I am considering coaching of my daughter and was wondering how much it usually runs. Also, who do you recommend???
My daughter worked with MTCA, and it was the best decision we made in the process. I seriously don’t know if my daughter would have gotten into the programs she did without the help of Ellen Lettrich, and MTCA. I know there are other coaches, but seriously, Ellen is such an expert at pairing kids and coaches, and she cares deeply about her students. She has a heart of gold, that one.
This is a good time to connect with MTCA as things are wrapping up from last audition season, and ramping up for the upcoming season. Search for: Musical Theatre College Auditions. (Click on the “Coaching Team” link at the top… the second link looks fishy to me … I let Ellen know)
We used Mary Anna Dennard (based in Dallas) using a combination of face-to-face meetings and coaching via Skype. Her services included:
- Access to a complete range of videos describing all facets of the audition process in detail:
- What happens in the audition room with Caitlin Hopkins from Texas State
- What happens in a dance call
- What to wear for auditions
- And much more
- A web-based audition/application organizer to develop a list of schools and track your progress (sort of like "Naviance" for theatre students).
- Comprehensive help with monologue selections and monologue coaching.
- Help with developing a balanced list of schools and lots of specific advice about various programs.
- Help with setting milestones for turning in applications and staying on track.
- A dedicated Facebook group.
- Attendance at "Moonified" auditions where students can audition or do live prescreens for many of the top programs (Mary Anna's nickname is "Moo"). I think 20 or more programs attend Moonifieds.
As I recall, the final amount was between $1,500 - $1,800, not including travel expenses for Moonifieds. If we had used song coaching, the amount would have been higher (d had excellent local song coaches).
Mary Anna also offers Master Classes with the MT heads from some of the top programs around the country and works with the Dallas Summer Musicals College Audition Prep Weekend including mock auditions with Texas State and other schools (these are open to everyone, not just Mary Anna’s students and require additional fees).
We used MTCA and my D and I often turned to each other during this process and said: “how does anyone go into this blindly, without help?” It’s a complicated process and I can’t even imagine the mistakes we would’ve made without help from her coaches.
We also used Mary Anna Dennard and would recommend her highly. Whether you use her as your coach or not, definitely get her books, “Before I Got In” for high school freshmen and sophomores, and “I Got In” for high school juniors and seniors. They are chock full of information.
We used Dave Clemmons & he has helped us keep our sanity since D started working with him her junior year. We enjoyed the personal attention b/c he takes a limited number of students. He’s very responsive to many forms of communication - we text him all the time w/the littlest things, and he is quick to get back to us. D was able to Skype with him whenever she needed him to go over music/monologues/ask questions, etc… Before we hired him, we read Mary Anna Dennard’s book and got to meet her at TXMTW (Texas Musical Theatre Workshop) and have a good conversation with her as well. We did sign up for Mary Anna’s web-advising (google College Audition Coach and you’ll be able to find it) and that was very informative.
We also are with Dave Clemmons. He has a great relationship with his students and listens to what they want. Several of my daughter’s friends are also with him this year. Biggest thing for us is that he allowed them to be themselves in the way they dressed and the song/monologue choices they made. I think it really made them more comfortable in the auditions. He has a vast amount of industry knowledge and certainly seemed to know a great deal about what each college would be looking for…
We used MCA out of Boston. What I liked about them is the personal attention everyone gets from Chelsea and her staff. They held our hands all the way through the process, from developing a school list, to selecting the right audition material, to mock auditions, to calming my daughter (and me, okay really more me) through the numerous inevitable rejections.
Another thing I forgot to mention about Dave is that he has someone who will help the kids w/their essays - not the actual writing part of it, but doing proofreading as well as asking questions & making suggestions to help them decide what they need to expand on and/or clarify. That alone was a huge help, especially with how many essays D had to write.
We also used MCA in Boston. Mostly via Skype, which worked fine, but also some in-person contact, as she filmed prescreens and hosted a couple of weekends of masterclasses. We took the full MT package and don’t regret it, as the coaching was basically like having lessons – voice lessons, acting-the-song lessons, monologue lessons. My son particularly liked working with her voice coach, Justin.
As others have said, I don’t think we could have done it without her.
And yes, this is the time to start. We signed up last April, and the timing was just about right. I’m sure it’s possible to start later, but the more time to prepare and get organized, the better. Chelsea really wants the college applications to be in by the end of September, which means having the college list more or less set, getting a headstart on essay writing, etc. We got all the standardized testing out of the way by June of junior year, and headshots done in August.
I also vouch for MCA and Chelsea Diehl. Couldn’t have done it without them. We did the full package as well on Skype.
If the cost is an issue, some coaches also offer scholarships to students with financial need – I know Mary Anna Dennard does this.
Another Chelsea Diehl fan here… D had great local vocal coaches who know a lot about college auditions, and she did use a wonderful person for monologues, but the monologues didn’t feel right late August still. I panicked a bit about it, and we contacted Chelsea in late August/early September. She was fabulous–just as down to earth and sensitive as she seems in her blogs. We had pretty much finalized D’s list by then (she had started some apps and essays, testing was done end of junior year, etc.), but it was still too big, and D wanted even more insight about a few. Chelsea was able to provide that, and she was incredibly perceptive about what D is like and what she wanted. She also helped D pick monologues and work on them, and she put her stamp of approval on her songs. D only Skyped her 4-5 times, but Chelsea was fantastic about responding to both of our emails, etc., quickly and with care–plus, she would often email us to ask how things were going. It didn’t matter that we didn’t use her as much as most others. In fact, I’m about to email an update about how D is doing and about the show she was in this weekend, and I know she will care! That’s a great feeling, and a great testament to her.
She was less expensive than other national coaches. I forget the price, though. (It’s probably merciful that I’ve pushed some of the exact financial details of this process, lol!)
It never hurts to ask any of the coaching services about scholarships/financial aid.
We used MTCA and I would do it all over again. LOVED them. And, you can use them as much or as little as you need/want/can afford. The ability to get coaching via Skype was also nice and saved travel into NYC. The mock audition prepared my daughter for (almost) everything. Anyway…no one can really give you a price b/c you can make it as cheap or expensive as you want…I would call and talk to them!
Expect to pay $75 per hour on the low end for local coaches. For nationally known coaches expect $200 per hour on the high end ( Dave Clemmons) Many offer packages. Or like it has been stated, you can use them as much or as little as you want. I have researched and learned than most all coaches offer help for financially challenged families.
We used a local group called MTI in Sacarmento, CA. It’s a group of three professionals - one does dance, one voice, and one acting. I think we paid $75 per hour. At first I wasn’t sure how it would work out - were they really up on the the college audition process? But we ended up being really happy with them. My son got 1-1 coaching from each of them, including recording audition music and pre-screen videos. I’d recommend them to anyone going through the process in the Sacramento area.
We used MTCA and it was a great investment. You set up an initial consultation and you are assigned coaches for the various needs. My D’s drama teacher changed schools before her senior year, so her Monologue coach was definitely needed. Both the Monologue and Voice coach helped with her material and confidence. We did all coaching over skype and it worked well. You can choose how much you spend.
We can’t be upset with my S’s audition results as he has multiple acceptances to choose from. But, my biggest “what if” relates to whether if we had used coaching the outcome of some auditions would have been different. My S attends a public high school with no theater classes. His training is as a singer, dancer, actor in that order. He was accepted into what are often referred to as “dancey” schools and not into schools that tend to place a higher emphasis on singing which surprised us. He started preparing audition material the Spring of his Junior year. He attended summer pre-college intensives before his Junior and Senior years. He has a voice teacher, dance teacher and acting teacher who worked on his pre-screen and audition materials with him. I found that his teachers believed that his pre-screens were “good enough” so they could see he was talented and get him the audition and didn’t have to be perfect. That didn’t work for 1 school and they were genuinely shocked when he didn’t pass that pre-screen. I also always felt like the songs that were chosen showcased his vocal talent but not his personality and acting. We read I Got In and had a subscription to the College Coach Audition website with videos, school lists, etc. But we never went further to engage Mary Anna for a consult or as a coach. I do think in retrospect we would have benefited from working with a coach that knows exactly what the schools are looking for and what songs/monologues would have presented him in the best way to each school as well as in attending some of the mock auditions with colleges. I also think they could have recommended other schools to him which may have been good fits for him that he didn’t know much about instead of focusing on the “top” schools. Using a coach is something I would definitely recommend to parents of Juniors who are looking into this process for next year. As far as price, we pay for voice, dance and acting lessons and in some ways, looking back, I feel like he could have had 1/2 the voice lessons and we could have used the money saved from that to pay for some coaching instead.
But your son got into an amazing array of schools – he’s got great choices! We did use a coach, and she would have been thrilled to see my son accepted at BoCo or Syracuse.
@boatmom He was fortunate to have the outcome he had, no question! But I would definitely recommend coaching to others because it’s the one thing we would do if we were doing it again (which I seriously hope we never have to do!).