Month: January 2016

At age 9 Zack had been performing locally for three years, four if you count the seasonal Nutcracker performances. He was having fun and had many opportunities, but was already starting to find audition announcements online and would leave them up on the computer for us to “find”. These auditions were in NYC! I literally laughed out loud! He must be joking! I dreaded driving even to Boston to find our way to the auditions there that had been arranged by his agent.

A friend who had children “in the business” had seen Zack in action and had offered to manage him. When I tell you this woman should be submitted for a nationally recognized patience award I am not exaggerating. She slowly chipped away at my anxieties even submitting him or helping us to submit him for a few projects. Two of these submissions brought Zack to NYC for work. We made it there and back and even lived to tell about it. Ok, maybe NYC was an option, but what does a professional theater audition entail? I knew we were not yet prepared for that performance level.

One day, over Christmas break, I received a notice about a group called Broadway Kids Auditions coming to Marblehead , MA for a one day workshop. This was sent to me not by one, or two, but by three different friends all on the same morning. BKA’s mission statement read “Developing confident and extraordinary kids inside and outside of the audition room”. What’s not to like about that? How could I go wrong with a one day workshop so close to home? A good friend of Zack’s was also taking the workshop so we registered him that day.

I had no idea at the time how this one day would so positively alter our path. We arrived that cold, snowy, February morning with 8 other kids. I quickly noticed that all of the other kids had binders, many with head shots on the cover, and the inside appeared to contain sheet music all in page protectors. Zack had a newly acquired binder and in it the sheet music for the one song that he had been assigned by BKA for the workshop, unprotected. Zack had a wonderful experience during that workshop. He left armed with new skills and bits and pieces of an incredible amount of information about the audition process. In another blog entry I’ll talk more about coaching. Kurt Domoney and Julianne Katz, the co-founders of BKA , will be a big part of that entry. That dynamic duo , and the rest of their team, took on this talented kid and his completely clueless parents and taught us all auditioning 101. The biggest surprise to me from the workshop and future lessons was the “book”. How could Zack have been doing theater all this time and we didn’t know anything about the “book”?

If your child is feeling ready to head out to a professional audition make sure he/she has his/her book AND has prepared the material in the book very well. He/She should be able to handle any direction the team in the audition room may throw out to him/her without losing focus– and the material needs to be memorized! What is in “the book” you ask?? Great question! Ready…here it is the first inclusion:

You need sheet music for at least two songs in the key your child would sing. One of these should be a “standard” song. A standard is something pre 1960’s. Think Rogers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music” or Lionel Bart’s “Oliver”. At college auditions they will be particularly strict about this. Make sure you have a true standard and not a “Thoroughly Modern Millie” that is the style of a standard but written as a contemporary. Your other song should be a contemporary song or from a show post 1960’s. Think “Seussical the Musical” or “Shrek”. Girls can further their book by making sure they have a song that show cases their head voice as well as their chest (or belter) voice. In each of these songs your child should be prepared to present either a 16 bar or 32 bar cut for the folks in the audition room. He/she should be prepared to approach the accompanist in the room and confidently open his/her book, show the accompanist where to begin and end, and offer them the tempo he/she would like. Sounds impossible , right? Believe me, no one could have been more surprised than I to watch Zack walk right up to the accompanist at the end of the workshop and do just this! Give these kids what they need and teach them and it’s amazing what they can do.

This is the bare minimum for songs for the book. Considering the shows currently on Broadway casting children, the coaches are also encouraging the kids to have a current pop/rock song, a 70’s rock song, a Disney song, and then a song that the child just feel best represents him/her. These songs will change as your child grows and his/her voices mature, but this is a great starting point. It will be imperative that the songs in his/her book are ones that fit well in his/her voice i.e. range and tone, and are songs that your child can connect with and deliver a heartfelt performance. This is the song he/she will sing to make his/her first impression to the audition team. It’s generally at call backs that kids will need to sing music from the show for which they are auditioning, although it can happen in the initial audition, the team almost always asks for the kids’ song from their own book first.

Here are a couple of tips about song choice. If you are auditioning for the “Sound of Music” do not sing a song from that show in your initial audition. Sing a standard or song of “similar” style to the “Sound of Music”. The team will give your child plenty of opportunity to sing songs from the show in call backs. In the initial audition you need to give them something different, but not too different. “Sound of Music” auditions is not where you should choose to sing your Beatles song :-). The second tip is choose the songs that you have in your book carefully. Try not to pick the song that is everyone’s favorite. It may also be your child’s favorite, and he/she may sound great singing it, but you can literally be sitting at an open call and hear “Tomorrow” from Annie three times while you’re waiting. Can you imagine being on that audition team and sitting in that room for 8 hours and hearing “Tomorrow” sung two dozen times? Be original and you’ll get the team’s attention and they’ll remember you. They SO appreciate originality! The final tip is make sure your child chooses a song that is age appropriate. It may seem cute and funny to hear a ten year old sing about getting revenge on a lost love, but, trust me, it’s just awkward and uncomfortable, and that’s NOT how you want to be remembered.

The other big piece of the “book” is the monologue. Your child should have at least one great monologue but two would be even better. The monologue , like the song, should be one that your child can connect with. It’s great to have a more serious and direct monologue as well as one that’s more whimsical or humorous that allows your child to show some versatility. Once again you don’t want to be reading your monologue and have it be the fourth time the team has heard it that day. It doesn’t matter how good you are, they’ve heard it. It’s also a confidence-shattering experience to be sitting outside the room and hear the auditioner in front of you slaying the same material! Talk about a tough act to follow! It will happen at some point, but if you are creative you can minimize the risk. The monologue also needs to be memorized.

Ok, that’s the basics on the “book”. Next time we’ll talk a little more about coaching and audition etiquette for both the child and the parent and also in the near future head shots and resumes and how they should be presented.

As always if you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to leave them here or send them to me privately.

I love my mom! She totally “gets” me. I don’t always love that she knows what I’m thinking or what my next move is going to be even before I do, but most of the time it’s nice to not have to explain everything, and she’s very direct.
It was summer time 2006, Zack was not quite 3. My mom and dad are very present in our lives so it wasn’t a surprise to have mom drop by unexpectedly. I was cleaning up from lunch and the kids were getting ready for some downtime, which for Zack meant standing in front of the CD player belting out some Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You’ve Been Gone”. My mom came in and said “Who’s singing?” and I answered “Zack”. She walked down the hallway, peaked into the living room, came back to me and said “What are you going to do about that?”.
That one sentence offered both relief and panic She saw it too! Not only that, but from her statement she knew that it meant he was going to need some guidance, and from her tone she also totally understood my mixed emotions! I just stood there and looked at her feeling all the relief and panic and said, “I have no idea”. Yes something was there, and I knew that if I wanted to have any control over the situation, then I needed to grab the reigns, buckle up, and hold on tight..but where to go?
At his young age there was so little to go on and that was ok. Now I know about singers that dance, and dancers that sing (we’ll talk more about that later) but at not quite 3 that really didn’t matter yet. There weren’t any true musical theater programs in our area for someone so young and I didn’t think he was ready for that anyway. A few weeks later Zack snuck into his older sister’s dance class and fit right in, so we decided that was the way to go. Most places will start kids as young as 3 in a dance class. It exposes them to rhythm and timing, different styles of music, often encourages them to “feel the mood” of the music, and his instructor even encourages the littles to sing along. It was a perfect start for us and it also showed us that he was able to follow directions, not be disruptive, and, best of all, he loved it! How your child progresses will depend not only on talents and physical abilities but also on his/her emotional growth. I think we sometimes go wrong when we are only pushing for improvement in the talents, but don’t pay attention to what they are emotionally ready for. It’s a very tricky balance as a parent, but your child will guide you if you listen to him/her, and a great teacher who knows his/her pupil will also help. It has taken me years to push down my anxieties over the dreams of this boy of ours , stop my tendencies of pushing through obstacles to get where we are going, and learn to breathe deeply and roll with it. Frankly I still have much room for improvement and at 12 Zack still has a lot of growing to do so I’m still rolling 🙂

One thing to keep in mind if you go the dance route is to pick a school with the focus and philosophy you want for your child. Many dance schools are now competitive, which is awesome for kids who want to focus on dance. If your child wants to have the availability to participate in some musical theater productions, then the commitment required by a competitive dance school or team can limit the theater opportunities. Mind you I said “can”. We have had plenty of friends who have been able to manage both and also plenty who have had to choose. As Zack’s focus became more on theater productions we had to stop the recital dance program he was in and turn to private lessons more specific to his theater dreams.

Generally between 6 and 8 years old opportunities become available for kids to start getting involved in local youth musical theater programs. Sometimes you can be lucky to find something when they are younger, particularly if you have a community theater that might be looking to cast younger kids for a production, but that tends to be the exception and not the rule. We are so fortunate to have several programs in our area and they have offered all five of our kids excellent experiences in multiple different projects. This is again where you want to research the program(s) available, and find the one that fits best with what you and your child are looking for. We started in the one closest to home that was a lovely small community theater that performs many classic or “standard” productions. They offered summer camps and year long musical theater classes for all the kids, but the performance opportunities were really only available to the select few who were cast in the productions. This worked for Zack and his brothers, boys in a world of girls, but not for our daughter. We discovered another program, a little further away, where they held auditions for the youth productions, but everyone was cast in a role. At first we were concerned that our kid would get lost in that huge sea of kids, but this group does an excellent job of making each child feel like a big part of the production. Point being , there are so many programs out there, look around and feel them out and find the one that’s the best fit for your child.

As kids get older and are exposed to all the ins and outs of song, dance, and acting, it will become clear where their strengths are and where they need more practice. Your child may be able to do it all very well, but I think every child has one component that they just connect with more easily, and this one would be a strength. Our Zack is definitely a singer who also dances. He just connects better, more naturally, with song. He certainly can dance but if given the choice, he is a singer who dances. Our daughter is a dancer who sings, she has a beautiful singing voice but her comfort lies in dance. Professional auditions are often broken into “voice call” or “dance call”. It’s good for children to figure out which area is a strength as it will allow them to put their best foot forward first, make a great first impression, and build confidence. Generally great singers will be called back to dance, and great dancers will be called back to sing.

It is great to be actively training in both voice and dance, but often finances and schedules can interfere.  I suggest pick the one that needs the most practice to do regularly and maybe slide in workshops or camps for the other when time and money allow.

We found that people in our area wouldn’t offer voice lessons to children until they were ten years old. We didn’t realize how important it was for Zack , who was always singing and playing with his voice, to have training before he was ten. His lack of training led to formation of some very bad vocal habits and much frustration when his voice would “hurt” and he couldn’t make it sound they way he wanted it to. If your child sings all the time, is a true “belter”, and has days of hoarseness because of singing, then find someone reputable who will work with them younger than ten. There is much to be taught at an earlier age to encourage great vocal health.  If we had known then what we know now, things could have been much easier. Skype is a wonderful tool! More on that soon.

I seriously could go on and on about all of this, which is why this is a blog 🙂 But this is where I think you should start with a kiddo expressing interest. The youngest should be in a preschool music class or dance classes, and,when old enough, a good youth musical theater program, and private voice lessons as needed.
There’s so much more in terms of finding auditions, preparing for auditions, finding representation, and even modeling, which is great exposure and practice, but we will save that for another entry. My plan will be to put up a new post each Friday. If you have specific questions ask away! If I can’t answer then I’ll help find the answer for you.

Ever have that moment when you’re just going along with life, day after day, not unhappily but definitely complacently, and all of a sudden something comes hurtling out of left field and you are suddenly unsure of anything!?!  I think we all have had a few of those experiences, perhaps related to the number of years we’ve been on the planet, but not necessarily.  Childbirth for example. Honestly for me it didn’t matter if it was the first or the fifth. Each brought a whole new set of changes with him or her. There are books , blogs, tv shows, and endless people offering you all kinds of advice about how to raise your child from the cellular level on up. I have found very few that offer advice on how to deal with a child who has a dream that is so big and so different from anything that I had in my own vision of raising my family.

A little background.  I am a not quite 50 year old mother of 5 wonderful school aged children.  I’ve been married to my husband for nearly 20 years and we both work, one of us in healthcare and the other in law enforcement. We have a very “normal” life in general although obviously a busy one with the 5 kids. They each have their own personalities, strengths, weaknesses, and talents.  We are a very traditional, some might say conservative, Christian family who still eats supper together every night, head to church on Sundays and have lots and lots of rules..much to the older kids’ chagrin.  Our 3rd and 4th children are a set of twins and the older of the 2 is the reason for this blog to exist.

This child of ours was clearly “different” than the others from the beginning. He could sing before he could speak in full sentences and not just sing…he could SING! Where the heck did that come from? He has incredible rhythm and grace , both of which my husband claims. He is incredibly sensitive and intuitive; I’ll claim that thank you. He demonstrated a great ability for acting by the age of 2.  At 3 he broke into his older sister’s dance class and refused to leave, and by the age of 5 we were hearing the term “triple threat”.  Any of you know what I’m talking about?? Still makes my heart rate increase and I can start to twitch! This was followed by “oh,man, that kid’s got what it takes!” And “good luck with that his is going to be a wild ride!” Even worse than that was this kid of ours clearly had plans! He spent all of his free time learning music, dancing, begging us to get online with him and search for the who’s who of theater and music and see how they got where they are.  Ummmm…hello??  God?? This was not in my plans! Why on earth would you give me a kid like this?? I’m a suburban mom , perhaps even an introvert, who created this quiet world of mine in which I am very content. Before this child of mine I would scoff at the news stories of child entertainers with thoughts of “those poor kids, their parents making them do this so they can live their dreams vicariously.  NO kid could possibly be driving that bus!” Oh boy…was I wrong!

Now at age 12 my “triple threat” has managed to drag us kicking and screaming through the the last 6 years and we are about to embark on our first national Broadway Tour. When I say kicking and screaming I am not exaggerating! I still am not quite sure how I lost control of the “ride” or which turn led us here.  Was it agreeing last minute to let him audition for the local theater with his sister…he was cast in that show and then virtually every other show in that theater for 3 years. When I let him audition for the local singing competition because his teacher told him he’d be great?  Or was it that workshop offered by the “Broadway people” that seemed to start the slide to the big city that we never seemed to be able to slow down? Deep sigh… Any way we look at it I believe we are right where we should be, for my son, and for the rest of our family.  Of course I had concerns and on the list of concerns ,quite a ways down on the list, was what am I supposed to do while on tour? I’ll go crazy without 5 kids, a husband, a dog, a house, and a job to manage.  Several people suggested writing. Finally, my mom, a retired English teacher and published author said, “How much would you have loved to have someone with your knowledge to turn to for advice as (we’ll call him this) Zack was pulling you along this path?  You have to blog. There’s probably a parent out there in your shoes right now wondering what to do…and you have five kids!”  So here it is…my blog…I hope it helps someone. I’ll do my best to offer topics on the issues that we found most challenging (getting started, auditioning, who the players are)  but am more than happy to hear from you readers with questions.  I’ll help if I can or direct you to my resources if I can’t.