What prior experience is optimal when audition for top MT schools?

College Majors Musical Theater Major
1

<p>What type of prior experience do students have in MT, dance, vocal music, acting when they audition for top MT University programs? I'm interested in hearing from students/parents who have been accepted or are attending MT programs and what experience in those areas above they had prior to auditioning. I'm trying to determine whether my A is doing all the things she needs to do to prepare for auditions to top MT schools since it seems to be what she wants to do. What I'm asking.... What is the competition like??</p>

<p>People will probably think I'm crazy for asking this since A still has a few years before college (HS freshman in the fall) but if this is what she wants we want her to be prepared. She has been taking dance since age 3, private voice for 3 years, has taken various acting classes and workshops, has performed in 12 musicals (children's theatre, community theatre and one professional regional show) and in three plays. In addition to putting on musicals etc., the High School she will be attending has a Show Choir that competes (and often wins) in national competitions which she plan at participate in.</p>

<p>Gosh, I sound like some stereotype theatre mom but I'm really not. A is our youngest by 13 years so I have the time to find opportunities for her and drive her all over the place. Since she "discovered" MT in third grade, it's all she has wanted to do. Last year there were only four weeks that she wasn't rehearsing or doing a show while maintaining a 4.0 in middle school.</p>

<p>Do the University audition panels look at student resumes? Does it help to have so much prior experience or do they want students that they can train in their own way?</p>

<p>Thank you so much for any input on this topic. And BTW, I've learned so much from reading posts on this forum about MT - what a great resource!</p>

2

<p>You sound like you are doing all the right things. My D has had similar experience to what you describe - we’re still early in the audition process - but she has felt confident among her peers with the preparation she had. We have only had one decision so far - and it’s a Wait List.</p>

3

<p>You are really smart to be starting so soon. Singing lessons, dance lessons, school and/or community theater, summer theater programs are all good ideas. Your daughter should also be seeing shows, whenever possible, at whatever level of professionalism is feasible for you. (i.e., You don’t have to spend $150 a ticket for Broadway, or at least not very often. There’s plenty of quality college, community and summer stock theater around in most places.) She should be listening to MT scores, too – a lot of times, libraries have a ton of old records. We were really fortunate to find a good, supportive youth theater near us, almost by accident. (We were looking for another summer camp one time, mostly to help out with child care, and my son ended up with a lifelong passion for Shakespeare.) It’s a wonderful thing to watch your kid find his or her reason for being – you have some exciting stuff ahead of you.</p>

4

<p>Your daughter is getting great experience! Another thing she might want to consider are university sponsored summer MT workshops, especially starting after sophomore year. There are many out there, and many threads here on them. Some of them, like Interlochen, are wonderful, but extremely spendy. Others, like University of Michigan, are extremely selective. My daughter attended the programs at UArts in Philadelphia and Oklahoma City University, both reasonably priced, didn’t take up the entire summer, and were run by the same faculty that are involved in both highly regarded MT degree programs. While summer university programs are NOT considered stepping stones to the MT degree programs, they give students an opportunity to get the feel for them and to compare themselves to the competition, which is growing more competitive by the year. There are many, many university programs out there, some requiring audition tapes, and now would be a great time for you to start investigating them. There are many threads regarding these. Perhaps some of our expert thread finders will post them for you!</p>

<p>Also, you might consider looking into audition coaching down the road. University auditions are very different from regular theater auditions, and although many are able to prepare successfully for auditions without them (many threads here regarding both!) my daughter used Musical Theater College Auditions (MTCA) for both summer program and University auditions. We began her junior year. Aside from assisting with monologue and song selection and coaching, they helped with college lists, accompaniment recording, keeping us on track with all the different requirements, and helped my daughter learn healthily how to create a strong mix/belt voice since we were unable to find someone in the Pacific Northwest to do that who met with our classical teacher’s approval. We did 90% of the work over Skype, very successfully! MTCA also provides outstanding support at Unified Auditions, and if you live near NYC, provides many master workshops in dance and auditions. We couldn’t have done it without them and feel that the $ invested were well worth my daughter’s acceptance to one of her top choices and a very large scholarship. They consider themselves teachers, rather than just coaches. You can find full descriptions of their services and student successes on the web. There are many threads on coaching, also, here on CC, so lots of opportunities for you to research . . . feel free to pm me.</p>

5

<p>I agree with Christie2. It sounds like your D has great experience locally. So it is nice to go to some of these summer programs and get a sense of the talent you will be auditioning with and working with in college and beyond. Our D went to OCU’s MT camp the summer between her freshman and sophomore year in high school and then went to mPulse at the University of Michigan the summer between her sophomore and junior years. Both experiences were fantastic. It was great to be on a college campus and see what life at those schools would be like. And what it is like to seriously study MT 24/7. It also gave her a realistic view of how competitive college auditions would be. she had other friends used to getting all the plum roles at home who have been shocked at the number of really talented kids are out there. going to these camps made her aware of what to expect and also gave her lots of friends to meet up with during the audition process! Some other schools I know that have summer programs are Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, CCM, Boston Conservatory, Boston University and Texas State. I also know kids who learned a lot at camps like Interlochen, Stagedoor Manor and Frenchwoods. But I do not have first hand knowledge of those programs.<br>
Like Christie2, our D also used an audition coach who we’d highly recommend named Mary Anna Dennard. She is based in Dallas but we were able to work with her both in person and via skype. she also connected us to a great vocal rep coach in NYC and made all sorts of master classes available to her students as well. she also was on hand at the unified auditions which was a great help in understanding how that worked. We began working with her the spring of our D’s junior year and spent the summer between junior and senior year working with her and preparing for college auditions. There are many thoughts on CC about coaches. We found it helpful but it is certainly not necessary.</p>

6

<p>Make sure that your daughter’s vocal training is being done by vocal technique teacher who knows what is expected in the musical theatre world and knows how to teach your D to do that healthily and knowledgeably. “Classical training” does not necessarily align with healthy and competitive MT singing - so your D should be with a teacher who understands that belting or mix-belting (the terms are not agreed upon) are:</p>

<ol>
<li>NOT innately unhealthy</li>
<li>call for some VERY different physical engagements from classical singing</li>
</ol>

<p>And also, that classical singing for voice performance and legit MT singing have some differences in presentation, although the technical differences are not wide</p>

<p>ANY teacher who says belting is innately “unhealthy” or says students should wait til a certain standard age to belt is medically incorrect and will not help your daughter achieve her MT goals.</p>

7

<p>Here are some past threads that may be of interest:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1562701-advice-high-school-freshman.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1562701-advice-high-school-freshman.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1453550-admissions-extracurricular-performing-arts-school-special-choir.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1453550-admissions-extracurricular-performing-arts-school-special-choir.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1253689-looking-input-college-reps.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1253689-looking-input-college-reps.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1456924-advice-current-juniors-parents.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1456924-advice-current-juniors-parents.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/otterbein-university-mt/1035287-audition-advice.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/otterbein-university-mt/1035287-audition-advice.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1090635-advice-hs-juniors-thinking-about-auditioning-musical-theatre-acting-colleges.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1090635-advice-hs-juniors-thinking-about-auditioning-musical-theatre-acting-colleges.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1516213-not-much-bulk-resume-help.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/1516213-not-much-bulk-resume-help.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>These are all of great help - thank you so much. I have so many more posts to read to figure it all out. I feel so inspired! We will definitely look into summer programs. I’ll have to look into MTCA when it get closer. We have decided to hire a local CCM MT grad who moved back here after working on Broadway for several years for private lessons on acting and MT skills and as an audition coach for our D. She definitely needs to learn the MT vocal method since her training has been classical voice. Now I’m so glad I got an early start and with the help from you and all the other wonderful posters my D might be ready in 4 years for her auditions! Thank you!!</p>

9

<p>Really, really work the acting as well as the voice. Biggest advice I can give!</p>

10

<p>Our oldest son is at a top MT program as a junior and our youngest son (#4) is in 8th grade. Son #4 is convinced he’s going in his oldest brother’s footsteps. I asked son #1, “If you could give your 8th grade self some advice, knowing what you know now, what would the top 5 things be?” Here is his list:</p>

<p>1: Take as much Ballet as you can. The professional auditions he’s been to have started with ballet first and then went to other disciplines. At school he realizes, even though he is a good dancer, his flexibility is an on-going issue. Flexibility can takes years to develop and even though he had lots of jazz and tap classes and hundreds of hours in choreography, he never had a “real” ballet class until he got to college. (He’s even taking Ballet I again as an elective just to work on his fundamentals.)</p>

<p>2: Go to the weight room. This is where he had an advantage over some others in his class. He was a work-out dude already and loved the weight room. Core strength is essential and some of his classmates who were not used to the rigors of ballet, Jazz, Modern, and Tap classes daily were getting nagging injuries and conditions.</p>

<p>3: Have a diverse resume’. Not that your resume’ counts for much (because, ultimately it doesn’t) but what it does do it that it exposes you to a variety of people, directors, theatres, and experiences. Our family has mainly participated in one large youth theatre program in our city. He only had one other professional credit before college. He had a narrow view of theatre because he was in an awesome, supportive environment full of some pretty nice people. But sometimes, theatre experiences can suck, and people can be mean, and directors can not-know what they are doing. Will you still like theatre if you’re in the midst of a lousy experience? Is you fun social experience really the thing you like about theatre? These are questions that must be answered before your parents get a Parent Plus Loan for $25,000.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Get great training (especially in voice.) Go to good camps. Get a college-level voice teacher if you can. We were fortunate. #1 Son found a voice teacher at a local community college who had a long career in the Chicago Musical Theatre scene. She said to him at his first lesson, “If you do everything I tell you to do, you’ll be able to fully sing for 8 shows a week…but you have to do everything I tell you!” and he did, and he can. Even though he has had world-class vocal training at school, he still refers to Miss Kathy as, “My Voice Teacher.”</p></li>
<li><p>Know yourself. Have a humble opinion of yourself. You can’t act if you don’t know who you are. You can’t be honest, connect on-stage, and be emotionally available if you don’t already have a core knowledge of yourself. You cannot let others define you. (And coming from a theatre background myself, you certainly don’t want theatre people to define you!) My son has observed that this may be the most difficult aspect of learning to be an actor, and it can be a stop for many.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>BONUS #6 (but really #1). Be ridiculously talented. This is the innate part where people get tripped-up. You can get good coaches and have a great resume’ and lots of ballet and dance and good dental work and be trim and fit and spend money on camps and get into places only to later realize…you are not in the 3-5% of the developed talent pool for top-work. Conversely, if you don’t develop your talent in an extremely disciplined way, you’ll be the best singer in your local production of “Brigadoon.” (No slam intended, I’m in the latter group.)</p>

<p>Hope that helps, it has helped us with our #4 son.</p>

11

<p>Couple pieces of advice for you given your D’s age currently. Have your D make sure she stays in dance lessons. My D was until middle school and at that time was torn between performing arts and volleyball, and couldn’t keep up all her dance lessons due to time constraints. What she would tell you now is she never should have quit ballet. Second I would also suggest a good voice teacher; my D started with one as a freshman and it was very helpful. Third, I’m really glad she’s considering show choir. Some here will argue with you that show choir should not be a priority, but it helped my D learn dance skills that helped her with her auditions, and helped her develop more of her overall performance skills, And it was fun, extremely time consuming, but fun! She was President of her group her senior year and they ranked fourth in the country. You’ll have to PM me and let me know what school your D will attend, maybe my D’s school competed against hers.</p>

<p>Two other things, not performance related. Grades. Have your D keep her grades up. I have said this several times on this board, but the summer before my D’s senior year my wife and I attended a talk by the Chair where my D now attends. He asked the kids and parents what they thought he looks for first in an applicant. His response: grades. Thy want smart kids. They need smart kids. So have her keep her grades up; it helps with admission and scholarships. And my other thing: fun. Make sure your high school daughter has a chance to be a high school kid, go to parties, dates, etc, etc. They get one shot at being in high school, and my experience has been that kids who focus so much on getting into a college program that they forego all the normal high school experiences for 8 dance classes a week, acting lessons, voice lessons, etc, etc etc tend to regret missing out on those experiences. Not all the kids, but a good number. So I advise balance.</p>

12

<p>Some pretty amazing advice here. I’d round it out to add:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Care about your school work. Do well in subjects unrelated to theatre. Academic strength can open doors including doors at top MT programs and it is where the merit money is if there is any to be had. </p></li>
<li><p>Enjoy high school. Do things that have nothing obvious to do with advancing your MT competitiveness but they are fun anyway and it is the right time in your life to do them. Those experiences can help you indirectly in ways that may not be obvious when you’re deciding between an extra ballet class or going to the high school basketball game.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>edit: woops. Jeffandann beat me to the punch so this is “ditto.”</p>

13

<p>Ha Manvan…beat me to it! My D is a junior at CCM. In addition to the lessons, classes and shows, and the great advice above, here are a few other suggestions.</p>

<p>Look into The Performing Arts Project. It’s a 3 week 12 hr/7 day per week intensive made up of high level performance classes, workshops and rehearsals so you’ll know if this is what you really want plus you’ll get a real good feel for where you are talent and ability-wise against high-caliber/driven individuals, many of whom you will be auditioning with when the time comes. TPAP has top Broadway professionals on their faculty and for their masterclasses (casting directors, musical directors, choreographers, performers, composers) and some top MT BFA directors attend and work with the students as well. It’s an offshoot of The Broadway Theatre Project (which still exists but the majority of the staff made the move).</p>

<p>Look for national, statewide and local scholarship competitions like [YoungArts[/url</a>]. This will help you get used to and learn to prepare for high pressure auditions plus, if you do well, it looks great on your resume and the scholarships really help.</p>

<p>A relatively new program [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.Stagelighter.com%5DStagelighter”&gt;http://www.Stagelighter.com]Stagelighter</a> | Get feedback on your audition material](<a href=“http://www.Youngarts.org%5DYoungArts%5B/url”>http://www.Youngarts.org) allows you to be critiqued by top industry professionals and MT BFA faculty/directors for an affordable fee. They view at your head shot, resume and a video performance and give their honest opinion and suggestions. Not only will you get the kind of insight that is almost never accessible but it puts you in front of them so you are recognized at any forthcoming auditions.</p>

<p>Lastly, go on youtube and watch as many of the freshman showcases and any performances from students who already attend the top MT programs as you can. It’s the best illustration of the level these students are at and it will even help you get an initial feel for the programs.</p>

<p>Some may argue, but I really believe it’s vital to get a more global perspective of your abilities so you can fine tune or kick it into high gear. Take an honest look at where you stand against the students who are being accepted into these programs. Just because someone has had years of lessons and get roles in their local school or community theater shows does not necessarily mean they are going to make it into a top program. Best of luck everyone on this journey. Been there, done that and have thought and felt everything you are experiencing.</p>

14

<p>Zazz81… My D attended BTP this past summer, and the faculty they have assembled since the split is top notch. My D called the program “life changing”. She was WL for TPAP, so BTP was a fantastic alternative.</p>

15

<p>I’m so glad to hear it…I have a soft spot for BTP even though most of the people she worked with are at TPAP. It was life changing for my D as well. She was wavering between MT and Opera and that summer directly influenced her to follow the MT path in addition to introducing her to many people who helped her through Unifieds.</p>