@bisouu, my child ended up pulling out before auditioning because other acceptances came in that were higher on the list.
We found this coach through an acting coach, who was actually referred to us from an old friend that was on faculty at UArts.
I just remembered that years ago, I had a student get her monologue coaching from a faculty member in the UArts program. I had forgotten. However, she did not apply to UArts.
I think if one were to watch the feedback session videos on the Stagelighter website it would give a better sense of what the service is all about and perhaps give some reassurance. It’s feedback. That’s all it is. It is not an on-going relationship that any industry professional would hang their hat on. Material is uploaded and then feedback is provided. It is hardly a sky is falling moment. If nothing else, watch the one Christiane Noll provides since she is addressing a high school student.
My daughter attended our state thespian auditions in the fall of the year she applied. The day before the auditions her voice teacher held a master class for a group of her students with one of the college professionals that actually was going to be one of the audition auditors for his university. The students sang their audition material and got feedback. I recall that the feedback turned my daughter’s approach to one of the songs she was singing on its ear. Something about suggesting that she sing the same song in a manner more consistent with what he summed up as her castable type. It was a feedback session similar to what I’m mentioning above with the Noll video and advice she could take or leave because it was still up to her to decide what to do with it
She followed his advice and changed her approach to the song for the next day’s auditions and for every subsequent audition that she used it for after that. Yes, she did pass the prescreen to that master class teacher’s school but she had also passed another schools earlier with the other approach so who knows if it mattered or not. (and PS, she didn’t even end up applying to his school.) To me, this was not an admission advantage it was simply another aspect of her preparation. She still had to deliver in the moment and had to choose whether or not to take the direction. I think the same applies to any feedback from a Starlighter coach and it is accessible to anyone who is willing to pay for it regardless of where in the world you live.
D attended a summer intensive that was run by one of the professors that is on Stagelighter. There were about 50 students who were high school seniors that were in the program. At one point the students all met and the faculty revealed to the group that for some students their work that summer was so strong that if they were going to apply for the undergraduate MT program, they would not need to audition again. Their summer work was their audition. They would all be evaluated and the results would be shared in September. As a result of that, approximately 10 students didn’t need to audition. My D was among them. Some students who were still interested in applying, did not get the same good news. Some continued to work senior year with the voice instructors they met that summer. One or two of them did end up auditioning and were accepted ultimately. Some others from the summer were rejected after their audition. They, too, worked with the summer faculty.
Based on this, I really feel that faculty members will only admit those students with talent on the level they expect, not those that they merely know or have worked with.
I think most of us would agree with that last statement, @uskoolfish. The question is whether working with that faculty member could HURT a student’s chances (i.e. the faculty member learns things about the student they would not learn via just the college audition), or if the faculty member could be swayed one way or the other (even subconsciously a la drug company pens) based on their familiarity with a student when it comes to deciding between 2 equally worthy candidates. It really is all a theoretical discussion though because as someone said, art is subjective, and the schools can take whoever they want. No one can prove that it “would be different” if faculty were not allowed to coach people who apply to their schools, no matter what the research regarding drug company merchandise says. And even if it is the same phenomenon, as long as families are using free will to take this risk, who i it hurting? Certainly not the schools/coaches, who get a leg up and extra income to boot. It is an interesting arrangement. But again, most if not all coaches people refer to on these pages are fantastic, helpful people whose expertise we are lucky to be able to tap into, and who truly, I believe, want every kid to realize their dreams.
Many of you have forgotten that several of these schools are located in small to medium-sized communities (Otterbein, Elon, Baldwin Wallace, Texas State, etc.) and people living in those areas would have been using faculty at those schools as teachers/coaches for years simply because they are the best around. Even in larger cities (e.g. Cincinnati, Pittsburgh) students often train with university faculty for years while still in high school. We happen to live in one of those types of communities, and my kid did study (and perform) with faculty from a very young age.
None of this was done to gain an upper hand on admission to our local school, it was just to help my kid become better at the craft. If the auditors were expected to recuse themselves because they had taught or were too closely associated with an auditioner, there would be no one left to audition the local kids!
And to expand on what @Dusing2 is saying - instrumentalists (who also audition into college programs) also often use local university faculty as private teachers. So, it’s’ not just happening for MT - it’s common across all performing arts where it’s common for students to pursue private training while still in MS/HS.
And sports.
Yeah, but with sports, there are NCAA rules guiding the recruitment process. Not so for MT and music.