Both my boys went to private Catholic high school with a strong performing arts department. They started doing plays/musicals in middle school in earnest. They had six summers of performing arts camps – local/regional only, not any of the big well-known names, but solid programs with strong instruction and good acting/musical theatre performing opportunities. They did local youth community theatre, too. They took private voice lessons starting in high school. As for dance, they only took basic ballet and jazz once a week for about 3 years, and a few months of tap. We just couldn’t fit it all in. (I do think ballet is the most important thing if you must focus on one area of dance.) What initially got my boys into musical theatre was piano. By HS graduation, they’d both had about 12 years of piano into advanced competition level, plus advanced music theory and they loved playing “show tunes” (both passed AP Music Theory test without taking the class in school. I remember them coming home from a camp audition around 7th grade amazed that the accompanist “could play anything.” I told them that if they stuck with piano they would be able to do that too. Something clicked that summer and they really started focusing on piano and musicality in a way that also improved their vocals and sight-singing. It was like a key turning. Flash forward and both my boys have had gigs as accompanists and assistant music directors – a nice “survival job”.