<p>It’s hard to believe my daughter is finishing her first year at OCU. A year ago she was excited to have been accepted into the MT Class of 2010 at OCU but still nervous and sad to leave her close friends in high school. Like many of your kids, she was traveling far away to a school where she didn’t know anyone. </p>
<p>A year later she has made a number of wonderful friends, learned a lot and, while happy to be coming home (at least for a short while), looks forward to next fall. </p>
<p>Hope everyone’s kids had a great year. Thanks again for all the valuable information on this board. </p>
<p>Just so everyone knows, they did not perform Spring Awakening. This performance was a caberet performance for MT students, done at the end of the semester. The Class of 2010 did small snippets of a couple individual songs from that show (many had seen it this past year).</p>
<p>I believe the rule is – if you are within 75 miles of NYC, and the show is currently running on Broadway, you will not be allowed the rights to the show. I live in a town that is about 72 miles from NYC, and we’ve had a lot of problems with that rule.</p>
<p>The rights to Spring Awakening are not available, onstage, regardless of how far you are from the city. Licensing rights for shows vary, show to show, and it is not always a distance from NY issue. Most shows currently running on Broadway are not available for licensing anywhere in the U.S., with a few exceptions. I’m sure OCU had to obtain the type of license which would allow them to do a cabaret type performance like this. Colleges would be foolish not to, or future ability to secure rights from licensing agents would be affected.</p>
<p>Not sure where to post this, but I’m finishing the first school year empty nesting. I thought there was a previous thread about the empty nest, but I can’t find it to bump it.</p>
<p>Here’s my idea for all of you who have graduating seniors. Last year at my son’s dance recital, I started recruiting women to sign up in fall with me for an adult beginning tap class. I’ve been watching the advanced lady tap dancers for several years at my son’s recital and have been so impressed. I recruited a good group of friends to join me, although about half dropped out along the way for various reasons (knee problems, foot problems, family commitments). </p>
<p>Well, I just this weekend finished doing my first dance recital since 2nd grade! We’ve had a blast and plan to continue taking the tap classes. Hopefully someday we can join those advanced ladies in their class! For now, it was fun to be in a recital with all the talented young people, even though our group had a very basic dance.</p>
<p>I say go for it, find some new hobbies, but something like this helps you keep in touch with people who were important to your kid. This is more fun than volunteer work somewhere, although I do still do a fair amount of theatre volunteer work.</p>
<p>Good for you Ericsmom! That sounds like a blast, and good for you too!</p>
<p>My anticipation of having an empty nest was far worse than the reality of it. I take my husband a little less for granted now, and we enjoy our routine together without kids. We have traveled more, and give our dog more attention now then he used to when the kids were home.
No tap dancing for me, but I have more time to devote to walking with my friends, visiting my mom, reading and playing chamber music (I play viola).</p>
<p>I am glad to find a board for parents of musical theater parents! My daughter applied to many schools and got accepted by most of them. She was sold on Columbia College of the Arts until we went to AMDA in NY. She has decided this is where she wants to be and we have decided to let her (reluctantly). Any other parents of students at AMDA??</p>
<p>AMDA is the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. It’s a two year program and has been discussed many times here on CC. It’s a program which seems to bring out very strong reactions and opinions. :)</p>
<p>I have had a number of my voice and theater students accepted at AMDA. In my experience, it is a program that is most appropriate for beginning level performers. One of my students, who had worked fairly extensively in stock, community theater, and high school, was bored with the classes – and in fact, was told by several instructors that he should be out there auditioning already. He left after only one semester, and is in fact working professionally now. Other students of mine, with a more basic background, have been quite happy with the program.</p>
<p>Of course, many good performers have come out of the AMDA program. However, I recommend it only for students who are not strong academically, and/or for those who have not yet developed their performance skills.</p>
<p>For those of you picking up your MT kids, can you fill us in on the first year? And, an important question for my D…What were dorms really like at Montclair? What schools encouraged your S or D to do theater outside of school? And, what other info should we be looking at? Now that you have been through a year or more, I’d love some feedback as we move into senior year.</p>
<p>After picking up our d on Saturday, my suggestion is…DO NOT TAKE MORE THAN YOU NEED!! I really do not know where all this stuff was before she left!!! Okay…all joking aside…she had a wonderful year. It was a year of lessons and firsts. Her biggest fear was if she could actually live on her own…you know, without someone calling up the stairs telling her she has 10 minutes 'til she has to leave…or, someone to tell her where her car keys are. Silly things, yes, but those were her concerns. She found out she could do it. The biggest accompishment the first year of college is just being on your own, making your own decisions…and handling lifes ups and downs in this profession. She had a great freshman year…wonderful memories. I am so very glad she did have a great year and found it hard to leave. We are still extremely close…spoke at least once a day…except during finals and juries!! The hardest thing for me??? Just not being there for the ups and the downs…
Many of the kids at Shenandoah do shows outside the school. It seems the community really supports the arts there, and there are opportunities to perform elsewhere if you are not in a production with the conservatory.
I think what help my d is that she auditioned for everything that was posted…if time allowed of course. There are many producitons put on by the school, and many student directed plays. This kept her involved, but she also got to know the upper classmen.
Since you are starting your senior year…I would suggest visiting the schools your are looking at. D attended many of the “sleeping bag” weekends, helping her to get a feel for the school. Also, get applications in early! Many are online in late August, if I remember correctly! Some schools would not let us sign up for an audition until the application was submitted. Senior year is a busy year, so getting your first choice on dates for these auditions is important!! Oh…and be organized!! I have a rising junior interested in music performance…so, once again, or radar is out for schools!! We already have her file cabinet started!!! Enjoy…I look forward to reading about your journey!</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing. Is your D an MT major at Shanendoah? my D has been in a number of shows with kids who have gone there for a particular instument.
We have started the files, the calendars, even begun talking to the guidance counsellor (who was really not happy to think she might have to do some of the college app stuff in the summer!)
I appreciate the feedback, too. My D had a summer with U Arts last summer, off to PA governor’s school this summer, so she does know she can do laundry and meet class deadlines. I’m sure I’ll be the one to miss that “10 minute call” more than she will, so I’ll savor it this coming year!</p>
<p>My D just finished her first year as a BFA MT student at Syracuse. She absolutely loved the program there. However, as with most BFA programs, I think you will find that the busy schedule will not give you much time to do productions outside of the school. Syracuse doesn’t allow freshmen to audition for school productions, and my D thought that would be terribly frustrating. After years in theater she’s used to multi-tasking, but honestly, she couldn’t possibly have managed a rehearsal and performance schedule in addition to her classes.</p>
<p>My S just finished his first year at OCU. It was a great year, very busy. Some how he was able to be in two shows, work two jobs, join a fraterity and keep his grades up, I don’t know how he did it, but I know his room, his papers and his clothes were a mess! We found ourselves being long-distance secretarys, mainly reminding him of getting things done on time, I hope next year we can do less of that. At OCU everyone in MT and VP is required to audition for all MT shows and operas. They feel that it is an important part of the training, to be comfortable with the process. I don’t know if the school “offically” encouranges kids to do outside shows, but alot of them do.</p>
<p>Hmm, slightly off-topic question…I keep seeing people refer to “sleeping bag” weekends, what exactly are those? I can kind of guess but I’m not totally sure :)</p>
Licensing rights for shows vary, show to show, and it is not always a distance from NY issue. Most shows currently running on Broadway are not available for licensing anywhere in the U.S., with a few exceptions. I’m sure OCU had to obtain the type of license which would allow them to do a cabaret type performance like this. Colleges would be foolish not to, or future ability to secure rights from licensing agents would be affected.</p>
I really do not know where all this stuff was before she left!!! Okay…all joking aside…she had a wonderful year. It was a year of lessons and firsts. Her biggest fear was if she could actually live on her own…you know, without someone calling up the stairs telling her she has 10 minutes 'til she has to leave…or, someone to tell her where her car keys are. Silly things, yes, but those were her concerns. She found out she could do it. The biggest accompishment the first year of college is just being on your own, making your own decisions…and handling lifes ups and downs in this profession. She had a great freshman year…wonderful memories. I am so very glad she did have a great year and found it hard to leave. We are still extremely close…spoke at least once a day…except during finals and juries!! The hardest thing for me??? Just not being there for the ups and the downs…