Pre College MT 2009

College Majors Musical Theater Major
1

<p>DD arrived in Philadelphia yesterday for the 4 week MT program. She is very excited and already having a great time. I think she said last night that the girls are staying in the Juniper dorm. She has one roommate that is MT and the other two are art students.</p>

<p>I had a text from her today that she placed into the intermediate ballet which she is thrilled about since she doesn’t consider herself a strong dancer. She said they will be singing this afternoon for placement in classes.</p>

<p>She is really thrilled to be taking classes in what she loves and working on getting ready for her college auditions!</p>

2

<p>Showmom- I’m glad your D is having such a great time. I went last summer, and I had a great experience. I, too, was in the intermediate ballet group, and not being a huge dancer, I found the class to be perfect for my skill level. Plus, the dance instructors are top notch and I’m sure your D will notice a difference by the end of her 4 weeks. Keep us updated on how it’s going for her-- I love hearing about other people’s experiences.</p>

3

<p>Showmom, I’m sure your daughter will have a wonderful 4 weeks. Summer in Philly is a blast with so much to do when she is not immersed in her MT endeavors. If either you or she needs any “local” info, don’t hesitate to shoot me an email.</p>

4

<p>Michael - Thanks for the offer. I will let you know if we need any info on local Philly stuff. She found her way to a grocery store today with one of her roommates and stocked up on some food. She now has internet connected to her computer and said she will Skype my DH and I tonight.</p>

<p>Is you D in any productions around Philly this month that my D might be able to go see?</p>

5

<p>Unfortunately, my daughter just closed Pippin which ran through June. She was Fastrada and found the character to be deliciously conniving, manipulative, provocative, risque and salacious! There are loads of shows going on in Philly right now. If your D does a search for the Theater Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, most of the shows running in July are listed on its website. Aida, at the Ritz, has several UArts rising juniors in the ensemble.</p>

<p>With regard to food, your D will, of course, find better variety and prices at the local supermarkets than at the neighborhood grocery stores. There is a Whole Foods and Superfresh down on South St at about 7th. It’s about a 10 block walk from the Juniper dorm so sharing a taxi with a friend would probably be better. Even less time consuming and more convenient is on-line shopping at Genaurdis Supermarket. You can schedule a delivery to the dorm during a pre-arranged 2 hour block of time and the cost of the shopping and delivery service is about $10, which if shared with a room mate, is a bargain. My daughter uses it regularly and it has worked well. For fresh veggies and fruit, she may want to go to the Reading Terminal farmers’ market.</p>

6

<p>My DD and her roommate found the Superfresh grocery store yesterday and were able to stock up on food for the next few days. She said it was about a 15 minute walk there and a bit longer back with all of the groceries. </p>

<p>DD will be going to New York to stay with my brother one of the weekends she is in Philly as she wants to see a couple of shows in the city. </p>

<p>DD has signed up for classes in the evenings also and is taking jazz, yoga and a once a week audition prep class. We talked with her on Skype last night and she is having a great time!</p>

7

<p>Showmom858, my daughter is in Philadelphia, too! She is loving it, and since we’re from Oregon and didn’t send her computer with her, I’m not hearing too much, which is good news. She’s a rising junior, and although this is my first time posting, I have been following CC for a year. My learning curve has been very steep! There are not a lot of opportunities out here in Oregon, so I’m pleased she’s getting the great experience at U of Arts. She placed well in dance, also, which surprised both of us. She grew up doing jazz and some hip hop, and just this year started taking ballet. We couldn’t find a teen beginning ballet class, so a kind teacher, accredited by the RDA in London agreed to put her in her ballet 3 class with 3 6th graders. It’s too funny, as my daughter is 5’10’’ and really towers over the little girls, but she’s worked hard for 3 hours a week, and I guess it’s paying off!</p>

<p>MichaelNKat, your CC entries and info about your daughter’s experience have really guided our passage as we enter this complicated process. We’ve already visited 4 schools, and will do about 6 more this year, as my d will audition at Unifieds in LA and I want her to see as many as she can in order to decide who to audition for there and who to fly out to. Right now, James Madison is on the list to visit, but we’re not positive yet, as we will be consulting with MTAC in NYC after the Philly experience. I figure with all the opportunities the East Coast kids get, we need to open as many doors for d as possible! </p>

<p>Thanks for all the info on shopping in Philadelphia and all the other piles of advice you post here.</p>

8

<p>Christie2 - My DD is a senior so auditions are coming up fast for her! Glad to hear your DD is also enjoying UARTS. My DD loves her acting class the most at the moment.</p>

<p>My DD attended a play last night by some UARTS grads that started their own theatre company and she said it was really good. She was going to see something else tonight that one of the faculty reccommended. </p>

<p>When DD comes home at the end of the month she will be spending all her time on her applications and essays as well as taking double voice lessons and dance every week through auditions. She will probably audition both in Chicago and LA. She also wants to audition at JMU which will have to be on campus. She has narrowed down her list of schools pretty well, but it could still change before we hit fall.</p>

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<p>Christie2, my daughter also attended UArts’ summer program when she was a rising junior and it was a profoundly pivotal experience for her. At the end, she knew without any doubt that she wanted to attend a MT BFA program for college. Showmom, when my daughter was a rising senior, she attended another summer college MT program and when she returned from living on a college campus for 6 weeks, it was so clear she was really no longer a high school student. It was like she had turned a corner and was so ready to move on to the next phase of her life as a MT college student. I have no doubt that this summer will also be such significant and gratifying experiences for your daughters. It sounds like both of you and your daughters have a solid game plan in place for when your daughters return.</p>

<p>Do you know who your daughters have as instructors? Is it D’Arcy for acting, Nancy for dance, Mary Ellen for voice and either Charlie or Patty for MT performance? One of the great things about the UArts summer program is that the instructors are professors from the BFA program as compared to guest faculty or T/A’s found at many other programs.</p>

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<p>Showmom, is your daughter planning on doing Unifieds in both Chicago and LA because she wants to audition for too many schools to fit into one place? Have you received good information on just how many schools it is possible to audition for in one weekend? I’ve only met one student, while we were visiting a college, that had done Unifieds, and he said you could fit in 6, but I’m wondering . . . Sounds like this summer program at U of Arts is going to be a wonderful experience with a LOT of opportunities! I’m flying out on the Tuesday of the final week so I can do a little sightseeing on my own. Then we’ll stay for the weekend and play a little before going to NYC. Oh, and we’re also planning a short side trip to peek at Westminster Choir College, a short ways out of Philadelphia. It’s not yet on my d’s wish list, but through her voice teacher I’m aware of it’s reputation, and voice is my daughter’s strongest area (her voice teacher actually wishes she would go into opera instead of MT).</p>

<p>MichaelNKat, I’m actually expecting my daughter to come back from this experience quite changed. I’m very much looking forward to the faculty evaluations, as along with those of MTCA, they should give my D and us a more realistic view of the appropriateness of this direction.</p>

<p>I do know of your D’s experiences with the 2 summer programs. In fact, that’s exactly why we chose this one for her and went to visit Syracuse last spring! I feel kind of like a peeping tom into your daughter’s MT journey, as I think I’ve read so many of your posts from the past few years. I always perk up when I find a new one from you, as they always contain such great insights and reliable information. In fact, can you shed light on the question above: the number of schools one could possibly audition for in a 2 day Unifieds weekend? </p>

<p>I’m not sure who my D’s instructors are right now, as she doesn’t have her computer with her, and I think, her newfound independence is putting a damper on phone and texting:-) I will ask her next time I hear from her.</p>

<p>Another thought - since we have one more summer before auditions, do you think returning to U of Arts for another summer would provide further growth for a student? My D has also voiced interest in auditioning for Oklahoma City’s program, but I think it’s a lot harder to get into. Also, knowing her, when she has a great experience, she loves going back to it. She’s not really interested in the Syracuse one, even though the school has remained a possibility on her college list.</p>

<p>Thanks to both of you for your conversation. My D says I’m addicted to CC - she’s right!</p>

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<p>MichaelNKat - I’ll have to ask my DD who her teachers are. I talked to her for just a few minutes tonight as she had work to complete for tomorrow.</p>

<p>One of the reasons she chose to attend UARTS was that the faculty taught the summer program. She really wanted to get a feel for what a BFA MT program would be like. She is having the time of her life in Philly right now!</p>

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<p>Christie2 - My DD wants to do Chicago Unifieds as well as LA since some of the schools (U of Michigan) do not do the LA Unifieds. We will start firming up plans for where and when she is going to audition when she returns from UARTS.</p>

<p>I believe her plan will be to do a couple of SoCal auditions as “practice” first. These will probably be USC and UCLA.</p>

<p>I actually found CC when my DD was in her freshman year in hs, so we have received a lot of good advice over the past couple of years. We visited many schools she was interested in last summer, so we are not planning any college visits for her senior year. </p>

<p>Michael has been a great help to us and always has wonderful insight into not only UARTS, but the whole auditioning and BFA side of college.</p>

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<p>Christie2, unfortunately I don’t have any personal experience with Unifieds so I don’t know much more about them than what I have picked up from CC. For us, for a number of reasons we made the decision that all of my daughter’s auditions would be on campus and in practical terms could do so because all of the schools in which she was interested were within a 1 day drive from our home outside of Philadelphia. In scheduling auditions at Unifieds, my gut feeling is that 6 a day would be a sensible limit to avoid exhaustion and having a schedule that causes stress as the inevitable delays occur that seem to be part of any audition process. I would also suggest that you have some auditions outside of Unifieds, on a different day, so that your daughter doesn’t have “all her eggs in 1 basket”. There are many horror stories on CC of students scheduling only Unifieds and then coming down with a cold or the flu just before their audition date. Having auditions on more than 1 day hedges your bets against this occurring.</p>

<p>As to returning to the UArts summer program for a second summer, I think that it would provide solid opportunities for continued growth and development. It’s a program that provides great training and experience to students with diverse levels of prior experience and skills so there’s no reason to think that repeating it would not be as beneficial to the same degree that your daughter found this first experience to be. That being said, I think it is worth considering a different program for a second summer experience. A different perspective and experience is a good thing. Also, if the second program is at a school on your daughter’s list of schools to which to apply, a summer program can provide invaluable information and insight into whether the school seems to be a good match and what to expect at auditions there. I know for my daughter, when she had narrowed down her decision to between Syracuse and UArts, her experience at both summer programs served as the determining factor in making a final choice.</p>

<p>Showmom, there are so many people on the MT board with insightful information and experience. I remember how much I benefited from others at the beginning of this process for my daughter. And just when you think you can breathe a sigh of relief and relax a bit, when the admissions process is over and your kid has chosen a school, suddenly, in what seems like a blink of your eye, you have a rising junior who is sitting down with you to bounce ideas around on how to start structuring employment opportunities now, for after graduation, so that your kid can support herself as she begins the professional audition process. It’s a fascinating journey our kids are on, requiring creativity, flexible minds and determination on many different levels.</p>

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<p>Re: Unifieds, we know of some kids who scheduled more, but I don’t think I’d plan on more than three auditions a day. Even this may or may not be possible depending on the schools and their requirements. Some will have you budget up to several hours just for themselves, some will only be able to schedule you at a certain time, and so on. If you’re looking to get several in over the two days, absolutely get your school applications in and schedule auditions as early as possible to give yourself the greatest flexibility.</p>

<p>And take Michaelnkat’s advice to heart: if your kid is sick during the time you’ve got most of your auditions scheduled, it could be devastating. We had to reschedule a school audition this year, but that was just one compared to a weekend-full at Unifieds.</p>

<p>Also, several of the schools will allow walk-ins, so if you’ve got an opening or wrap up more quickly than expected, you can wander over and see if you can get in. Bring a few extra head shots and resumes to be prepared.</p>

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<p>Thanks, everyone, excellent advice! </p>

<p>MichaelNKat, we’ll be looking for the next important round of advice from you: what to tell our kids when they’re close to entering the real world! “Structuring employment opportunities” would certainly be a thread I know nothing about!</p>

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<p>A very nice mom, also from Oregon, sent me a private message this morning, and in my lack of knowledge about handling this website, I accidentally erased it! If she could resend it to messages or to my email, I would really appreciate it.</p>

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<p>I will pm you with a message!</p>

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<p>Help! I have scoured the UArts Summer Institute website and cannot find any info regarding audition/application requirements, nor deadlines to apply. Can anyone help point me in the right direction? I see a “registration” date, but no audition/application deadlines. It’s probably right in front of my face.</p>

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<p>Lesmizmom,</p>

<p>You don’t have to audition for the UArts Summer Institute, just apply. Go to the precollege summer institute sight, and the registration page is at the very top of the website page, not on the left hand side with everything else.</p>

<p>I think application is open until it fills. I believe you will have to send in references and a resume.</p>

<p>My daughter attended last year and loved it! Very well organized and run with great classes, and field trips. There is no cafeteria or food plan, but you can put money into a food card (refundable) and it can be used around the university area. They have some free time on weekends, but Philly is very safe downtown and fun for the kids.</p>

<p>If you’ve never been there, make sure you plan extra tourist time for yourself when you pick him up! Great town!</p>

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<p>Christie2, thank you so much! Glad to know I wasn’t losing my mind. :slight_smile: We were just in Philly a couple weeks ago…of course did know about UArts then…ugh! We could have done a visit then. Oh well, it’s only 3 hours from our home, so we get their often. We’ll go back to check it out. Is your daughter a senior this year? How are things working out for her? Thanks again for the help.</p>