My D is a sophomore in a MT program, but I worry about whether she’ll ever be able to make a career out of it. I see her friends moving to NYC and struggling financially. Very few have landed anything yet. My D doesn’t seem to have the drive that it will take. That may change, but really, what are the chances ? Of course, I’m supporting her and not telling her how I feel about her career choice because you just never know. Just wondering if I’m alone in my concerns.
If it’s any comfort- I am awake at 2:30 in the morning worrying about the same thing. Not about my kid’s talents, but about the difficulties of the business, and the downs that will inevitably proceed what I hope will be eventual ups
For this reason, I continue to preach flexibility to my rising senior D. She will be taking AP Calculus this Fall and will have a challenging academic schedule which is important to us. I am all supportive of the dream and pursuit of MT and her college aspirations, but if that doesn’t lead to an entertainment career, the skills and learnings she will take away can still be valuable in the workplace. I have personal experience with this myself. I had no acting aspirations whatsoever, but my brother went to UARTS and got his BFA back in the early 90’s. He did some pilots and worked on some Off Broadway shows and some TV Commercials, but eventually decided to move on. He now has a successful career in the finance industry and one of the biggest reasons he is so successful is his ability to speak so well to hundreds if not thousands of people. Huge take away from his years at UARTS. He continues to work in local community theater and has directed many shows and helped develop many kids into adult Broadway performers. Flexibility is the key as I see it!
It’s also really important to get your cost of living down as low as possible. Teach them how to cook and ride a bike for transport and shop at thrift stores and work the special offers and freebies. The less your monthly nut, the longer you can take to try to make this work.
while it’s not a comfort to you now, hopefully the long term effect of the increase in MT graduates in recent years will be better local and regional opportunities for people. Agree on making sure your child in well rounded, though. My daughter already says that she prefers a “regular” college vs a conservatory program in case she needs/wants to change majors.
I love that advice, @Jkellynh17! We are working through that now with our senior S. He is squirreling away all his pennies now (he’s got a nice summer/early fall gig) for his move to NY. We did a little apartment hunting in May (areas, pricing, etc) and will hopefully finalize initial plans around showcase. He has a number of friends who are working in the MT field at all levels. He has other friends who are working survival jobs and still pounding the pavement. Both groups of friends tell him if he’s living in NY, he will have to learn to love eating/drinking at home 
I do worry about how the kids will survive but they will figure it out. I will have 2 in college once he moves so won’t be able to help much, if at all, financially.
Our daughter graduated 4 years ago. She started at a conservatory, but then transferred after 1 semester;partially because she discovered she missed the GE portion of education Obviously we knew this would be missing from a conservatory education going in, but she was so burned out from high school AP classes that she insisted she wanted a conservatory- we had voiced concerns about this up front but she wanted to try it. She ended up transferring to a BFA program, but one that included more GE requirements than most BFA’s. She was moderately successful after graduation and worked pretty continuously and was able to support herself. However, after 3 years, she made the decision to leave the theater business. She disliked the lifestyle and the constant moving around. She hated that every time she ended up back in NYC, her friends were all out on tour or based somewhere else temporarily, and that when they returned she left. She found it hard to have any kind of relationship since right when she got to know someone, she would get a job out of town. While many of her friends are still pursuing MT and loving it, she found it was not for her. She is currently working as a retail manager and regional trainer at a fairly large clothing store while she finishes her Masters in Organizational Leadership. She has one more year (part time program while she works full time) and then plans to leave retail.
She loved her years in school and her time working in MT-it gave her the opportunity to travel both in the US and extensively abroad, as well as meet so many interesting people- but long term it was not a good fit for her. We are very happy that she was able to take enough GE classes to make admission to a Master’s program easy. However, even with a degree from a conservatory, these MT kids pick up so many valuable skills that are outside the scope of MT. They end up with great communication skills, they have initiative and drive, they are problem solvers and learn quickly… the list goes on and on. They are dynamite interviewees and very quick on their feet. MT kids will have the skills to move into another career if they so choose and many we know have done so successfully.
It is a tough, tough business. I think it’s important to keep your eyes wide open as to the realities of being a professional actor. The industry took a very severe blow during the 2008 recession and has been very slow to recover. Several years ago I took a hard look at the Actor’s Equity Annual Report and posted this thread about how tough it really is to be an actor:
Since I wrote that thread in 2012, things have improved a little with industry employment slowly growing back to 2008 levels. However, the numbers are still pretty grim:
- Out of 51,057 members of Actor's Equity, only 17,834 worked on the stage in 2015-16. Only about 1 out of 3 Equity actors actually found work (or they worked non-Equity for relatively low pay and didn't report it).
- Of the actors who did get cast, they worked an average of 17.1 weeks, or about 1 week out of 3 during the year (32%).
- The Median Earnings for working actors was $21,510, or less than the living wage in NYC.
- LORT work, which includes all the large regional theatres, was down 4% in 2015-16, but was up 7% in the Central Region. We live in one of the largest cities in the USA and you can pretty much count on one hand the number of actors in town who make their living entirely from stage earnings (I know this because many of the professional actors in our city also worked as contractors at my d's PAHS and lectured the students on the realities of the business).
- Small Professional Theatre (SPT) contracts have seen solid growth (about 7% per year), but earnings are only about $500 per week on average. While work weeks at SPT's constitute 10% of Equity employment, salaries are only about 4% of Equity earnings.
Here is the link to the latest Annual Report from Equity:
A good book to read is, Making It on Broadway: Actors’ Tales of Climbing to the Top by David Wienir, Jodie Langel, Jason Alexander (“George” on Seinfeld).
@artskids, the best thing i ever got my boy was a slow cooker. He uses it all the time to make a week’s worth of lunches and take them with him wherever he is.
^YES - AGREED! We donated one to his college house (it’s an older one). His roommates use it more than he does. I think we will buy him a new one once he is settled! I use mine at least twice a week for the same reason!
@takeitallin I’m so glad you updated us on your D. I wondered where she landed.
I’m another parent who worries. The idea of moving to NYC without gainful employment scares me!
With all due respect, parents of boys will have a VASTLY different experience than parents of girls. But to answer your question, you are not alone in your concerns. It’s a jungle out there, with snakes and wild animals and poisonous spiders added for girls.
I agree 1000%, Calliene. They ALL have it tough in this business. But there is no doubt that girls have it tougher. There is about 1 boy to every 3-5 girls in MT; and many of the shows (Book of Mormon, Newsies, to name two popular ones) are boy heavy. Girls just have it way harder. And yes, we are all worried. Mine graduated in May and is in NYC right now…I have trouble sleeping. I have faith in her talent and drive; I do not have faith in the business.
It’s still terrifying! A friend of mine and I were talking the other day about a former classmate who moved back home from NYC to start teaching. He said: “It’s not that she felt like she was failing, she just decided that her love wasn’t with performing and was with sharing the craft.” I literally said “I WISH that would happen to me. If I would only wake up one day and decide I was cool to do something else for the rest of my life.”
But I’m not. At least not yet. So I have to keep trying. There is no shame in anyone deciding it’s no longer what they want to do or that they don’t want to get into it. But it does take a lot of hard work. NYC just happens to be the place that weeds people out faster than anywhere else.
Not that they are MUCH cheaper, but perhaps your D would want to start in a slightly smaller industry city- maybe DC or Orlando or even Chicago? Still incredibly tough markets, but sometimes they can be easier transitions for those finding their footing. NYC is like being thrown to the wolves day after day.
Sometimes I like that it’s the toughest place to do this. Sometimes I don’t. But, usually, it feels best when you land a callback in the lion’s den. 
The hugely successful president of my husband’s company was a theatre major who also gave it a go in NYC after college. She credits her theatre background with her success.
Our kids will find their paths, whether that includes time on stage/screen or not, and I believe their theatre background will be a huge asset whatever their paths may be.
always wondered about that - it seems to be an industry dominated by girls/women in terms of numbers. However, many top shows seem to be male heavy - Hamilton is another one, in addition to Book of Mormon and Newsies mentioned above (Yes, the Schuyler sisters have nice parts, but it’s still primarily Hamilton and Burr). You would think after almost 15 years of shows at the Gershwin, Wicked would have inspired at least a few more female heavy shows?
Things seem to turning for women. I just saw “War Paint” its all about powerful women!
War Paint sounds like a good show, but how long of a run will it have on Broadway? Lion King seems to be the longest running show currently on Broadway and that is male heavy as well.
I have often wondered about the general tendency of shows to be “male heavy” (this is in no way about the relative toughness of the business for men vs. women, just about how the shows are written - it is plenty tough for everyone). I can name a BUNCH of shows, contemporary and classics that are extremely male heavy - some with only one female role (Man of LaMancha, Camelot, Spamalot, Damn Yankees, Newsies and Book of Mormon have been mentioned, I could go on…) while the number of shows that have several good roles for women are more challenging to find. There are of, course, exceptions, but I hope that we will see more female writers and composers bringing female more centric stories to the stage. I see that happening in straight plays, but it has not yet filtered down to musicals. War Paint is female centric, but the roles are for older women.