<p>I think you can attend ANY BFA program and keep your clothes on if you so choose. I also believe you can obtain a remarkable career and never take off your clothing. </p>
<p>Some works deal with sexual themes and some actors are willing to explore those types of works. I don’t think they are doing so in order to advance their career.</p>
<p>By advance their career, I sort of mean acquire one in the first place or even continue it - I don’t mean it as a perjorative. :-)</p>
<p>In my opinion it is truly perverse that a society can glorify training 18-year-olds to kill people, yet be scandalized by their very natural exploration of human sexuality (including through artistic works).</p>
<p>Strange country we live in!</p>
<p>For me it is about decisions and how you help your child think through what you (parents) and the kids value and what does this mean for the kind of roles you audition for or take.
These are discussions we had with D from the time she was much younger than college. At 10-13 D did quite a bit of commercial work and industrials. It’s not that these had anything sexual, but we did discuss with D about jobs that were religious (we are not) or for products that we thought were unhealthy. We asked her to think about what it meant to her to do an industrial promoting something we/she did not believe. Was any job just a job? What criteria would she use to make a decision about other jobs that may be more controversial? Was it honest for her to be portaying and asking other kids to attend an event that she did not believe in?
Even at 11 and 12, we believed these were very important conversations for her to engage in and learn to make decisions about, so that when she got older and had to decide would she kiss people on stage, would she be naked, would she simulate drugs or sex abuse … she had thought through her values and practiced making decisions.</p>
<p>@keepingcalm – I completely agree that involvement in the theatre provides many great opportunities to make significant choices about which jobs to take and which to not show up for.</p>
<p>In my opinion that’s yet another reason that it’s not bad for high schools to include some edgier material, as it gives a chance for kids to think through some of those choices while their parents are still around to help them. </p>
<p>Another thing I’m realizing as we go through D’s final high school musical is how TIRED I get during productions! By the time I help out at the theatre, wait for the kids to get out of costume after the show and drive them home, I’m almost as wound up as they are, yet I still pop awake at 6:00am and end up exhausted after the first weekend. </p>
<p>I’m guessing I won’t miss that post-show exhaustion so much once they’re away to college. ;-D</p>
<p>MomCares… Rock on, Yo sister, Amen and any other terms of support I can toss in!!!</p>
<p>(for # 63)</p>
<p>As a young girl I was taken to museums that displayed creations of great beauty that happen to be nude or partially nude, and was taught by my little 2nd generation Russian mother to see beauty in the everyday things, like arms and breasts… I never had to lcose my eyes as I stood before them! Nor was my mother arrested or ticketed!</p>
<p>Oh my gosh MomCares! I’m with you on the post-show exhaustion! My D just finished her musical week before last, and I thought there was something <em>seriously</em> wrong with me last week . . . I was so worn out! I don’t know how my D does it! Granted, she’s young, but still! For three days after the show closed, I sat around with the energy of an earthworm. The long nights (helping with flowers, tickets) and early mornings back to work took their toll. </p>
<p>This is my D’s last HS musical even though she’s a junior (Mixed blessing, but that’s another story.). Her school only does a musical every other year, but she luckily has community theatre opportunities in the form of straight plays and musicals, so she’s fortunate in that regard. It is strange to start thinking about things from that perspective though . . . “This is my daughter’s last ____________.” Very strange indeed.</p>
<p>For me, my senior shows have thus far been the most rewarding theatre experiences I have ever had. I will have done 5 musicals and plays this year playing roles I will probably never get to play again which has been a blessing. It is also so bitter-sweet leaving the school theatre community but so wonderful to help the younger kids “come into their own” and “replace” me and the other seniors!</p>
<p>Thisismegan…you bring up an excellent point…and I know it was true of my kid too…all those roles she played growing up…she may never get to play again. Once you get out of college, you are cast (if cast) in roles in your stage age range, whereas in youth and college theater, you can play all age roles. Right now, my D is 22 and likely could play ages 16-26 approximately, whereas prior to now, she has played characters up to age 102! (actually, not sure if that role was age 102…it was Joice Heth in Barnum who was supposed to be the oldest woman alive!)</p>
<p>@thiisismegan – absolutely agree! This year D has done an elderly comic lead and a dancers’ lead in high school, neither of which are her strengths (she’s a singers’ singer). Ironically, she was just approached this weekend by a regional theatre to audition for a lead in Chicago – another dancer’s show – based on her current uncharacteristic HS role, so I guess sometimes these bizarre stretch roles in High School unlock hidden talents, or at least alert local casting directors to hitherto untapped possibilities! ;-)</p>
<p>It is true that educational theatre offers young actors a chance to play older roles, but I suppose that may continue into college as well?</p>
<p>^^Yes, that continues into college but not so much AFTER college in the real world. :D</p>
<p>@soozievt – honestly, one of the (millions of) things I worry about for D after she gets out of college is that she’ll be in that age range where she’ll be competing with those 45-year-old Broadway veterans who can still play 22-year-olds for the next 20 years. </p>
<p>I know that my SIL who does MT had to hit age 50, when she started getting cast in old-lady roles and most of her competition had quit the business, before she could really steadily find work. </p>
<p>That could make for one heck of a long dry spell in casting!</p>
<p>Ok… tonight I was reminded of yet another aspect of high school musicals that I’m not sure I’ll miss.</p>
<p>For those of you who have volunteered in the Box Office, don’t you just love those families who show up for a sold out performance and are FURIOUS that they can’t get in to see their child perform?</p>
<p>I’m hoping that by college the performer’s families have figured out that buying tickets in advance is a nice idea. ;-D</p>
<p>Oh – and then there’s the kid who get hiccups on stage and finds it absolutely HILARIOUS. Gotta love 'em!!</p>
<p>Today I threw away the LAST bouquet of roses from D’s LAST high school musical. This year I got to do my mom’s taxes absolutely surrounded by amazing flower arrangements… that is something I will surely miss about living with a high school “star”! ;-D</p>
<p>But then again, today D auditioned for her next play, and she’s already been invited to audition for her next musical, so I suppose the flowers aren’t over 'til they get on the plane for college, right?</p>
<p>Yes, it will not stop until she leaves for college! My D is performing in “Hairspray” right now. She will audition for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in June and then “Curtains” in July. “Curtains” will close one week before she leaves for college. Always staying busy!</p>
<p>@CarriesMom - Awesome roster of upcoming shows! Isn’t it amazing to see all of the fantastic theatre these kids are doing? For those of us who are oldsters, do you remember having anything like the number of opportunities that kids have today? Of course I wasn’t anywhere near as talented or well-trained as these kids are either, so that could have had something to do with it. ;-D</p>
<p>No, there was nothing like this when I was in HS. Just the one HS musical or play and I wasn’t interested – just the thought of the audition scared me to death! I am in such awe of my daughter and her friends for what they do! Two summers ago, D was actually in 2 musicals at the same time – “Violet” and “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” The characters in “Violet” had thick southern accents and one night, “Millie” said one of her lines as a southern belle! She thought to herself, “Oops! Wrong musical!”</p>
<p>Too funny! I guess actors in rep companies must routinely struggle with accents leaking between simultaneous roles, but D hasn’t had to contend with that one yet. She’s had her hands full just dropping an accent to move from one role to the next in a linear way!</p>
<p>I’ve heard several adult actor friends comment that no one was as well trained even coming out of college when they were growing up as some kids are today by high school. I do remember at my high school there was only one girl who took voice lessons. D’s school hasn’t had the strongest theatre program (new director is quickly changing that) but even pre-Glee they have produced some amazing performers with the help of outside training.</p>
<p>Yes, I love it when other characters show up in her shows. Last summer, she did the children’s play, “Beauty and the Beast.” When “Beauty” strode across the stage, I thought, that’s not “Beauty,” that’s “Demeter” from “Cats”!!! :)</p>
<p>Reading through these posts makes me realize how lucky my daughter is - she just finished her final MIDDLE SCHOOL musical with lots of happy memories and tears. In a neighborhood where most of the kids attend expensive private schools, my daughter was one of the few who went to public school where she was able to take 3 years of theatre, 3 years of choir and 2 years of dance. Productions included musicals, Shakespeare and competitive one-act plays. All of her instructors were top-notch and the “pit band” for her final production of Guys and Dolls were local MT professionals. This is not from a rich suburban district, but from an urban school district that is literally feared by many otherwise rational people (“you let you kid go to school there?”). D was also able to get accepted into our fairly-famous and extremely competitive big-city performing arts high school program in MT - her middle school theatre instructor even brought in theatre professionals to do mock auditions in preparation. She has already learned many of the basics of big-time audition prep thanks to good ol’ public school. All of this without spending an extra dime and despite all my efforts to prime her to be a high-school fastpitch softball player: 6 summers of tournament softball, down the drain :). D had a blast in her final musical, “Guys and Dolls,” which one of the private schools had to cancel plans for because it involved “gambling” and “loose women” (gee, I wonder what the church-based private schools would have said about D’s one-act play this fall - “Reckless”?). She is now looking forward to 4 years getting to spend half of her school days in MT while I spend 4 years on CC getting ready for the college MT audition parental experience (darvon? oxycodone?). While there are many drawbacks to living in a big city, it sure helps (a lot) if your kid wants to pursue MT.</p>