<p>Hi all - my D is a freshman this year, and quite nuts about musical theatre. She is sure at this point that she wants to pursue it as a major in college. So we are about to start sinking lots of money into voice coaching, acting, dance lessons, etc. in addition to paying for the youth theatre productions she will still be doing. I'd love to know at this point if she has the raw materials to "make it" though I suppose there's really no way to tell how much she will grow & improve over the next few years. I think she sings beautifully, but duh, I'm her mom - I love anything she does. Has anyone had experience with this dilemma?</p>
<p>We all struggle with this question, GMcF! And you’re right – none of us knows if our kids are going to “make it” – but you’re doing some wonderful stuff – getting her the training she will need to become competitive when/if she decides on college auditions in a few years, and learning and researching now. </p>
<p>One thing that our family did (because of course my darling child is wonderful and talented and, why yes, I AM her mother 
is to have her audition for and attend summer programs that recruit on a national level. There’s a great thread on here about those programs. That way, she gets a taste of auditions, the intensity of doing theatre full time, and a chance to be among other kids who love it as much as she does. You also get a set of eyes that are more impartial, a chance to see how she stacks up against the same kids she’ll be competing with for college admissions, should she go that route (and, if it’s a residential program, a chance to really, really clean her closet when she’s gone!)</p>
<p>Kids change A LOT over these high school years. As a freshman, mine was a “ballerina or bust”! kid who wanted nothing more than a chance to live in a dance studio. Now? Oh, she still lives in that dance studio, but she also discovered musical theatre, and is coming down to making a decision about where she will attend college next year as a musical theatre major. So follow the child and her passions, get her excellent training, find a voice teacher you respect the opinion of…and hang on…it’s a bumpy ride.</p>
<p>Watching this college audition year, we’ve seen some astoundingly talented friends rack up a lot of rejections. That’s part of the game – there are many more kids who want to become MT majors than spaces…but the training is so important (and make sure she gets dance!!), as well as the child’s desire to do nothing else.</p>
<p>you’ll know your kid has talent when people pay to watch them perform. everything else is practice.</p>
<p>MT is a trade so your kid can get better, aka become talented and get paid to perform with lots of hard work and good coaching.</p>
<p>and for those that think there are many talented artists who don’t get paid because it’s all about the art for them, that’s all BS. from Nickelodeon to Broadway, “talented” performers get paid.</p>
<p>and having parents/students/friends pay to watch you in school or small clubs is an excellent validation that you have developed your talent. A paycheck for your performance is full validation</p>
<p>GREAT advice from mommafrog, as usual!</p>
<p>Obviously, auditioning for regional professional theatre is a great way to see how your child stacks up against local performers. </p>
<p>Some additional opportunities to get unbiased appraisals of your child’s talent can be found in local, regional, state and National competitions. Some that D participated in include the Solo & Ensemble vocal competitions, regional and then the national International Thespian Society ITS Festival, which is held every summer in Nebraska, and YoungArts which has National Finals in Miami.</p>
<p>Many of the most talented adult performers I know are still grappling with the “can I make it” question after 50+ years in the business, so that part is (for all but the lucky few) an ongoing question. ;-D</p>
<p>i don’t think luck has much to do with it, granted there are limited jobs in a competitive world and luck can help, but the talented who work hard will rise to the top. Those who don’t work or work much just don’t have it.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for these thoughtful replies. I am sure she is not ready to compete on any national level yet, but we’ll just follow her path for the next couple years & see how it goes. I guess I’m just worried that she (and we $$) will invest everything in this dream, then be crushed due to the sheer volume & talent of the competition. I’m sometimes tempted to gently nudge her toward computer science or accounting. On the other hand, I’m her biggest cheerleader & no one would be more thrilled to see her play even one tiny ensemble role in an obscure touring company…and THEN become an accountant.</p>
<p>I respectfully disagree, pacheight. Talent is absolutely part of the equation - but so are trends in what is being produced (pop rock shows now vs. legit musicals 50 years ago), who sticks it out during times of self-doubt and long dry spells, and all of the intangibles which go into casting. Working Bway performers will tell you luck and the intangibles, in the end, have EVERYTHING to do with who is actually CAST. Additionally, if you fit the trendy type of the moment - or a show is written that perfectly suits YOU - you then have a vehicle for your talents - and that’s its own brand of luck. </p>
<p>Gertrude - some great suggestions have been offered here. Most important is that your D is assessed at a regional or ideally a national level - because that is the pool against which she’ll be competing. Your D is young - and growth can happen in a year, let alone over 4 years. However, like with everything, skill-level expectations (of singing technique especially) are very high for almost all MT programs, and especially for girls. Make sure she has some feedback from someone who knows musical theatre vocal expectations, which often differ from those of young classical singers.</p>
<p>Just to offer a slightly different perspective, as a student, I’d like to chime in. Some great suggestions have been offered, but I know that sometimes what’s being suggested is out of the question. For example, I live in Canada, and don’t have the best access to national arts programs or competitions due to lack of programs in my own country and the cost of travel. It may be a similar story depending on where you live. However, I’m not out in the boonies - I live in a small suburban town outside of Toronto, Ontario (a pretty big cultural centre!). I’m able to get into the city to take classes and do shows that I would have never been able to do at home half an hour away. So that’s one thing - try to get closer to a metro area, there will be more opportunities at your disposal (especially if your city tends to be a Broadway tour stop or has a theatre district!). The distinguishing factor, though, is that most of my peers in my Toronto theatre experiences are from the Toronto arts schools. The fact that I was able to hold my own against them really showed my parents that I have talent. Arts school kids do tend to have a leg up against public/Catholic board kids - after all, while I study voice once a week, they have it built into their curriculum! So I’d suggest that if there’s any way your daughter can get involved with the arts school kids around your community, that’s a thought, too. After all, theoretically these kids will be some of the same people she’ll be auditioning with for the same MT programs.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is master classes. You’d be surprised at how many there are around (again, especially if your city is a Bway tour stop). I mentioned before about the cost of travel to and from Canada, but I know of master classes that happened with castmembers of Rock of Ages and Priscilla: Queen of the Desert (on its pre-Bway tryout) in Toronto not too long ago. Most of the kids I do these sort of classes with are very serious about theatre, so you can see how your daughter stacks up as well as perhaps picking the brain of whoever is teaching the master class for an unbiased opinion.</p>
<p>I’m sorry but I have to laugh at pacheight.</p>
<p>I’ve personally known more actors/singers/performers who are VERY talented who haven’t “made it big.”</p>
<p>The notion that everyone with talent makes money, therefore, if you make money it must mean you are talented and if you don’t make money you aren’t talented, can be disproven in two words:</p>
<p>Britney Spears.</p>
<p>I win.</p>
<p>(lol)</p>
<p>I have to agree with CoachC (teehee) and say that I feel like it is about more than talent if you want to “make it.” Sure, getting into college you need to be competitive talent wise but when it comes down to it, if you love it enough and have a strong work ethic and will stop at nothing to pursue a career in the theatre no matter what, then I say you will make it!</p>
<p>I don’t mean making it big. I just making it at all. And certainly there are always exceptions. But when your kid is 30 or 40 and still not getting paid to sing dance or act, they’re either lazy or lack talent or both.</p>
<p>And dragon u don’t think britney and other pop stars have talent? The jokes on u</p>
<p>No. I am most unimpressed with Ms. Spears. Her voice makes any credible vocal teacher wince, and she does not write any of her own music, and most of her fame comes from her bad behavior. Her other ex Disney peers such as Christina Aguilera can sing circles around her with their mouths full of cement. It’s a quirk of marketing and the general bad taste of the American population that she’s made it so successful, when I can think immediately of at least six girls I’ve heard in the past year with voices like bells who have more talent that Britney can conceive of in her dear but rather dim little brain. They are scraping along as most talented people do but they haven’t hit it huge and the odds are they won’t.</p>
<p>No, I’m not “bitter” or “jealous” because she’s popular. I think her voice is simply dreadful, and she lacks anything of import to say: but I worship at the altar of Teh Chenowith or other stars who have actual, bright, shiny and amahzing talent, so when they, you know, actually deserve admiration, I have it in scads.</p>
<p>Being rich does not prove merit. Unless you are into that whole social Darwinism thing, in which case this is my last post on the topic because I don’t bother arguing with those kinds.</p>
<p>Also, I’m not quite sure I understand the relevance of someone’s “kid” being 30 or 40 and not making it. We are, or so I was under the impression, discussing our high school and college kids.</p>
<p>With talent and hard work, most people will at least scrape by more or less, but it sounds like you are implying that the amount of fame and success is directly proportional to talent and that is so self evidently wrong that, again, if you persist in arguing it to be the case, be aware I’m going to politely bow out of what I foresee to be a long and silly debate as of this post.</p>
<p>CanadianMTgirl, I don’t know what grade you’re in but if you aren’t currently in Gr. 12, please consider auditioning next year for One Song Glory, a youth outreach program by Acting Up Stage, one of the most acclaimed MT theatre companies in Toronto. Sixty students are chosen and together, they hone their craft under the guidance of Toronto’s top musical theatre educators in a positive and encouraging environment. After one month of training, these young artists showcase their skills in front of a live audience and panel of directors, agents, casting directors and producers at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. There is no cost involved for the students. </p>
<p>PM or email me if you’re interested in further information.</p>
<p>To take it back to the original question …how do you know if your kid has talent? For us it was more about supporting our d to work on filling her soul…with many struggles in their days as kids it was a great outlet for her.
She joined a local audition based youth theater group which we felt was a positive activity that served her needs on more than just trainning level. As time went on she grew in her talent and later on she did the summer camps, trainning, coaching in nyc etc. But if i read correctly, your child is a freshman, so one step at a time is our advise and has been our experience. Good luck this is not an easy path as a mom…many emotions and with a theater kid the word many doesnt suffice…</p>
<p>I’m saying that singing in a club where people pay 20 bucks to get in to hear you is proof that you have talent. Or performing to 50,000 and making 200k in one night is proof.</p>
<p>So the ops question is how do you know, and my answer is that you’ll only really know when you hear a dozen people who paid 20 bucks clab at the end of her set. Everything else is just people talking.</p>
<p>And you are missing spears talent, she can get up in front of 50,000 people and entertain them! You may think she has nothing but let’s see your kid entertain a 50,000 live audience, from where I sit in LA we call that talent.</p>
<p>Hi Pacheight - I guess my questio is really how do I know TODAY that she has talent enough to justify getting on the roller coaster of the whole MT experience? Is there any way to hear a young, fairly untrained voice and know what it might be capable of? And I can,t fool myself that I have any way to judge, since i have no musical training of my own, and have the whole mom-bias thing going.</p>
<p>There’s no way to know at that age.</p>
<p>I could send you to one of the best mt directors on the west coast and he’ll tell you that the hardest thing for him is watching the light in their eyes dim as they get older and realize they don’t have it.</p>
<p>But why not go for it…that’s what lifes all about, in my book, going for it</p>
<p>BUT opening night to a sold out house at a major city theater makes it worth the expense and trouble. And you will not know if it’s your daughter starring that night unless you help your daughter take the journey in mt.</p>
<p>And fans (strangers), and not just kids, at the stage door waiting for audiographs is wild…if that happens you’ll know she has talent!</p>
<p>Actually p8 you hit it right on the head in post 18 - seeing the light go out in her eyes, and me being the one who encouraged her in this direction. Ouch. </p>
<p>But we’ve talked about this already and she knows what a risky business it is, and I guess the worst that could happen is that she gets an even better singing voice, stays in good shape through dancing, and gains a lot of poise by speaking on stage. Hmmm, suddenly it’s sounding pretty good.</p>