<p>Our oldest son is at a top MT program as a junior and our youngest son (#4) is in 8th grade. Son #4 is convinced hes going in his oldest brothers footsteps. I asked son #1, If you could give your 8th grade self some advice, knowing what you know now, what would the top 5 things be? Here is his list:</p>
<p>1: Take as much Ballet as you can. The professional auditions hes been to have started with ballet first and then went to other disciplines. At school he realizes, even though he is a good dancer, his flexibility is an on-going issue. Flexibility can takes years to develop and even though he had lots of jazz and tap classes and hundreds of hours in choreography, he never had a real ballet class until he got to college. (Hes even taking Ballet I again as an elective just to work on his fundamentals.)</p>
<p>2: Go to the weight room. This is where he had an advantage over some others in his class. He was a work-out dude already and loved the weight room. Core strength is essential and some of his classmates who were not used to the rigors of ballet, Jazz, Modern, and Tap classes daily were getting nagging injuries and conditions.</p>
<p>3: Have a diverse resume. Not that your resume counts for much (because, ultimately it doesnt) but what it does do it that it exposes you to a variety of people, directors, theatres, and experiences. Our family has mainly participated in one large youth theatre program in our city. He only had one other professional credit before college. He had a narrow view of theatre because he was in an awesome, supportive environment full of some pretty nice people. But sometimes, theatre experiences can suck, and people can be mean, and directors can not-know what they are doing. Will you still like theatre if youre in the midst of a lousy experience? Is you fun social experience really the thing you like about theatre? These are questions that must be answered before your parents get a Parent Plus Loan for $25,000.</p>
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<li><p>Get great training (especially in voice.) Go to good camps. Get a college-level voice teacher if you can. We were fortunate. #1 Son found a voice teacher at a local community college who had a long career in the Chicago Musical Theatre scene. She said to him at his first lesson, If you do everything I tell you to do, youll be able to fully sing for 8 shows a week
but you have to do everything I tell you! and he did, and he can. Even though he has had world-class vocal training at school, he still refers to Miss Kathy as, My Voice Teacher.</p></li>
<li><p>Know yourself. Have a humble opinion of yourself. You cant act if you dont know who you are. You cant be honest, connect on-stage, and be emotionally available if you dont already have a core knowledge of yourself. You cannot let others define you. (And coming from a theatre background myself, you certainly dont want theatre people to define you!) My son has observed that this may be the most difficult aspect of learning to be an actor, and it can be a stop for many.</p></li>
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<p>BONUS #6 (but really #1). Be ridiculously talented. This is the innate part where people get tripped-up. You can get good coaches and have a great resume and lots of ballet and dance and good dental work and be trim and fit and spend money on camps and get into places only to later realize you are not in the 3-5% of the developed talent pool for top-work. Conversely, if you dont develop your talent in an extremely disciplined way, youll be the best singer in your local production of Brigadoon. (No slam intended, Im in the latter group.)</p>
<p>Hope that helps, it has helped us with our #4 son.</p>