<p>Wow, this is some great information!! Thanks everyone, especially hoveringmom! I think all of of us would agree on </p>
<p>1) APPLY TO SAFETIES (ACADEMIC AND BA)
2) THE ODDS OF GETTING ACCEPTED ARE EXTREMELY SLIM TO NONE
3) APPLY TO OTHER BFA PROGRAMS BESIDES THE MORE POPULAR ONES.
4) AUDITION FIRST FOR THE COLLEGES THAT YOU WANT LEAST (THANKS HOVERINGMOM)
5) AUDITION EARLY (I SORT OF DISAGREE) I TOLD MY D SHE SHOULD ONLY DO THAT IF SHE HAD THE RESUME OF DAKOTA FANNING.
6)TRY TO VISIT THE COLLEGE AND DEFINITELY SEE ONE OF THEIR PLAYS/MUSICALS
7) THE REJECTIONS ARE NOT A REFLECTION OF YOUR TALENT
8) WHEN TOURING THE CAMPUS, SPEAK TO OTHER THEATRE STUDENTS AND DEFINITELY ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS ( A FRIEND OF MINE D WENT TO A BFA IN NY AND DID NOT ACT ONE TIME IN ONE OF THEIR PLAYS, NOT ONE TIME! SHE GRADUATED AND WAS NOT IN ANY OF THEIR PLAYS!
9) DEFINITELY TAKE FINANCES INTO ACCOUNT (THANKS AGAIN HOVERINGMOM)
KEEP IN MIND THAT YOU ARE FOLLOWING A PASSION THAT IS HIT OR MISS! LIKE KRISTIN CHENOWITH SAID (FIND SOMETHING OTHER THAN ACTING THAT YOU LIKE TO DO AND DO IT WELL) WHEN THOSE DOWNTIMES COME (AND THEY WILL) THAT “OTHER” THING WILL COME IN HANDY.
10) LASTLY - EMBRACE THE COLLEGE THAT EMBRACES YOU AND YOUR TALENT!</p>
<p>No to get off topic but I know there are quite a few schools where there is no guarantee that you will be cast in a production for a whole variety of reasons. That is a great question to ask.</p>
<p>Great list, Ready4March, but I would add a point about preparing well for the audition (however you are coached, if at all). Your academic stats and your audition are the only things you can control. Even your resume, since that is based on way too many outside circumstances, is less important, although I guess I’d say that finding ANY way to get experience in theatre - through school, community productions, children’s programs, camps, volunteering, and yes, SEEING plays - will benefit you in your applications.</p>
<p>I agree that performance experience is an important element of any theatre education. Some people put more emphasis on “stage time” than others - some people feel the real learning happens in class. But it is good to look at casting policies, and also at how much experience you can get doing other aspects of theatre (tech, writing, directing). For example, My D turned down one lovely acceptance because she saw there were no design courses offered at that school (an otherwise great BA). She knew that she would want to learn those skills and would have been unhappy not to have had the opportunity to learn them formally.</p>
<p>Having been through one year with her at a BFA with guaranteed casting* and a production vision that is based on learning rather than impressing an audience, I would remark that I really respect both of those policies. I am glad she didn’t choose - and didn’t even apply - to a school that would let someone go through 4 years without a part, or that caters more to popular taste than to its students’ needs in its production schedule.</p>
<ul>
<li>however, this is a school that does not allow freshmen on mainstage, which is another policy we respect. It has allowed them to focus on learning, to watch, listen and prepare themselves, and has eliminated much of the competition, at least for the first year. My D has had other performance opportunities (workshops, student-run shows), plus of course her full spate of Acting classes, monologue and scene work. She would say this policy was healthy and very wise.</li>
</ul>
<p>glassharmonica, I would prefer not to mention the school because I have heard good and bad things about it. But I must admit that was one of the worse. I will never understand how a school cannot place a student in a least one of their plays. I felt really bad for her. </p>
<p>The most important thing I think we did right was let my son make the decisions on where to apply. We certainly had discussions about colleges and their theater programs but his list became his list. Our only requirement was to apply to our state college. He had a #1 choice school and we had the ability to let him apply ED. He was absolutely sure he wanted no part of the Unifieds and was left with 6 BFA audition schools, 3 state colleges and 1 LAC, the last four being all safeties. As parents we were a little worried about “only 6 auditions”, but that was his choice to limit the amount. Pressing him to do more would have just added undo pressure to the whole process. Now a word about the ED choice. As a parent, I was unsure about doing this. We were prepared to allow it, but I was concerned about not being able to have selections at the end. He got into his ED choice and as I think about it, he made the right decision and if left to me to lead him away from it, I would have made an incorrect decision. He may still have been accepted to the same school and had other choices but in the end it worked out for him to have it all done early. If ED is doable, I would really think about it for other students. The one thing that I think all should really look at is how much travel and money is this all worth. It is really important to only audition at schools there is interest in and maybe save the money and aggravation of traveling coast to coast and back again. Our calendar was filled with travel plans and one added bonus for an ED decision is it saved us a boat load of cash which, of course, goes right back for tuition.</p>
<p>The issue of travel is worthy of greater discussion. In my previous post I said that one thing we would do differently is cut back on pre-audition travel. I should have clarified that we live hundreds of miles from all of the top 20 BFA programs, just about regardless of how that list is put together. Our travel consisted of carefully planned multi-school treks in different directions from where we live. Because auditioned BFA programs have low rates of acceptances, this was not an efficient use of our travel budget. In our case it would have made more sense to audition regionally for reputable schools, then visit once acceptances came out.</p>
<p>However, I can see that it would be a very different matter for someone close to a number of top 20 schools. Preliminary visits might then make sense to cut down on the number of auditions, followed by auditioning at the schools themselves. That was not an option for us where we live.</p>
<p>Great post hoveringmom! DD followed every one of your points with good results. She did not get accepted into every school she applied to/auditioned for but got into several including the one school we feel is the best match for her. Regarding #8, dd commented that there were a couple auditions where she could tell they were not interested as soon as she walked in the room.</p>
<p>It’s not the school that Ready4March is talking about, but I have a friend who is a junior Acting major at Emerson and has not been cast in any “main” productions there. Nothing against the program, of course. But I think, in regards to this topic, that it is crucial to look at casting policies! And to figure out which approach you favor more.</p>
<p>This may be a tad off topic, but the idea of an audition coach has come up on this thread. If there is a more appropriate thread for this question, please tell me. Is anyone familiar with an audition coach in Colorado, especially in the Denver area. Preferably this coach would be acting oriented and have skills in college selection and fit for my daughter. I realize this is a very narrowly worded request. I’m hoping to get lucky. By the way, I am in the process of doing my own research as well. Thanks!</p>
<p>Ok, I haven’t read all of these posts thoroughly, but a few things keep coming up that I can’t agree with from our experience.</p>
<p>1) Acting coaches. We did not use one and would not go back a do it differently. Some schools even put it in print that they advise against this (CMU is one). I think it was Emmybet who said something to the effect of, Everything my daughter did made her what she is. Don’t put your faith and money into an acting coach who may simply put their own print on your child. If your child knows they love acting, if they have had any school or outside class experience, if you can see that being able to act is what makes your child tick - don’t mess with it. If they have a teacher they engage with well - ask them for some audition work time. If you can find an internship, do it. Get them out into the theatre world and get comfortable with theatre people. Don’t work hard to impress. And read and see a lot of plays.</p>
<p>Bottom line, I know when my daughter walked into every audition that she was responsible for her material because she wanted to do it - not because I pushed her. I know that she was confidant because she had put herself in front of total strangers with the material and the audition was just like any other “stranger.” She was totally relaxed. She could feel good about that even if they didn’t accept her.</p>
<p>2) Unifieds. I strongly feel that that if you have a good chance at auditioning into any given program, you’ll have a great chance if you audition on site - and the earlier the better. I posted this elsewhere, but the audition director at the school we audtioned EA at said, “We pretty much fill our theatre class with early applicants.” If you get an early acceptance (as my D did) you have an ace in your pocket and you can shop around and be more relaxed. We did a few auditions in Chicago and it was a real lark - we enjoyed the scene and she was completely at ease. She already knew she was in and where she wanted to go. (And no, she was not accepted from these audtions even though she felt they went well and had a great rapport with the auditioners.)We did see some real stressed/uptight kids and parents. I know that not everyone can afford to travel for auditions. We rarely take vactions and drive when we do. We are not wealthy. But it is worth it if you can do it. Combine it with a tour. Ask questions. Meet students. If you can do it at your top choice, do it.</p>
<p>thtre12: Thank you for your comments. In a general sense I agree with your statements about an acting coach. However, I distinguish between an acting coach and an individual who might provide a fairy limited amount of assistance with monologue choices and college selection. I’m not thinking in terms of dozens of acting classes. Given that our time and energy is very limited, some help with the audition process is necessary.</p>
<p>I agree with Odddad - we used MTCA and wow was that ever great to have some help with just finding and sifting through material - especially if you are not in a school with a strong drama teacher who is especially knowledgable about the process (ours was not) or has absolutely ZERO, I mean zero, MT knowledge (ours had none - no dance experience, couldn’t read music, didn’t know thing one about MT programs…I am still puzzled as to her credentials but oh well…) and you really don’t have the resources. A good coach doesn’t force material on a kid but helps them find something that fits which they love. And it’s just wonderful to have that support all along the way.</p>
<p>It takes resources to do this. Some people have enough resources they can do it fine without coaching…as for us it probably saved about five years off my life. lol.</p>
<p>In our situation, I would absolutely do that again. Not everyone needs coaching, but we did.</p>
<p>Our own experience with unifieds agrees with that of Thtre12. Our D auditioned at the Chicago unifieds without success. However, the story was very different for regional auditions. These were auditions held by individual schools, but at a distance from campus, and our D was accepted into 2 of the 4 BFA programs she auditioned for. Although as an individual experience this should be interpreted cautiously, it bears thinking about.</p>
<p>In any case parents should be aware that there is a third option beyond unified and on-campus auditions, and that is single-school regionals.</p>
<p>I would like to add to the conversation regarding acting coaches. We did hire an audition coach for our daughter which worked out quite well. Our coach was a young actress in Chicago who happened to be an old family friend, and we live in Colorado, so all coaching was done through Skype! I must say it was wonderful, so think outside the box on this. Distance is not necessarily a hindrance! Our daughter attends a large suburban high school with an excellent performing arts department, but we felt she would go into auditioning more confidently with some one on one coaching. </p>
<p>Here are the pluses that we saw to coaching:
Coach helped daughter in finding a wider and lesser known repertoire of monologues. Through questioning she was able to help daughter find monologues that were age appropriate from lesser known playwrights, that showed good contrast of emotions in a short monologue.
Coach (MFA Acting) really helped my daughter in thinking deeply about the character’s motives in the monologue and play. (Much better than high school teachers had done.) This is most likely because it was one on one coaching, and from a highly trained actress!
Husband and I know nothing about acting skills, so it was great to get extra assurance regarding our daughter’s skills before we spent thousands on traveling to auditions and campus visits thousands of miles away. We discovered that we were right about her talent, and we were not simply proud parents with blinders.
Coach helped raise our daughter’s confidence level simply by being there for her. It was another set of eyes (trained eyes mind you) who gave our daughter positive feedback and constructive criticism that she REALLY listened intently to.
I believe there are many more small tweaks, hints things to think about, and more that she discussed with our daughter from the perspective of someone who is earning a living as an actress. We would never have been able to know these things as people not in the profession.
We found her eager to take our daughter in as her first student, and we didn’t pay an arm and a leg. </p>
<p>Hope this helps with peoples’ thinking on this subject!</p>
<p>I agree with most of the information here (especially having some kind of coach that is familiar with the audition process and material needed), so I am only adding something new to the discussion. My best advice would be to start the applications early, preferably before senior year begins. My D had to write over 20 essays for 7 schools and their various scholarship applications, she was so stressed out trying to do all of this, keep up with her schoolwork, shows, etc. If she had done them before school started, it would have been much easier. The common app is usually available starting Aug 1st and most other schools have their apps up around the same time. You can also get a head start by looking at last year’s applications because they don’t change too much from year to year. If you can get some of the basic essays out of the way in early summer (ones like Why do you want to major in theatre? and Why this school?), there will be more time available to concentrate on perfecting the big essays for scholarships, as well as audition materials.</p>
<p>edit: Also, most schools require both their applications and their scholarship applications to be done by November 1st, so it is a huge crunch time that 1st semester, especially if you need to take the SAT again.</p>
<p>So true. Then if you have a theater teacher who doesn’t realize that the time for them to have their big huge role would have been their JUNIOR year, and they finally get cast in a nice big lead role their SENIOR year, it <em>really</em> wreaks havoc on the schedule trying to fit auditions in around rehearsals and the shows, so having already done those essays, while everyone says to do it and few actually do, would be a huge boon to those who did. Because you know you won’t have the heart to make them turn down Tracy in Hairspray or whatever, especially if they’ve spent the last three years watching other kids get the roles (on account of that same teacher thinking it always had to be a senior…or whatever…rrrr)</p>
<p>My D did start on hers and get some done in the summer, which was better than none done at all, but though it is so hard to make yourself do those in the summer, boy is it ever worth it. Excellent suggestion. She was so exhausted by the time the whole thing was over…of course she got mono which didn’t help - so I would add, to do whatever you think is necessary for your child to not get sick. For most people that means making sure to get a flu shot early and keeping up with somehow, enough rest whenever possible, and stock up on the Emergen-C and get a good humidifier for their bedroom, and so forth.</p>
And it’s just wonderful to have that support all along the way.</p>