Coaching. You Need it. I Promise.

Originally my thought was that I’ve run a successful business, so surely I can manage a few college applications. I had been reading for a couple of years about the process and how involved it is. But knowing that I had time to dedicate to the process, I was confident that my daughter and I could manage this without coaching. We’ve got this. Maybe?

We started her off early in her junior year working with a local coach. Our target with him was to narrow down a dozen suitable schools with a BFA MT program, and zero in on two monologues that she could connect with and nail in an audition. At the same time I was scouring College Confidential trying to get a feel for the different schools. That’s a great resource, by the way.

My thought in working with this particular coach was that he was local and knew my daughter’s voice coach, so they would work well together. As her junior year progressed her voice coach went in a different direction and left us with no one solidly dependable to turn to during the crucial audition song selection window of time. We tried to limp along on our own, with only a monologue coach, but realizing the long-term consequences of what we were doing, I started really asking around. As July hit, I tried not to panic.

Speaking with local theater friends I began to realize that perhaps a local coach wasn’t really required. Skype was very effective for a lot of people. So why not give it a shot? A friend had been using a woman in Texas and found her very helpful and well-connected. She had a very informative web site that provided some great insight. But this also made me see how much I really didn’t know about the details of this process. We signed up for a consult. However my daughter didn’t really connect with her. So we continued our coach search.

I remembered hearing someone talk about a coaching organization when we were touring a school the year before. I went back in my notes and found the name. It was MTCA, Musical Theater College Auditions. Their website looked legit and they seemed to have success to stories to back them up. I scheduled our first consultation. It was like the sun came up and we were saved from our hike in the dark forest.

I am not in any way disrespecting our local coach. He is a wonderful coach and an awesome, kind and caring person. He helped us a lot early on in understanding the process. However with the loss of our voice/song coach and the time growing short, MTCA was our savior. Right away they assessed my daughter’s personality and type and put her with coaches in their organization who were perfect for her. I can’t emphasize this enough… perfect. They totally clicked. I could not have asked for a better song coach… a true Broadway legend, and an amazing person. She helped my daughter understand what good songs were for the current audition climate, and introduced her to perfect songs for her voice and character type. Then once she selected two songs, helped her trim them to the required 16- and 32- bar cuts.

In working with one of the songs, they decided that a key change would be a good idea for one part. Her coach suggested she knew the perfect person to do it, and offered to first try to get it done for us at no cost. Rather than go to the added expense we opted to exercise patience and wait on her connection. The next day we received a forwarded email with the transcribed sheet music. FROM. THE COMPOSER. OF THE SHOW. that the song was from. My daughter was slightly star struck. The benefit of working with a Broadway super-star-and-super-amazing person is apparently personally transcribed music from one of your favorite show’s composer. (theater nerd moment)  She also took time out of her crazy schedule to come out in the freezing weather to meet us for a coaching session when we were in New York. We love her. Sigh.

At the same time my daughter worked with a coaching coordinator who was also a monologue master for her type. Honestly, this is so important. Working with a monologue coach who is as close to your personality is key. The coach will be able to pull out more obscure, lesser-used pieces that are consistent with the personality type, which is helpful with actually connecting to the piece. There has to be a distinct connection to the monologue in order to really feel the piece and convey the emotion convincingly.

Her monologue coach/coaching coordinator helped us understand more about putting together a smart list of audition schools—a range of difficultly in acceptance for the BFA musical theater major that my daughter is set on—a full range, from super slim chance, to non-audition safety school. We had already compiled a dozen on our list. But ended up dropping a couple and adding more, just to be on the safe side. As I’ve mentioned, my daughter ended up with eighteen audition schools. If you haven’t read the post on applications, that will help explain more about why this many are necessary.

The sheer number of applications that MT kids have to pull off is overwhelming. For this reason, the parent gets to be the whip cracker. This is not a fun job. at. all. The benefit of having a coach also ends up being the tension buffer zone they provide. You’re not the only one asking them how applications are coming. Two whip crackers are better than one. Or a better analogy… good cop-bad cop. Your coaches are always willing to play bad cop. They don’t have to live with your kid through this process.

Another huge benefit to coaching are mock auditions. Since MTCA only had one local to us, my daughter used an early audition at a school she wasn’t really interested in as a mock. Two mock auditions are always best. A benefit of the MTCA mock was to be in the room and to see the level of talent that she was going to be up against. It’s an eye-opening experience to realize that everyone in the room was the lead in their high school shows. At this point the kid will either up their game or let the intimidation take over. If the later happens, they’re looking at getting into the wrong business.

A note on big-fish/small-pond syndrome for a second… it’s a sad thing. Parents, if your kids are doing only local kids’ shows or community theater, the best thing you can do is to get them out and expose them to more. They need to see that always getting the lead in the show isn’t real life. They need to work in a theater environment where they don’t grow to expect things. The earlier kids learn that theater is about “rolling with it,” and always working to improve their craft regardless of the role, the better they will be able to handle the reality of the business. Through the audition process I’ve seen kids who are devastated by the rejection that they have only been marginally exposed to. Their minds can’t comprehend not being the chosen ones. If this is their mindset going into this process, it’s not likely to end well.

Being in a large coaching organization like MTCA gives the kids (and parents) an opportunity to commiserate with others through the process. It doesn’t matter how talented the kids are. They will all experience rejection. I haven’t seen a single kid who has been accepted at all their schools. Everyone has a bad audition at least once. You see the kids who get accepted to a top program, but get wait listed by a third tier program. It’s a humbling process.

But the best part of being a part of this coaching organization has been the connections we’ve made. My daughter has met some great kids who will be her friends for the long haul. They tend to see the same kids over and over through the months-long audition process, and they become friends. She’s also met a load of incredible industry professionals, both as coaches and as faculty at the schools. She nervously auditioned for the actress who originated the role from which one of her audition songs came. This ended up being one of her favorite auditions and one she will never forget. And I’ve had the pleasure of meeting parents who will continue to be friends beyond this process. We’ve gone through a war together. It’s a pretty solid bonding process.

Truly, the upside of a large coaching organization is the combined talent and brainpower of a huge network of fantastic human beings, all with one common goal—helping kids pursue their dreams. If this is something that is in your child’s future, I can’t recommend get coaching help enough. Start early… junior year is a good place. There are so many options—I just found MTCA to be our best fit. But I encourage you to research them all, including your local options. You’ll find the perfect fit too.