play at school–very well received. Now to put her back in dance so she can get back to ballet training for dance auditions. There was never time for lessons with her doing so many shows!</p>
<p>Last week I thought my son had his selections, but he is re-thinking his choices. He has a few applications in, but school doesn’t begin until Wednesday, so he must wait to notify his guidance dept about transcripts needing to be sent, and to check in with his recommenders. His Common App. essay is almost in its final draft, but he will have his Junior year English teacher do the final review.
My son chooses his material, but I have directed him to some possibilities in the song area. My contribution to the monologue search is buying plays through Amazon, sooo glad I have Amazon Prime!</p>
<p>Well…FutureMillie he is now a bit frazzled as well over the same type of issue, I spoke too soon. </p>
<p>I am pretty disappointed with his vocal coach, I’m hoping the reason we haven’t heard much from her is because she sent her own son off to NYU 2 weeks ago and the performing arts school has been on summer break the last 3 weeks. HOWEVER at the beginning of the summer season I requested he start working on college auditions. So as much as I didn’t think I would be involved in song choices I helped him find some not so popular pieces, after that it was up to him. </p>
<p>Dance starts for S tomorrow, he dances 3 to 4 hours a day. He may have to modify that schedule until he’s completely ready for auditions. </p>
<p>Time is not his friend right now. He’s also in a group of teenagers that perform a broadway style show at nursing homes, festivals, hospitals etc. There are 3 shows left for the summer season (2 today) and winter rehearsals started yesterday. He pretty good with having so much on his plate but this is so important I can see he’s starting to stress over it…welcome to adulthood LOL.</p>
<p>MTMajorCook-I remember that feeling last year. You and he will come through it just fine. I left all the artistic decisions to my D(that is not my forte)and I helped with all the paperwork. Much of the application process is just repetitive info so I would type that in. She would write the essays in between classes and rehearsals, fine tune them then I would type it out and have her proof read everything again. I put the calendar together for her auditions of course with her telling me which schools were okay to be first and which she wanted later. She left every morning at 7am and on her early nights was home by 9pm, once show rehearsals started many nights were at 11. They are so used to this craziness it all works with only minor meltdowns. With all the craziness we only had 1 major conflict due to the choir teacher adding in a performance.</p>
<p>She’s 2 weeks into college and already managing classes, work and rehearsals. Last year of juggling a crazy schedule definitely helped her to juggle this year. The upside is dance and voice lessons are no longer extra curricular and work is on campus so as long as she keeps on top of it she will be fine. This crazy year helps them prep for college life.</p>
<p>FutureMillie6 - keep your 2 songs and add a third for any programs, like Michigan, who insist that 16-bars means 16-bars, not 17 or 18… It will be to your benefit to have an extra song or two prepared.</p>
<p>do-what-u-luv, I think that’s most likely what I’m going to do. I really love my two original songs so they will be great for the 32 schools. I think I may choose another contemporary song that cuts well into 16 for those schools, but I’m going to try and work on the original song. Also thanks! You’ve also made me decide to add a back up Golden Age too just incase. I guess it’s better to over prepare than under prepare for sure!</p>
<p>Slightly off topic, my son’s acting coach mentioned to me that the Addams Family musical is full of character songs that are great for actors. We weren’t talking about college auditions at the time, but I thought I’d pass that along if anyone is looking for ideas.</p>
<p>Well, D is relieved to have two of her songs picked…both 16 and 32 bar cuts. She is waffling now over what the 3rd one will be…and also what to have on hand in her “book” if needed. Her dramatic monologue has been chosen-and she is down to two for her comedic. Monologues have been the difficult choice-but at least she seems to have turned the corner!</p>
<p>Two apps have been sent out, the common app essay started, and the YoungArts process started as well. I have noticed not only more going to the prescreen, but the number of audition dates being reduced as well. This is already causing us to pull our hair out. There is not going to be a way to get to all these campuses, and some tough decisions will have to be made. We were counting on doing a November audition at University of Central Fl, which is very close to home, and they are not having any on campus auditions until Jan. this year. It seems that many of my daughter favorites have only on campus auditions.
Now if she doesn’t make it through the prescreen process, some of these decisions will be moot. For now, we are taking deep breaths and plodding through the process one step at a time!</p>
<p>My D has been working her audition songs for a while now and has just finalized her monologues. Apps have been started, but nothing submitted yet.</p>
<p>I don’t see her being ready for her pre-screens until October. Will this be a problem with booking audition dates if she passes the prescreen? I sure hope not!</p>
<p>Frazzled I’m with you on the scheduling. It looks like less dates and then all are on the same exact dates. I have a carefully crafted tentative schedule that will go right out the window if it all doesn’t fall in place…ahahha. 3 of his 10 require prescreening so adjustment may be made after that. He’s very nicely reminded his guidance counsler of his attended major (we’ve probably had 3 MT majors in the last 10 years come from our high school) and that appying early is everything to him so he gets a choice of audition dates, so hopefully the school is mindful of all that and sends transcripts etc. in promptly.</p>
<p>LoveMyMT - I’m not sure he’ll be ready either. I think he’ll have his songs down and the dance portion but I’m not sure the monologues will be ready. He is very deadline driven so I’m sticking firm with my “you should be ready by the end of this month” knowing this will drive him…but he’s not a miracle worker either lol.</p>
<p>He had a long conversation with a popular director of some of our local high school musicals. I could see the sense of relief rush through him as the director complemented him on song choice and assured him he’d help find just the right monologue.</p>
<p>We will all laugh about this come April right?</p>
<p>MTMajorCook- April will be the second visit and decision stress but once the decision is made and they are happy-the stress will be off and you will look back and laugh.</p>
<p>Just FYI, some of the schools go a week or so into April with their decision-making, and then there’s the wait list wait which can prolong things into May. But it does end eventually.</p>
<p>Addams Family does have some good character songs but many of them would not be age appropriate for college auditions. Remember that most schools want to see you sing something where you look close to the age the character is supposed to be in the show.</p>
<p>It sounds as if you are all in great shape. I don’t recall the lack of a transcript will prevent scheduling an audition. Everyone definitely should have at least one “oldie” prepared, and it is not a bad idea to be able to burst into a current pop song if asked. </p>
<p>I’m pretty sure I won’t feel stress free until D has been moved into the school that she chose. Oh how she and I wish today was 9/3/14!!! But it’s not, so let the games begin!!!</p>
<p>I’ve scheduled some auditions, pending guidance counselor approval to start sending out applications, scheduled a headshot session, and started mapping out travel plans.I’ve chosen all my songs and most of my monologues, just have to sift through some classical choices. All of your kids are so fortunate to have parents so willing to be involved in this process- I’m in this on my own, but here’s hoping my guidance counselor will be of help when I start school again (somehow I doubt it- there hasn’t been a MT major from my high school in at least 8 years…)</p>