Congratulations @El-Cee! Rider sounds perfect for her!
Congrats @El-Cee !!
Congratulations to you and your D @El-Cee !
Wonderful news! Congratulations to your D and you @El-Cee !
@El-Cee CONGRATS TO YOU AND YOUR SUPER TALENTED DAUGHTER!! Rider got a gem of a performer and the family to go with it!!
Congratulations @El-Cee. We love Robin!
@El-Cee I look forward to meeting you and your daughter! Since my D will also be a Bronc in the Fall!
@MTVTmom likewise, and congrats! I loved your daughter’s story and I’m sure our daughters will get along great. My D is enamored with circus arts as well and does Fire Dance with poi. She has always wanted to try the aerial stuff but lacks the upper body strength.
@El-Cee thanks for sharing and can’t wait to see what these next 4 years are in store for them!
Programs Applied to: Ball St., BW, CCM, CMU, Emerson, Marymount Manhattan, Michigan, Millikin, Missouri St., NYU, OKCU, PACE, Roosevelt, TCU, University of Illinois, Western Michigan. Walk-ins at Chicago Unifieds: LIU Post, Temple, Viterbo, UWSP
Prescreens passed: Emerson, Marymount Manhattan, PACE, TCU. Prescreens rejected: CMU, Michigan Millikin.
Decided not to audition for Marymount Manhattan or OKCU.
Accepted to: LIU Post (BFA MT), University of Illinois (BM Lyric Theatre), Ball St. (redirect BA Theatre Creation), Millikin (redirect BA Theatre), Viterbo (BA Music or BA Theatre - it was a strange but flattering letter and we weren’t 100% sure what they meant but we chose not to pursue it)
Wait-listed at: Roosevelt (BFA MT Voice), UWSP (BFA MT alternate)
Coach: none
Summer Programs: none
Background: D played softball since the time she was 5. We all thought that was her “thing”. Then in 6th grade a curricular music teacher told her she had a strong voice and should try out for the spring musical. Rehearsals conflicted with her travel team practices, but the teacher wanted her in the ensemble enough that she made an exception. She got a small role in 7th grade and was the show’s villain in 8th grade, all while being allowed to do double duty with softball.
But high school was a different story. She wasn’t allowed to do both and to our surprise she chose the spring musical. It was 42nd Street and she needed to learn how to tap fast, so she enrolled in her first ever dance class and was happy to make the ensemble. At the start of freshman year she had auditioned for madrigals and made the highest group a freshman could. The choir director suggested we start private lessons to develop her raw talent and we were incredibly fortunate to get hooked up with a local professor of voice who herself had been on Broadway. She did amazing things with D’s tone and technique.
Sophomore year D suggests she wants to major in MT and hubby and I are quite skeptical. D is an excellent student (she’ll graduate summa cum laude and has great test scores). Junior year we realize she’s serious and we come around. However, we had NO IDEA what we were getting into. Hubby and I both went to highly rated universities and knew D could probably get into most places, so we weren’t particularly concerned. We started researching schools by googling top 25 MT schools. Mistake #1. We had no clue certain schools favored dance or acting or voice, and we certainly didn’t understand that we were applying to mostly “reaches.”
We found out about summer college MT programs late her junior year after all deadlines had passed. Mistake #2. I didn’t find out about this forum and the existence of audition coaches until Jan. 2019. Mistake #3. D passed all but 3 of her prescreens and that gave us an abundance of confidence. Mistake #4.
We would have done sooooo many things differently if we had known then what we know now!
We began to figure out things as we went along and this forum was invaluable. We learned we shouldn’t have bothered with dance based programs, particularly ones that emphasized ballet. Schools with strong vocal programs attracted D the most, particularly ones with a classical focus. BW was the early favorite. OKCU also seemed like a good fit from that perspective. Unfortunately, we decided to audition on campus on their last day in March. We though on campus auditions gave you an advantage. Mistake # 5. We also did not realize the admission was rolling. Mistake #6. I had seen so many female acceptances by the time the end of February came around and we were so tired of traveling that we decided the cost-benefit of spending $1200+ on flights/hotel/uber/food was not worth it and we cancelled the audition.
Final Decision: By far the best audition experience D had was with the University of Illinois at Chicago Unifieds. They asked for 2 art songs in addition to the standard 2 monologues and 2 broadway songs. This thrilled D as she was working on a challenging aria (that I can’t remember the name of) for her master class performance at school. Lyric Theatre at Illinois is a newer program but the director was incredibly engaging and it really checked all of D’s boxes. After doing campus visits at the accepted/waitlisted schools, the answer seemed pretty clear. D is going to be an Illini!
For a kid who has never had an acting or ballet lesson, I think she did pretty well. Thanks for reading!
Congratulations, @NewToThis13! Well done!
So excited for your D @newtothis13 - make sure you come back next year and let the class of 2024 know what the Lyric Theatre program is all about. It sounds wonderful and I am so happy for your D!
@NewToThis13 congrats on finding a great fit for your D. Chicago is such an amazing city and it sounds like the program is perfect for her.
@NewToThis13 congrats…quick question when u reference mistake re okc…is the march audition at a disadvantage in your opinion or D was just fried at that point?
@NewToThis13 Congratulations on your D finding her fit. My D did a walk in with them and really loved the audition. Alas they did not love her back. But it seemed like a great program!
@NYYFanNowMTdad There are a lot of different philosophies on when is best to audition. And some believe later auditions are risky because if the school takes only 12-14 they may have filled say their tall tenor spot. But with the number of schools kids audition at that tall tenor may go elsewhere. So it’s a balance and it varies by school. In the case of OCU they don’t have a number they take. They told us twice that they score your audition and if you get a certain score you get in even if you are the fifth petite blonde soprano. So the advice we we’re given by coaches is don’t leave your favorites until last (or first either unless you are rock solid). Also burnout could affect March auditions.
@NewToThis13 Congratulations! Sounds like your D found a great fit!!!
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@NYYFanNowMTdad I think it was a combination of things - the late audition, knowing 10 girls had already been accepted, the expensive travel (we should have scheduled it for Chicago Unifieds), and being burnt out by then. I agree with @MTSongbirdMom, it’s probably best to put your top choices in the middle.
We made a similar mistake with BW which was my D’s dream. We did on campus the weekend after Chicago Unifieds. D was exhausted. She felt strong about the voice and acting portion, but she could barely keep her eyes open by the end of the day dance call. She has very little dance training and tries to make up for it with enthusiasm and facials, so it was a disaster.
My older daughter went to JMU (though not for theater) - and as a parent I just loved this school. They are so responsive and there are so many opportunities for all students. Congratulations
I agree with the strategy of putting favorites somewhere in the middle. Surely not first nor last! It’s hard b/c Unifieds are kind of in the middle and if you want to do a favorite on campus that puts you either “early” or “late”, neither of which is ideal.
There are so many factors and potential monkey wrenches too - like illness, weather issues, etc. that predicting what will be best in advance is literally impossible.
Programs Applied to: UArts, BoCo, BW, CCM, CMU, Hartt, Ithaca, Molloy/CAP21, Manhattan Sch Music, Marymount, Montclair, NYU Tisch, Ohio Northern, Ohio University, Otterbein, Pace, Rider, Shenandoah, Wagner, Webster, Wright (yep… 21 schools, this was our 2nd time around and we weren’t taking any chances!)
Prescreens: BoCo, CMU, Ithaca, Otterbein, Pace, Rider, Shenandoah. Passed all, CMU was a redirect to Acting.
Withdrew from: CMU (acting), Wagner, and Montclair because of other acceptances.
Artistically Accepted to: UofArts, BoCo, Molloy/CAP21, Marymount, Ohio Northern, Ohio U, Otterbein, Rider, Shenandoah
Rejected from: CCM, Hartt, Ithaca, NYU, Pace, Webster
Wait-listed at: BW, Manhattan School of Music, Wright
Coach: None, in the traditional sense of the word. We did a one-time coaching session with BAA when we had all the acceptances and were having a hard time definitely eliminating a few (“we” means me… I was worried about overlooking some of the programs that my D wasn’t that familiar with without having some outside input on how they fit with her goals). That session was super helpful!
Summer Programs: BAA Summer Workshops, College Audition Workshops: one at BAA and then one from Cleveland Musical Theatre. The audition workshop at BAA was hugely helpful because they spent a lot of time working on cuts of the audition pieces.
Unintentional Gap Year: This was our 2nd audition season. The first time around (2022), we had no idea what we were doing. My D’s list was so, so small. The first year in brief: Applied to: CCM, NYU, Ithaca, Pace, Shenandoah, Cornish, Albany (new MT BFA, walk-in at NY Unifieds). Prescreen passed: Shenandoah (all prescreens were submitted toward the end of the deadline window). Accepted to: Cornish, Albany. Waitlist: NYU (did not end up with an offer). So… while she loved the vibe of the Cornish audition, she ultimately did not feel it was her place, so a gap year ensued. The decision to do a gap year instead of going “somewhere” was difficult. I was worried about how it would affect her confidence. We had done so much incorrectly, but would her young heart know that and pick up the pieces and move forward in strength? Apparently, YES. The gap year started with a Summer Intensive at BAA and a College Audition Workshop at BAA. She broadened her scope of schools, picked one different song, perfected her monologues. All of the prescreens for this round were done and submitted by September 23rd. And then the auditioning started. So, what do you do with a Gap Year? For us, it was TRAIN and LEARN and spend then entire rest of the year auditioning. There is not much time to do other things. **A note on gap years… having gone through one that was unintentional, I am a really big fan. I feel like the audition process for MT is so crazy, I don’t know how high school seniors are expected to handle that kind of schedule, plus school, plus senior year shows. If we had done the first audition season “properly”, my D would have not been able to participate in JTF (Junior Theatre Festival) and several productions in her community theatre, which would have been a big sacrifice. My S is a junior and I am already pitching the gap year idea to him. He is also MT, but leaning more towards BFA acting. (My brain cannot even handle the idea of starting this process again as soon as I move my D into her dorm. pray for me, lol).
Background: My D started doing theatre when she was 10 and was cast as Mermaid #2. She loved it. Her 2nd show, she was cast as a couple different ensemble characters (also had no lines). Then she took an audition class held by the community youth theatre and the director got a chance to listen to her sing in an atmosphere where she wasn’t so nervous, and he spoke some very affirming words to her. Those words transformed her confidence. Those confidence-building words from this beloved director nourished her very soul and the next audition, she let herself be seen and she was cast as Grace in Annie. As a homeschool mom, my kids spend so much time with me I have always avoided watching rehearsals (when parents were allowed) so they could have some space (and, yeah, I needed space, too). So, when my husband and I sat in the audience on opening night and she started her song, I was floored. I leaned over to my husband and whispered, “Oh my gosh! She can SING!” She had avoided practicing where anyone could hear her. And then it was ON. She came ALIVE. I can’t even imagine who my D would be without musical theatre (which I am sure is how every parent on here feels, so you know!).
Since we homeschooled, all of her shows were in community theaters, and they were all kind of far away. The closest one was 40 minutes from our house. So, 6 days a week, I was driving her to rehearsal, sitting at Starbucks for 3 or 4 or sometimes 6 hours and then driving home. Thankfully(?), my younger son was also in the same production (most of the time… there was a couple time there were in different productions in different cities and I basically died). The happiest moment of my life may have been when my D got her license and all the rehearsals fell off of my schedule (although I did miss all the car time we all had together).
She performed, learned, dreamed. We got hooked up with an excellent vocal teacher who happened to be almost an hour and a half from our house, but it was worth it. We could never manage to fit dance lessons into the schedule, though. During her gap year, she did start taking private dance lessons and that was so much help, since she was able to progress at her speed and focus on what was immediately important, such as learning combinations that might be part of dance calls. I highly recommend going that route for kids starting dance later in the game. She did the BAA Summer Intensives in NYC for 4 years and loved every second of it. She won best actress 2 years in a row at Junior Theatre Festival in Atlanta. She was chosen to be in iTheatrics choreography videos of Nice Work When You Can Get It and Chicago.