What to focus on summer before Senior year? (Shows vs summer program)

GraceMarie88
Fri, 03 Apr 2015 21:54:48 +0000

Hi all! This is going to be a lot, but bear with me. I am planning my course of action for the summer, and am beginning to realize that it’s virtually impossible to do EVERYTHING in one summer!

I guess the big 3 things I’m weighing right now are:

A summer intensive, because I want that taste of what a college program is like. I feel like that’s a valuable experience and will show colleges I know what I’m getting myself into. I did a 4 week summer intensive last year with a local preprofessional company and it helped me tremendously! I now want to take that a step further and work with a university. I just got accepted into Wagner SMTI, but I’m also applying to AADA and Pace summer scholars. (all are 2 weeks long, so I wouldn’t be gone too long. Anyone have any opinions on these programs?)

-Dance classes. That’s definitely my weakest area and something I know I can improve on easily if I were to focus on it more, and I could really use any help I can get going into the audition process (hard dance calls… yikes!)

-Prep material… I plan on starting with a college audition coach this spring. (I’ve read a lot of good things about Mary Anna, has anyone used Tyce from SFNY? Just starting to look into my options with this). I would probably plan on checking in with them once a month ish, so they can help me pick good pieces for college auditions - then I can take them to my private teachers, work on them, then get more feedback from the coach, etc and end up with some solid rep pieces to use in auditions.

I am also planning on applying to do a workshop in my area that will produce and perform a new musical, so that will be a show to add to the resume.

My only concern with all this is that it won’t leave a lot of room to audition for summer shows. I have a bunch of smaller, supporting roles on my resume, and I think 3 lead roles… How imperative is it that I get more leads? I don’t want to turn them away by not having a ton of credits… I feel like I’m always hearing about people that have 5000 professional credits and it intimidates me a lot. I go to a public school with a lot of students where it is difficult to get roles until you are an upperclassmen, so I was sort of restricted for a while.
BUT, the summer programs I’ve been looking at would conflict with the show opportunities in my area that I’ve looked at - and trying to cram in a show might be too much. I still need to do college research and get ready to apply!

What I usually hear is that what happens in the audition room is going to matter the most, so I usually place training over all else but I’m curious to hear your opinions. Am I on the right track with my summer plans? Should I go for the summer program? Or should I hold out to be in a show?