<p>It would be great to hear from graduates or parents of graduates from the conservatory programs discussed on this thread. Where are you or your children now in their career. Has the road been tough? Hard to pay those college loans after graduation? What type of jobs have you landed. Has work been far and few between? How did your training prepare you for life after college? There are so many questions!</p>
<p>Lexismom:</p>
<p>Has anyone attended Ithaca's summer program? Would love to hear your thoughts. Also considering OCU and U of M. U of M seems like the hardest to get in?</p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>Bump. I thought this was a great question by wct. Hope there are still some cc posters from the past that keep up with the thread and can provide some insights.</p>
<p>My D graduated from OU in May 2004. She was cast in the national tour of 42nd street, and finished out that tour. Since then she has done a regional production of Swing. She is now back in NYC, waiting tables, and auditioning, auditioning, and auditioning. She met her new roommate on the 42nd street tour, who is a graduate of OCU from a few years ago (I dont know exactly what year she graduated). Last November, the roommate was performing in a production at Goodspeed, and was called up to do the last six weeks of 42nd street on Broadway. We were very thrilled for her.</p>
<p>During her college summers, she met lots of kids from lots of MT programs all over the country. Some of the kids she met are now in NY with her, she sees a lot of people she knows at auditions. It is a rather amazing close-knit community of MT people in New York. </p>
<p>We have no student loans to pay off - were fortunate to receive substantial academic and MT scholarships at OU. Also, they have a monthly tuition payment program - most helpful.</p>
<p>Hi, I was so happy to see this forum, as I will shortly be a Mom facing life after TISCH- Playwrights Horizons with my S. We are all facing many challenging decisions about where his career is going. My S. decided to finish in 3 years, his AP's and a summer Tisch course in Florence iTALY finished him off. He is a standout in Musical Theatre, a lead in the current mainstage production, an incredible director, and the only undergrad to have a play produced in NYU's Hot Ink festival. Now as of May, What next?. It is a scary feeling. We do feel good that he has made many wonderful connections. I am happy that many of these are Tisch Grads actully working in the theater. As we move through this process I'll let youi know what happens . Good Luck to all those others who have graduated and / or will be !</p>
<p>Thanks camge for your post. I look forward to hearing about your S in the coming months.</p>
<p>A brief summary of earnings and employment of members of the Actors' Equity Association between June of 2003 and May of 2004 can be found here:</p>
<p>A sobering statistic: 42% of working members of the union earned $5,000 or less during this time period, while only 5% earned $75,000 or more.</p>
<p>At the bottom of the page is a link to the full report. Table 5, Employment Summary, and Table 12, Earnings Summary, may be of particular interest.</p>
<p>It would also be interesting to know the SAG statistics and other professional unions as well.</p>
<p>Hello everyone! We just found this site today and are we excited!! How great to communicate with other moms and dads ands students who are serious about finding the best MT program with their children. I don't k now about everyone else, but my D is in a Performing Arts High and is in class 8 hours per day, plus homework and extra rehearsals a few weeks before every play. She has been in 3 so far this year including 3 Penny Opera and still has 2 more major productions to go - back-to-back. Also, she's really good so all those plays were/are as a lead. So she never has time to do this research, never mind feels so overwhelmed about it. She is a junior, but we are researching now because I'm afraid we'll both "go down" if we wait til next year. </p>
<p>My D keeps having a knee-jerk reaction to any of the good MT programs who also seem to be sure that everyone who comes there needs to be 'untrained'
or "taken off pedestal"...She wanted to go to college to increase her knowledge and skill and since she is an auditory, kinesthetic, visual (AKV) learner,,,sitting around in books and techniques and not moving and doing for 1 or 2 years is not her way to learn anything.. She also has a natural talent and acting instinct that directors and coaches alwasy tell us NOT to overtrain, but she wants to work really hard and be with peers and yet have the expansive experience of a college program. So a Conservatory??? She also is using Amer Sign Lang (which is somehow easy for her) as her Foreign Lang and have 4 years going into college -- so her "other job" can be signing for performance (theater, music and poetry) and using signing in performance also. </p>
<p>In looking hard at Boston...Emerson, BU, etc we came across the Boston Conservatory (which I had always identified with Music & Dance only) and found a BFA in MT !! A Conservatory that is part of the Consortium with Berkelee, EMerson, Museum School of Fine Art, Boston Symphony. I know they are well connected (MT students just performed with Boston Pops in On Broadway Performance) but small (525 students) and therefore not well endowed for Fin Aid. Otherwise, I know nothing other than what I find on the web site --DOES ANYONE KNOW ABOUT THE BOSTON CONSERVATORY????</p>
<p>E-jinMA</p>
<p>I think you will get a better response to your question if you repost on the correct thread. This thread is about those who have graduated from a college MT program and are now in the field. Try the "colleges for musical theater" thread.</p>
<p>Is this thread still active? I'm new here, and I would appreciate talking to others about job prospects after graduation from a music conservatory.</p>
<p>There have been so many times I've started to post on this topic, but have stopped myself...</p>
<p>I have worked behind the scenes in film and television for 25 years now - you wouldn't recognize my name, but I'll bet you've seen my credit flash by at some point in the last quarter-century. My husband (a former TV director) and I actively discouraged our kids from pursuing careers as actors because we have seen firsthand how hard a life it is. We know extraordinarily talented people who have no idea where their next paycheck is coming from. We know people who were series regulars or played featured roles in movies who are now struggling to get by. Yes, we know the other kind, too - most of the actors we know who are still making a living at it do voiceovers. And two of my daughters have best friends whose fathers are superstars, one in TV, one in film, both of whom have given up any hope of privacy, and whose children are used to seeing hurtful things about their families in the press.</p>
<p>While we're all happy to see kids fresh out of conservatory getting work, it's sad but true that the older you get, the less work you get. This is especially true in musical theatre (and much more so for women)- you can no longer play the ingenue, the voice isn't as strong as it used to be, the knees give out - so anyone entering the field, even those who are initially successful, had better have a "plan B" for when the paying jobs in performance cease. </p>
<p>When I was a theatre major back in the Dark Ages, the faculty at UCLA (at the time, one of the top two or three drama schools in the nation) greeted every incoming class with this warning: "If there's anything else you can do for a living, DO IT!" We poo-pooed it - all of us were certain we'd be the exception that proved the rule - but when I think back on my classmates, I can't think of a single one who is still performing. Or who had much of a career to begin with.</p>
<p>I know there are parents on this forum who are incredibly proud of their talented children - I'm one of them. But you do your kids a disservice if you don't sit them down and have a realistic discussion about their prospects for employment in the field. Show them the employment statistics. Ask the "what if?" questions. It may not help - my oldest daughter is in a BFA program right now - but at least I know she went into it with her eyes wide open.</p>
<p>pamavision - Great, honest advice. Thank you for posting this.</p>
<p>I've heard essentially the same advice from every single adult actor I've met who's broached the topic ... and they tend to go out of their way to bring it up! ;) However, the way most put it is...
[quote]
If there's anything else you can see yourself being happy doing for a living, DO IT!"
[/quote]
We must seem a lot like lemmings making a run at the cliff, eh? As far as what we can do, most of us will end up doing it anyway ... and we'll have degrees. I dunno ... People tell me I'd make a pretty darn good lawyer ... but I'd end up slashing my wrists. Maybe I'm nineteen and swimming in naivety, but I think Joseph Campbell got it right when he said ...
[quote]
Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well said, fishbowlfreshmen, on both counts. Young people should follow their bliss and those who are thinking of pursuing musical theater/theater should know the reality, and if that is not their real bliss, they should find something else to pursue.
But you know what? If someone asked my advice about being, say, a teacher, I would say the same thing: "If it is the only thing you can imagine yourself doing, go for it. But if you are so-so about it -- just think it sounds like fun -- then find what really drives/motivates you/makes you burn."
Yes, if a person gets a degree in education, he or she could always make a living. (You might not be able to say that about theater/acting.) But I want my kids to do more than make a living (though, as a responsible adult, I know that is paramount.) I want them also to have lives that make them feel fulfilled and through which they feel they are serving a purpose, be it teaching children or entertaining people for a few hours on an evening.
I fear I am not saying this well, and I apologize for that. :) I just think any young person setting out should find the thing/path/course of study/career path that they love so much that it doesn't feel like work most of the time. Many of us grown ups :) know from bitter experience how long a work day can be if you are doing work that feels, well, like work. The ideal bliss that Campbell talks about is when our work feels like something we want to do, and not just something we have to do.</p>
<p>My husband and I became fans of Joseph Campbell when our boys were very small and raised them on the idea of following your bliss. My husband is one of those stuck in a job that he doesn't like and we wanted our children to wake everyday and look forward to their work, what ever it may be. The oldest is a singer songwriter on a small independent label and the youngest is getting ready to go into MT at OCU this fall. It will be facinating to see what happens and where they end up. Even if these "dreams" they are pursuing don't work out I will be interested to see if they find other work they love. Hopefully their is more than one "bliss" per person.</p>
<p>Pamavision: thanks for sharing that. My d is currently feeling rather like she is doing a balancing act between two different worlds as she attends a fairly demanding liberal arts college (Barnard) with a Neuroscience major, yet does plan to, for as long as she continues to get work, pursue this passion she has held since she was a wee one: to perform. She is currently in a regional show (her "summer job") and having a ball. She plans to continue her "balancing act" through her college career, but has found that being immersed in the world of musical theater this summer has made her sort of wish she could jump in there with both feet....</p>
<p>I think I will share your very wise advice with her. I do appreciate your sharing that with us!</p>
<p>I am more of a "lurker" than a poster, but here goes. I have a son in what is considered a good BFA program and he will be a jr in the fall. He has had a wonderful experience with some of the usual dissapointments. I am grateful to say he has the required thick skin that it takes to survive in this field. One of his best qualitys is that he looks ahead and has kept in touch with all his connections. He had the forsight to apply to be the assistant director for one of the main stage production last fall. In the spring he had the chance to direct a local HS musical with the added bonus of being paid. I will say that I got a few of those "I don't know if I am going to make it" phone calls but in the end, all went well.
He did several of the big summer stock auditions with two call backs but no job offer. He made a trip th NYC this spring and applied for several jobs. He started an internship at a large production company on Monday and he is in heaven. He used another connection and on Sat he is going to be a seat filler at the Tonys.
His dream like most of our children is to stand on the stage one day. But there are alot of other jobs connected to the theatre and I am glad he has had some of those chances while getting a BFA in MT. He has had alot of great opportunities and he has been wise enough to keep his connections current.
In the week he has been in NYC he has constantly run into people he knows. I commented on how large the city is and he said yes Mom but the theatre world is not that large.
So connections-connections-connections</p>
<p>ummom - Thanks so much for sharing...love the thoughts of being a seat filler...I mean, to get to actually put your butt in the same spot as, say, Sutton Foster! It couldn't get any better than that...ha ha!</p>
<p>Bumping this thread up for new musical theater moms out there....</p>