<p>My kid's day (at a public arts hs) goes from 8:20 a.m. to 4:20 p.m. Half of that time is academics and half is arts. They get about 30 mins for lunch and no free periods at all.</p>
<p>BRbway mentions that her/his PA HS teachers traveled with the students to Unifieds, were familiar with what the kids should expect from each audition, and have developed relationships with MT colleges over the years. Since colleges are seeing more and more well-qualified students, it seems to me that this would be another potentially significant benefit of the PA high schools, in terms of the audition process. Does anyone have any insight into how much, if any, of a role this might play?</p>
<p>I'd agree that in the long run, talent will win out, but the trick is getting the opportunity to start that run. That's why it's so critical to make sure to look into the full range of BFA and BA programs out there, not just the "top" 15 or so.</p>
<p>My son attends a PA high school that has great training but If it wasn't for CC we would not have known about the MT audition process. Thank goodness I googled MT and came up with this informative and supportive site. His school counselors are not at all informed about the process and the theater dept. is not as helpful as they could be. They do prepare the kids for the overall audition process but don't talk about early applications or the difficulty of getting into these schools. His school is very respected, with lots of contacts in the business and they actually have a unified audition there but not all colleges have time to come or can't because of bad weather (that happened this year when many flights were canceled out of Chicago in early Feb.). Thank goodness we had scheduled many auditions for the LA unified or he would have missed out on many good schools. He has already been accepted by 3 great schools.</p>
<p>I was also surprised to learn that only 3 or 4 kids from his graduating class of around 70 theatre majors are continuing with MT in college. Even some of the standouts from the schools musicals are just going for straight theatre in college. These kids are really talented and I'm sure would have have made into a MT if they wanted to.</p>
<p>As I said previously tonight, I really think it would have saved us money and time to have gone to a performing arts school this year. Our HS has nothing fine arts basically, including a total of 0 plays in the media center to read. Therefore, a whole year of being able to focus on a desired career would have been great and less expensive in the long run. As I also said, we have had voice lessons from the most respected Dr of Voice in the area, and at the next to last audition found out from auditor feedback the area we thought was beyond reproach, the singing, was more classical and not MT singing. None of this would have happened and the confidence level would have been much higher with the performing arts school. Luckily, the basic talent has shown through, but not necessarily at the schools we would like.</p>
<p>We definitely saved money by going to an arts school. My son didn't start in this school until his junior year, so we spent plenty on private lessons before that. Now in his school he has theatre every day for an hour and MT 2 or 3 times a week. We probably should have kept up with the private voice lessons but with his schedule in after school shows it was just to hectic.</p>
<p>No matter what the auditioner said, I believe your daughter must have gotten some good training from her voice teacher. Even if she didn't get into her first choice school, just getting in almost any audition school is tough. Has she considered vocal performance?</p>
<p>I did not go to a PA high school, but have been fortunate enough to be cast in a number of regional musical theater productions, which gave me a lot of hands-on experience. We also have a good dance program at my school, which has been a huge benefit. I do all of my voice training thru a private instructor. All in all, I would say the regional theater has been the best training grounds I could ask for. I have worked with a number of very experienced equity actors who are more than happy to pass on tips. So far I've been accepted to 3 of 4 schools I applied to: BoCo, point Park, OKCU.</p>
<p>ajsurfs,</p>
<p>The best thing about the arts school would have been
a) there would have been plays in the media center and
b) the voice instructors would have known songs to recommend. </p>
<p>Our voice instructor pulled out Street Where you Live, The Kite, Andrew Lloyd Webber, etc. and the local acting teacher who was in summer stock w/ him gave him plays about kids smoking dope, the "adult" Charlie Brown, "The Goat" basically anything offensive with curse words as possibilities. NYU girls told him to do Rapp, but didn't find anything really appropriate in the books we bought -- but now he does have over 100 plays and books of plays that he owns. </p>
<p>Basically finding the right material took over a year there was never an "I own this" feeling about any of the monologues. Also, going to auditions w/ a parent allowed more nervousness to come out. If he would have gone with a lot of his school friends, he would have been too macho and would have done better. </p>
<p>Just my thoughts.</p>
<p>I don't quite see the correlation with going to a performing arts HS and finding the appropriate audition material. I mean LOTS of kids get into BFA programs who never attended PA high schools. My kid surely got NO assistance at her HS related to college auditions or admissions. Our HS had no drama program/classes either. I don't think it matters where you get training but only that you seek some out and also research material with guidance. It may be easier to get it at school, but that is not the only way to get it. I never thought of our HS as part of this process. It was just where my D went to school for academics and extracurriculars like chorus, band, and theater productions. I think there are some pros to going to a PA school, but not necessarily what matters in terms of getting into a BFA. Some get this at school and some have to seek it outside the school day. You mention voice instructors who know songs to recommend....but you can go to a voice teacher outside of school.....my D did. (make sure the voice teacher is someone who is very familiar with MT, and not just classical, and is also well versed on MT repertoire and auditioning) But she also has been researching songs and the MT canon her whole life and so you also have to do some on your own and then have some guidance of a professional. That person need not be affiliated with a school. You can seek an acting coach outside of school who is familiar with monologues and auditioning. The important thing is to get some training, but not so much WHERE you get it. As well, some of this involves research on the student's end of things. Yeah, it may mean more work if you have to do all this outside the school day, like my kid and zillions of others have done who didn't go to PA high schools but still, in the end, everyone has an equal chance if they do the training and do the preparation. By the way, every kid I know has gone to auditions with a parent. It is more the norm than not. </p>
<p>Once you get into college, you also have to seek resources....you have to familiarize yourself with plays and with the MT repertoire. I know my kid is always finding and suggesting songs for others to do (she did this for other HS kids back in HS who were applicants) because she is well versed on the MT songs that exist. I find that the kids who want to sing songs like Wicked or Millie, etc. are the ones who have very little exposure and knowledge of the entire MT canon and are very limited. I see a big difference between kids who have been immersed in the repertoire and those who only know the common songs, etc. So, some of this is on the student's part to be a student of MT on their own, and not just what songs are suggested to them by others. Just my opinion and observations over time.</p>