West End Calling Competition

Chat about any aspect of your child's Casting or Audition

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barmby1234
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West End Calling Competition

Post by barmby1234 »

Anyone come across this. My son would love it but I am not sure if it is a real competition or just one of those hoax's etc. Any advice would be great.
swanny
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Re: West End Calling Competition

Post by swanny »

do you have a link to anything please?

It is ok I have found the link http://westendcalling.co.uk/the-competition/

It looks kosher but tough- a bit like Britains Got Talent but just for aspiring musical theatre stars.
I'm swanning around trying to get the hang of all this! Thanks for your help!
Katymac
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Re: West End Calling Competition

Post by Katymac »

But in the FAQ it says you have to sell/buy a minimum number of tickets for each stage/round
barmby1234
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Re: West End Calling Competition

Post by barmby1234 »

This is the bit that worries me. What happens if you have a small family and cant sell the minimum amount of tickets etc.
Dwafffamily
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Re: West End Calling Competition

Post by Dwafffamily »

These aren't competitions where the best person wins, just like open mic etc. Is all about who can get the most people to vote, or having to buy certain amount of tickets to the evening and so on.
More about marketing than finding the best of the Best but that's just one opinion.
Trundlemum
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Re: West End Calling Competition

Post by Trundlemum »

Dwafffamily wrote:These aren't competitions where the best person wins, just like open mic etc. Is all about who can get the most people to vote, or having to buy certain amount of tickets to the evening and so on.
More about marketing than finding the best of the Best but that's just one opinion.
Agree totally with this. Looks like it's run by the same people as 'Teen Star' Could be a lot of fun but is totally a money making scheme. Look up 'Teen Star' on here for more info n the organisers.
barmby1234
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Re: West End Calling Competition

Post by barmby1234 »

Thank you ever so much. The more I read it the more I think it's about the money. Will not be applyng.
Fizz
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Re: West End Calling Competition

Post by Fizz »

Where did you see it is the same company as Teen Star and do I interpret correctly the suggestion that means it's not a good thing?

I saw it's a £30 deposit which you get refunded if you sell the tickets. However, we don't have any family in London but I wonder if it works out that if you don't sell the tickets, you just lose teh £30 - they surely can't penalise you or charge you more?

I know it seems dodgy re the selling the tickets but my daughter recently did a talent contest which did ask if you reached the final, for you to buy at least X no of tickets. Yes, it cost money and it was slightly different in this case as it was all for charity so we didn't mind at all. I'd see it in this case not just all about the money but surely a way to guarantee there's a substantial audience rather than singing to an empty room which wouldn't be nice for anyone. Maybe I'm being a bit naive!

I am a little intrigued by it but we are 200 miles from London so not sure whether it would be worth doing and whether like suggested, it is a bit of a scam meaning they'd let maybe almost everyone through to the heats to get more money.

Does anyone think it could be likely to lead to anything at all i.e. any chance casting agents could be talent spotting? Sorry if that's a daft question as I'm completely new to all of this. i.e. does anything like that happen with Teen Star?
Trundlemum
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Re: West End Calling Competition

Post by Trundlemum »

Fizz wrote:Where did you see it is the same company as Teen Star and do I interpret correctly the suggestion that means it's not a good thing?

I saw it's a £30 deposit which you get refunded if you sell the tickets. However, we don't have any family in London but I wonder if it works out that if you don't sell the tickets, you just lose teh £30 - they surely can't penalise you or charge you more?

I know it seems dodgy re the selling the tickets but my daughter recently did a talent contest which did ask if you reached the final, for you to buy at least X no of tickets. Yes, it cost money and it was slightly different in this case as it was all for charity so we didn't mind at all. I'd see it in this case not just all about the money but surely a way to guarantee there's a substantial audience rather than singing to an empty room which wouldn't be nice for anyone. Maybe I'm being a bit naive!

I am a little intrigued by it but we are 200 miles from London so not sure whether it would be worth doing and whether like suggested, it is a bit of a scam meaning they'd let maybe almost everyone through to the heats to get more money.

Does anyone think it could be likely to lead to anything at all i.e. any chance casting agents could be talent spotting? Sorry if that's a daft question as I'm completely new to all of this. i.e. does anything like that happen with Teen Star?
Hi Fizz, I'm not saying it's a scam in any way, My son entered Teen Star last year and got through a few rounds and had a huge amount of fun and made some good friends. It's just that it is all about the money, deposits, selling huge amounts of tickets (you get an automatic vote for your contestant with each ticket which encourages people to take whole coach loads of people). A couple of X factor contestants were previous winners - Luke Friend and Lucy 'someone'. I'm not 100% it's the same company behind this as the West End Calling but the web sites are laid out in exactly the same way and run in an almost identical way, even down to the wording. :D
barmby1234
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Re: West End Calling Competition

Post by barmby1234 »

It says that " The deposit is there purely to ensure that you turn up and perform at the requested rounds, and sell your minimum number of tickets (5 for the heats and 10 for the final!). Each contestant will receive their money back in cash once they leave the competition as long as you fulfil the requirements"...Tickets are £10 each.
So do you have to buy 10 tickets if your child gets into the final...Surely not!
Fizz
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Re: West End Calling Competition

Post by Fizz »

Thanks Trundlemum. If we lived closer, I would be more tempted.
Barmby, I do think that is the case but I also read it that you could equally just lose the £30 if you don't sell that many?
My daughter has done 2 things this year that required minimum ticket sales. One was a regional talent contest but for charity so we didn't mind and the other was Chance2Dance which she did through her dance school and they dropped the requirement in the end. The latter was also a clear money-making opportunity and I wouldn't be keen for her to do it again. Yes, it gave her the 'chance to dance' on a stage but she's done it plenty of times and for 5 minutes, it seemed a lot of hassle and then having to sit through 'other peoples's children'! :roll: Just kidding! :lol: :lol: :lol: But I guess the reality with things like that is that teh public are never going to be interested so they have to sell the tickets somehow.

Is anyone going to do it? I just wonder if it could open doors, say if there are talent scouts there?! Does Teen Star open any doors like that or only for the winner?
pg
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Re: West End Calling Competition

Post by pg »

Of course I don't know for certain, but my suspicion is that talent scouts/agents/CDs won't be terribly interested in this sort of thing.

Any "competition" which involves voting based on tickets sales is bound to favour those who either have lots of time to flog tickets or lots of money to buy them and give them away (or both). Consequently, these competitions are not really about finding the best people - it's just about finding those (who might be brilliant of course) inclined to enter this sort of thing. I think there are much better routes to "being noticed" by someone who might eventually employ you, if that's what you're after.

If you want a chance to perform, it's probably best to aim for amateur and youth theatre and concentrate on the best material/chance of stretching one's performance muscles. Talent contests give you a matter of minutes.

The reward here is performing in a West End THEATRE - which really isn't the same as appearing in a West End show :D . (though no doubt it's great fun).

If you want to compete for paid, professional work then the best route is to get an agent. That's not easy of course, but if you can't interest an agent via the usual routes then you're probably not likely to interest an agent via a talent competition either.

Professional Musical Theatre opportunities are usually fairly widely publicised and reasonably open for younger for performers. There are really very *few* professional MT opportunites for teens. Can you think of *any* West End musicals employing teenagers? I think most cast young looking adults in teenage roles. Some teenagers might look young enough for child roles - but there are usually strict height restrictions. Straight acting opportunities are relatively limited and will very often be cast via agencies. Sometimes they'll be cast by CDs going to schools and clubs etc - but it will depend on the job.
Theatre
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Re: West End Calling Competition

Post by Theatre »

barmby1234 wrote:Anyone come across this. My son would love it but I am not sure if it is a real competition or just one of those hoax's etc. Any advice would be great.
Hi I have just paid the 10 for my daughter to audition in Manchester, not sure what to now as it does seem after reading these posts that it's a money making scheme rather than talent based?
Darmont
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Re: West End Calling Competition

Post by Darmont »

Hi, we are involved in the competition this year. I emailed to ask about ticket sales and what happens if you can't sell the 5 tickets per round. They said it isn't a problem. You just don't get the £30 deposit back. This is how the voting works...

The amount of people going through the heats depends on how many contestants there are in each heat. Typically, in a heat of 10, the judges will choose their favourite 4 people to go through and then the audience will vote through 1 person meaning 5 go through altogether. Each audience member gets two votes so they will undoubtedly vote through the person they came to see and also someone else. 

So it's mainly up to the judges, it's the 5th or 'wildcard' extra person the audience vote for.
This is a relief for us as not sure I'm going to be able to sell extra seats.
We are thinking of entering Teen Star too, can anyone tell me if the rules with regards to deposit and ticket sales are the same? thank you x
Mamadetres
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Re: West End Calling Competition

Post by Mamadetres »

Why pay for something that has no benefit for your DC?
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