If anyone can manage, it’s you, @KaMaMom … You’re the big survivor of the Class of 2019! Get well soon!
My mom just tore hers two weeks ago. I commiserate. It’s not something I would wish on anyone. Take care of yourself as you launch your D.
I’m thrilled tonight!* It’s not an emotion I thought I’d feel right now; I thought I’d be completely morose and weepy. Tonight, we said goodbye to D. Okay, yes, my throat is tight sometimes, I know I’ll miss my D like crazy, and I’m trying to think of her as just being away at a long camp instead of the reality of this step, but I didn’t expect to be this excited for her.
D moved in and started orientation yesterday at UArts. It’s been a busy, exhilarating, emotional time (as I know you all know). I could not be more impressed with UArts–their super welcoming and helpful attitude; their approach to orientation and education; their utmost and meticulous personal attention and care for each student; the practices and safeguards in place to help each student reach his/her potential; the creativity and enthusiasm everywhere; the musical theatre faculty and program, everything… I now feel as comfortable as I possibly can leaving D here.
After a summer of feeling pure excitement and eagerness about college, exactly two weeks before D had to leave, she texted me, “I’m scared!” Nerves hit then, and she’s felt a mixture of fear, nervousness, and excitement since. Today, she said that she’s back to a more excited and calmer feeling. I’m sure we’ll both have a lot of emotions still, and that it’s not ever all rosy, but I’ll take this right now.
She’s had a lot of fun meeting @MTVT2015 and @theimmortalfish and other people she’s talked to online! I got to meet @MTVT2015 and her parents, too, and she’s as lovely in person as online. Although I was, unfortunately, just a moment too late to meet @theimmortalfish, I did get to talk to her mom for a while today, which was nice.
Something new with the musical theatre program is that the dance classes for MT are being taught by the same faculty as the dance majors, which is exciting because their dance program is consistently one of the top in the nation. It’s been possible and doable in the past to take dance with dance majors if one is advanced, and that is still the case.
I’ll post her schedule as soon as I get it confirmed from D.
*I wrote this last night and fell asleep before posting it.
What a happy surprise it was to pull into the parking lot at Elon and have several kids haul 2 car loads of “stuff” up to the 4 th floor! They don’t do that for every move?
Yes! We didn’t have to lift a finger, either. They even took up D’s futon. Nice!
Judging from all the move in pictures flooding my Facebook timeline the last couple of weeks, many schools are swarming and hauling everything to the room so that you don’t have to do a thing but unpack. We went through the Point Park drop off line multiple times last week. They even give free parking with a shuttle to get everyone to and from the parking lot Easy peasy and they move in upperclassmen too!
Most schools do that now for freshman only though, so next year be prepared to carry it yourself. 
@Joyfulmama … yup! My oldest D is at Vanderbilt - move in was AWESOME last year. Everything went from the car to her room in 15 minutes. This year we (and by “we” I mean my husband!) schlepped everything from the parking circle a 1/2 block away to her 4th floor room.
I wanted to pop in here and say that after a very, um, unique audition season … my D is at Nebraska Wesleyan and LOVING it! She auditioned her second day on campus and was one of a handful of freshmen cast in their first Cabaret of the season.
Everything really does happen for a reason - and I think she’s at the place she was destined to be. And these kids at NWU are INSANELY talented … the season opened with Chicago. If you look up Nebraska Wesleyan Theatre Department on fb, you can see almost 100 pics from the show. Take a second to take a look - I was floored by the talent.
Final plane trip tomorrow to help d move in at Western Michigan. I calculated that we have spent almost 10% of the past year on the road doing auditions, college visits, and orientation. It will be a bittersweet journey up and back. What a year!
Just another op’nin’ of another show…
Have your kids’ First Week of School been as crazily jam-packed as my D’s has? First Week of School: MT reception by faculty, swim party at prof’s house, welcome party by MT upper classmen, audition workshop, master class with Broadway veteran, audition for two fall musicals, callbacks for both musicals…and in her spare time, go to 17 hours worth of classes, and take the weekend saftety class for Stage Craft. Eating and sleeping are optional. She made one of the musicals (ensemble) and got a callback for a named role in the other so she is over the moon. Her callback last night was scheduled for 9PM. Seriously? She loves every minute of it, so I guess I shouldn’t worry. I know I’m getting old when just hearing her schedule wears me out. Geez…
How’s everyone and their kids surviving? Mine loves Ball State. BUSY, BUSY! She is living with another MT student whom she met at the BW Overtures program before their senior years. They are doing great together. My D also just went through Rush (like she wasn’t busy enough) and pledged Kappa Delta. I am most thankful that she had Music Theory in High School – it is saving her in their Musicianship class. I am interested to see if the enthusiasm persists once the nice weather goes away! I hope everyone one else and their kids are having a great fall semester!
Chirp Chirp @Divamamacita ! :-bd
D is very happy at Nebraska Wesleyan. She was cast in the first cabaret of the year and DH and I took a trip to see her make her college stage debut! (And met @broadway95 in person!) My kid is exactly where she is supposed to be … and loves it.
She was one of only two freshman who got a call back for a role in a main stage show - and though she didn’t get it, she was just thrilled to get a call back… And honestly, I’m happy she didn’t - rehearsals for the cabaret pretty much began when school started and she didn’t have a single day off. (Including the holiday weekend.) Homecoming was this weekend and she was able to go to the pep rally and game and act like a normal college kid. But she’ll audition this week for something else - a couple of plays I think? The amount of shows NWU does is insane - I can’t keep track!
I miss my MT kid lots! But I am totally enjoying watching her from a far have such a great college experience.
What’s everyone else up to?
S has had a busy few weeks at Montclair. He did need to adjust his dance classes a couple of times to find the right level for him.
All MT students were required to audition the first day of classes for the fall productions. Quite a few freshman had acting and dance callbacks for over the first few days. My S was called back for two shows and was cast in one. He was one of five freshman who were cast in shows this fall. He’s thrilled to be a part of a show and is happy that it’s an ensemble role with lots of singing and dancing, but no lines…which suits him perfectly as he’s still adjusting to college life in general.
Being involved in the fall production and being leveled into a more advanced dance classes is also giving him the opportunity to bond with some of the upper MT students as well as the other freshman, so he’s making a lot of friends.
Most days he starts classes at 8:30 and ends mid afternoon. On Friday his 1st class is 11:30 (he gets to sleep in a bit) but classes go on to almost 5pm. He generally has rehearsal on weekday evenings and on Saturdays. On Sundays, his one day off, and has been doing laundry and finishing up homework assignments.
Montclair also has a beautiful brand new “recreation center” which houses the gym, pool, basketball and racquet ball courts, etc…and my S tries to go several times a week to work out at the gym as well.
Some of the Freshman students have taken the train into NYC to see Broadway shows and such, but so far S always seems to be too busy to get into the city. But as he grew up just outside of NYC he’s very familiar with it. Quite a few freshman come from much further away (California, Texas. Vermont, etc) and are thrilled with the opportunity to get into NYC so easily. His fall production closes at the end of October and I assume he’ll have more time to get into the city then.
I do miss him, and I have to practically sit on my hands all the time to keep myself from continually texting him. It is very strange being an empty nester…
I love hearing all about how your kids are doing! It’s so wonderful to hear how, after a long year of auditioning and stress, the kids are thriving. Thanks for the updates!
My daughter is at U of Utah. I thought she’d be homesick but she is loving every minute. She gets along with her roommate, has made some great MT friends, teched her first show (American Idiot) and is already planning on staying over the summer. She has MT dance every morning from at 8 for an hour and half and the rest of her schedule is filled with vocal lessons, Acting, Music Theory, Performance Workshop, Script Analysis, and her one Gen Ed this semester: Writing. She has to tech one show a semester so she was assigned the first one and thus spent the past couple of weeks with tech from 5-10:30 or 11 every night in addition to her class schedule! (Freshman aren’t cast in the first semester–possibly the first year–I can’t remember). She is VERY busy but so happy–she describes it as “in High School I did all my classes so I could participate in the productions–but here the productions ARE my school!” It’s the perfect fit for her–and so happy to hear how so many of MT our kids found the right school for them–especially after the audition stress!
D loves Western Michigan, especially the Fine Arts dorm and her upperclass theatre buddy. Almost all the 15 MTP Freshman reside in the dorm so they hang out together all the time and her upperclass theatre buddy has helped her navigate campus and life in the theatre department at WMU. She is in the midst of auditioning for student-directed shows followed by auditions later this month for Spring mainstage shows (the fall mainstage shows were cast last spring). She has been called back for roles and that really made her feel good about her abilities at the college level. In addition to 9-10 mainstage shows, WMU also does several student-directed “Footlights” productions including the musical “Assassins” this fall (that makes 4 musicals at WMU this year). She is on the run crew for the fall mainstage musical, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”
She is getting in great shape literally running between classes up and down the hills on campus - she has several back-to-back classes with only 10 minutes to cover a hilly 3/4 mile walk. She really enjoys her “Roots of Jazz” class, where they have been working their way through the development of Jazz from folk dances, to ballroom, to tap, and thence to Jazz. They are going to have a semi-formal “Ball” at the end of the semester to showcase their work and she is thrilled about that. This week they are learning to swirl around a dance floor doing a fast Viennese Waltz, which she says is much harder than the waltzing she has done previously on stage (and she is fairly well-trained dancer). She also really likes her one Gen Ed class in “Biological Anthropology - Race and Culture.” She says that what they are covering applies directly to shows like “Raisin” and “Clybourne Park.”
Her quad-mates are all either music or theatre majors (techies) and they get along well, but they are all so busy in their own domains that they don’t get to see each other all that much.
D’s biggest challenge so far this fall at Western Michigan has been learning to use the computerized, internet-based washing machines: you pay for “laundry bucks” online, then you swipe your ID through a card reader, then you key in the machine(s) that you want to start up using a computer interface on the wall. D has several funny stories about how she has managed to goof up the process.
However, temps have dropped into the 40’s at night and she can already feel that, “Winter is coming…”
I’m so happy at UArts! It’s even more perfect for me than I realized previously. I am in love with each and every one of my classes…even music skills! They’ve also been great about leveling (I tested out of a year of dance and music skills, and a semester of writing)—we get so much personal attention. I was a little nervous about some of the required classes, but they’ve all been really interesting so far! Philadelphia has so much theatre. The Fringe festival just ended and I went to a really cool show last weekend. Shows are cast the semester before, so freshmen usually aren’t in them, but one of the Rocky Horror ensemble members had a conflict so a freshman is replacing her! I also auditioned for a student produced show and was excited to be called back. A few freshmen were cast in that, but being in a show right now would be CRAZY. All MT freshmen automatically take 18 credits, and we have lab hours in the scene/prop/lighting/costume shop on top of that. My schedule is really weird! I have 3 hour breaks in the middle of the day (which I actually like because I have time to go home and practice) and class until 7 on Thursdays. I’ll try to make a new Freshman Experience thread soon, so I can detail my schedule! I’m super happy. The weather has been really great so far though…I guess we’ll see that happens when it gets cold! The temperature and my mood usually increase and decrease together.
Love reading about all these happy kids!! These programs all sound fabulous. @16bars, our kids must be in the same show so maybe I’ll see you there! And @MTVT2015 - homie girl! - Philly winter weather HAS to be better than Vermont! We just loved Philly and the neighborhood around UArts when we visited, and it sounds like you made the right choice of schools. After your decision angst of last year, it is especially wonderful to see you so psyched!
S is blissfully happy at Wright State! The work is really hard, but in a good way. The theatre students live together in the Honors Dorm, which is cool. He was placed in an advanced dance class, which surprised him. He loves his private voice teacher and has 2 lessons/week. He sent me a list of things he ‘needs’ from home… his tap shoes, more hats, a penny whistle, a ‘cool’ scarf. Priorities! LOL. Tom Hanks is coming in the spring, which is very cool… And the first Presidential Debate will be held there next fall. Freshmen are not cast in fall shows, but will audition for spring. The students have their own performance space (d-lab) and S was the first freshman to perform there… Something is going on in that space every week. This is exactly where he belongs.
So glad to hear your S is thriving at WSU. An MT student can NEVER have too many hats. This summer, S finally cleared out all the clothes that don’t fit (near catastrophe when he showed up at summer stock housing with 1 out 6 pairs of shorts that fit around his more developed "dancer b*tt), but we were NOT allowed to get rid of the two colors of Cat in the Hat hats, the Uncle Sam hat, the Pirate hat, the Chicken Little hat , or the Elmo hat (those two are at school as we speak).