<p>The thread's title is the short question...here's the longer! My daughter trained for many years in classical ballet -- did the summer intensive programs, got to a very high level with the school attached to the local professional ballet company...did her high school's spring musical...and had an "aha!" moment -- she loves the stage (clear from the zillions of "Nutcracker" ballet performances her dad and I have sat through), but wants to do more than just ballet...hence her decision to concentrate more on musical theatre.</p>
<p>She started voice lessons this summer, and is getting good feedback. She has an opportunity to be involved with a musical theatre intensive program through our local university's "prep" program -- she can have MT dance, voice, acting, her private voice lesson and still take enough high-level ballet classes to keep her skills up. She's very excited about this program (audition's in less than a month...). She will have some opportunities to audition (and hopefully be involved) with her high school's shows, but during the school year itself, won't really have time for additional regional or community theatre work. Is a "get your feet wet" training like the one I've described a good way to "try out" MT training? Are there other resources people would recommend? What about summer intensive programs (such as Walnut Hill, among others) for MT high schoolers? (They are so important in ballet...but less so for drama??) A good book or 12 for a newbie?</p>
<p>In my opinion, there's no substitute for experience. It's wonderful that your D can take all those classes to polish her skills, and the "prep" program sounds very good. But the essence of MT is performing. She should grab every opportunity to do so, whether it is her high school show, community or regional theater, or summer stock. I personally feel students learn as much or more from a good director/choreographer as they will in a class situation.</p>
<p>Although in a college audition, the quality of the audition is the most important factor, a well-rounded resume can only help. And if you consider that an audition is just another performance, your D will be more relaxed if she has already had the experience of singing and acting in front of an audience.</p>
<p>There are many good books out there, but here's a good one to start with: "Stars in your Eyes...Feet on the Ground" by Annie Joy.</p>
<p>The audition is the most important thing for admittance, so I suggest she start collecting a bunch of songs and monologues, looking at what is requested. That way she can polish them up when the time comes.</p>
<p>I would respectfully disagree with onstage. If time will not allow for training AND gaining stage time, if the training is of high caliber, that should be the highest priority. </p>
<p>As both onstage and cptofthehouse indicated, the audition is paramount in the acceptance process. I have seen more kids with extensive experience and minimal training end up disappointed than the reverse.</p>
<p>If the training program is a good one, they will most likely be teaching things like choosing material, coaching songs and monologues, discussing building a reasonable list of audition schools, and I assume have a least some performance opportunities included. Being in a show will not necessarily be helpful in any of those areas.</p>
<p>I absolutely agree with MusThCC - I just today ran a master class for upcoming (08-09) college auditionees where our special guest auditors were Telly Leung and Gavin Creel (of many Bway shows combined), both of whom are experienced coaches of college auditionees (and who went to Carnegie Mellon and Michigan, respectively. Their consistent focus with the students was on 2 things: even better BREATH for singing, no matter how advanced the student already is (which can only achieved through consistent, expert training) and communicating the ideas of a song or monologue specifically and conversationally (learned less in shows, where such communication is greatly aided by the context of the show, and more in really good training/coaching).</p>
<p>Telly several years ago gave my students a piece of excellent advice: SEE as much theatre as you can once you decide you want to pursue this. Good, bad, professional, amateur, DVD/video (whole shows, not just YouTube clips of single songs) - mix it up so you begin to have an eye for what works and why, and what doesn't and why. I would add to that to read theatre news so that you begin to get familiar with the business in general and become aware of even more shows, composers, etc.</p>
<p>mommafrog, my daughter started out not that much differently from yours. While she sang in our synagogue youth choir at an early age, she was primarily involved in dance (including hip-hop and jazz competition teams starting in 9th grade) , but not at the level of classical training it sounds like yours is. She participated in school musicals once a year in 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grades but did not do any community theatre during that period. It was the summer before 10th grade that she realized her passion for performing went beyond just an extracurricular activity. She started formal voice lessons with a voice teacher who ran a community theatre program for elementary and secondary school students and in 10th grade started doing recitals, performances and shows with the theatre company in addition to the school musical each year.</p>
<p>The real turning point for my daughter was the summer before 11th grade when she attended a 4 week MT summer intensive at a school that offers a BFA MT program. She came back knowing without any doubt that she wanted to major in MT in college. The summer before her senior year of high school she attended a second summer MT intensive for 6 weeks, again at a school that offers a BFA in MT, and came out of that program with a clear focus on wanting to pursue a BFA (as opposed to a BA), which is what she is doing now (coincidently or perhaps not) at the school that houses the 1st summer program she attended.</p>
<p>So I guess my point is that your daughter's decision now, in 10th grade, to turn her focus towards MT is not really all that late in the process particularly given her dance history. There is plenty of opportunity to obtain the voice training and performing experience she will need to be competitive in the MT audition process provide that you and she put together a a cohesive game plan now that provides for regular and consistent training as well as performing in a couple of shows a school year to get the stage experience. I agree with other posters that the training is of the most importance. I also would highly recommend summer intensives at schools that offer BFA programs. The level of instruction at the right programs will be college level, the immersion experience provides tremendous opportunities to learn and grow as a performer and these programs give a student a real litmus test for whether this is what they want to do in college and how they fit in with the talent that is out there from across the country.</p>
<p>I would suggest, but this is just opinion, that she do some theatre auditions-- community, children's, semi-pro-- as practice. Dance auditions and theatre auditions are very different. My D does both also. Ballet auditions are classes and although they can be nerve-wracking, there is a predictability about them and you are not alone. Most theatre auditions are one person and one to four auidtors. The accompanist my play your song at a different temop - or as for my D in her first a different key (we didn't know the person she was working with could transpose on the spot and had adjusted).</p>
<p>I am typically not an advocate of taking up anyone's time with practice auditions but gaining experience with these in different settings from school performances may be helpful.</p>
<p>This may be a regional thing, but in my neck of the woods, I would never suggest auditioning for any show in which you would be unwilling to accept a role, unless you told the director upfront that you wanted to use the experience as a practice audition.</p>
<p>The theatre community is amazingly tight-knit and well-connected, and if you are offered a role, and turn in down, or even worse, accept it, then leave for another show, it is sometimes stunning how quickly a person can get blackballed. (Speaking community theatre, non-Eq. small professional here - obviously, if you're offered a Broadway show, or a national tour, the stakes are a little different!)</p>
<p>The only auditions my daughter did prior to college were for her high school and junior high shows as well as a couple of "mock" auditions at the pre-college summer programs she attended. That was more than enough experience to feel conversant enough with the process to not stumble around during the college auditions. In my opinion, seeking out auditions at local theatres just to get audition experience in anticipation of college auditions doesn't add much to a student's presentation at the college audition. Auditions for roles are very much different than auditions for college. At auditions for roles, there is a focus on whether you bring the level of skilled and trained performance, look and type needed for specific roles or the chorus. At college auditions, there is more of a focus on level of talent and indicia of trainability, you are not expected to necessarily be a skilled and trained performer. In fact many schools urge students not to be coached on acting their monologues for auditions because the school wants to see the students inate talent "in the raw" and perhaps give their own adjustments during the audition to measure a students ability to respond to direction.</p>
<p>So my recommendation would be to focus on training, which can include how to present at a college audition, and get audition experience in the context of shows for which you would be auditioning anyway as part of your high school performing ooportunities.</p>
<p>About "not being coached" for monologues: Carnegie Mellon is the school that says that explicitly. However, what they do not want is a "choreographed", formulaic and rigid interpretation that traps the performer in one way of thinking about the piece. That is not the same as working with someone to help you explore the text and discover its nuances. I am not a monologue coach, but I am very familiar with CMU's program and its faculty and students, and this is not a rigid "don't work with anyone on your material." Many people read that directive and obey it literally, only to find that nearly all admitted students have worked in SOME way with a coach or teacher on their material.</p>
<p>As I said it is my opinion about practice auditioning and I guess it comes from being in one comunity. There is a lot of theatre in our area at all different levels and we do know people - husband as an example - who will audition for a variety of different theatre's seasons and then see what comes of it. Of course it may be quite different for a 55+ singing male, than a 15 year old girl.</p>
<p>The flip is that the local children's theatre (paid jobs) probably auditions 400 kids a season for about 30 parts and at times kids will turn down parts one year and then be cast the next. Now accepting a part and then later backing out is very frowned on and will get you blackballed from the children's theatre here.</p>
<p>I guess where we are the competition runs both ways and local community theatre directors are competing with each other for some of the local actors as well as actors competing for parts. But again as I think about this maybe it really is more of an issue with husband than kid.</p>
<p>I think my earlier post was somewhat misinterpreted. I do think that training is very important, and certainly is a key element in preparing for college auditions. I have been a teacher for much of my adult life, and nothing can replace a solid education in your craft. But I think it should be balanced with actual performing experience. A young person who is contemplating a career in the theater should be performing whenever possible. It is very different from classwork, and can give you a different set of skills which are equally important. I have also been a performer for much of my adult life, and much of what I've learned about the business came from the real-life experience of auditioning, and working with different casts and crews under different (often less-than-perfect) conditions.</p>
<p>CoachC, in my haste to type my post while at work I really wasn't as precise as I intended. I agree that many students do have some coaching for their monologues and if possible should take advantage of such opportunities - my daughter certainly did. I really intended my comment to be juxtaposed with the notion that schools are looking for talent and trainability more than a polished professional performance i.e. they don't expect high school students who are auditioning to be polished professional performers. And you are correct that CMU specifically states that they recommend against coaching for monologues but my age ravaged recollection is that similar sentiments were articulated at other schools, if not on their websites then at info sessions, but I can't at the moment recall where.</p>
<p>My daughter's journey sounds similar to yours. She was a serious ballerina up until the end of her sophomore year of HS (spent the summer at SF Ballet, many many Nutcrackers....) and then discovered her acting and voice through a good drama program at her HS and a wonderful choral teacher.</p>
<p>Spent the summer between sophomore and junior year at CAP 21 - and the summer between junior and senior year at CMU. It showed her that what she wanted was to be on the stage - and she had more she wanted to do than just dance. </p>
<p>She is now entering her Junior year at Tisch's Classical Studio for Advanced studio work. She has had 2 years at CAP 21 - wants to explore acting in more depth- and will probably return to CAP 21 for the Senior showcase.</p>
<p>You will find lots of help here - I have another daughter (16) who has the bug also - although her path is very different.</p>