Thank you to all of you experienced parents/graduates for sharing your experiences with this aspect of the MT/Acting journey. The sharing of your viewpoints is greatly appreciated, giving realistic perspectives on what o expect further down the road.
@toowonderful I know kids from univ of Minn/Guthrie often work at the Guthrie Theater or locally after graduation. They earn their equity card this way and the Guthrie is amazing. They don’t hold a showcase. But the students train at the Guthrie Theater all four years. I know one young woman who after working at the Guthrie for years was able to then move to NYC with her equity card and seek casting there. She was doing the audition circuit last I heard. It is a hard choice - she was cast regularly in Minneapolis — that can be hard to move away from not knowing if you will ever be cast in NYC or other places.
Webster has ties to the MUNY in St Louis I think. They do hold both LA and NYC showcases though.
UNCSA is in Winston Salem which is a very arts based city with a lot of theaters (who knew)? However the school does both LA and NYC showcase and also brings in agents and directors through the senior year. They have a ton of industry connections. All students attend showcases. The majority of students graduate with representation and do not remain in the region that I know of. Some may go to other regional theater cities (Chicago, Seattle, Denver, etc) but many (the majority?) go to NYC and LA and are working.
However the faculty makes it clear that 1) they can’t guarantee representation and 2) sometimes those without representation at graduation do better because they get up hungry for work everyday and go look for it vs feeling comfortable and waiting for the phone to ring.
That was good advice if I ever heard it right there—no matter if you have represetation or not you still have to work daily to get cast. A Juilliard alum told parents at auditions that “her job is going to auditions” and “being cast and working is her vacation”.
I know we all know this already but it was good to hear and from a Juilliard grad. Nobody is guaranteed an easy path after graduation.
All that said I do think schools with ties to strong regional theaters provide an amazing option to be cast, work and earn equity card. One can have a good quality of life and regional theaters are often (not always) in places with lower cost of living too.