Which course

[MILLET]

Dd and I have been looking around at different colleges, some doing drama courses, some music and some musical theatre. In an audition Dd would get down to the final few if it involved singing or drama but dance is not her strong point, she enjoys dance and is reasonable at it, but she is aware there are much better dancers out there who she would be up against going for jobs than her.

I thought we had come up with a plan of doing music or drama course and leaving it to which college she got into to decide which one would take priority whilst taking evening or weekend classes in the other to keep her hand in. She was also going to do an evening class that would eventually lead to a teaching certificate for dance.

Dd has thrown into the mix that actually she would prefer to do a 3 year course in musical theatre as she likes doing the shows and they are good fun.

The problem I foresee is that if she did go down that route, any of the better colleges cost more than we can afford and the rest we have looked at which are sponsored by the local council/university state that you have to do 1 hour of maths and english per week and to her that is pure torture.

We are at an impasse because I have now not a clue of what to do from here.

[moleseymum]

How old is your DD?

[MILLET]

She is going in to year 11, aged 15. I should add the one thing I have noticed about musical theatre is the girls are quite short. Dd is quite tall. The only work she is doing at the moment is voice overs as she is too tall for children's roles. Her last audition for an acting role, she was head and shoulders over the actress who was meant to play her mum and slightly taller than the father. We are thinking of modelling but that is more short term than long term as a career.

[MILLET]

I might be totally wrong in my thinking but I personally think for someone of my dds height 6ft 2" in heels and the fact her lesser strength is dance, a 3 year musical theatre course is going to be a waste of 3 years. I am not discounting the possibilities of it might lead on to something but would love to know where she would go at the age of 19. I was quite happy when I thought she would pursue with her music or drama, that to me felt right but this idea that she wants to spend 3 years training for a job that her height alone would discount her from virtually all jobs seems ridiculous.

I know ultimately it is her decision but I need some convincing

[Katymac]

Have you looked at height requirements in the stage adverts?

I'm sure there are on-line recruitment sites for adults too - there are a lot of jobs that my DD (5ft 4) is just too short for by several/many inches

Maybe do a bit of research & see

[MILLET]

Just had a quick look at the adverts and if you discount the ones that you have to pay them and christmas elves (cannot see dd as a tiny elf myself) the first one you come across says height 5ft4-5ft5. Also you have to discount the ones that want dancers and what you are left with is very little to non existent.

[MILLET]

Filled out the form to register her. Out of the openings available for the skill set she would have on leaving a 3 year musical theatre course there was only 1 opening that paid anything and that was more drama than musical theatre. The rest paid nothing.

[Katymac]

That's odd loads of cruises normally advertise on there plus tonnes of theatre stuff - I wonder if there is nothing atm becasue they just all took on graduates

Maybe look at the big school alumni - but that would only show you where they went not how tall they were - there were some VERY tall girls at Masters this year - DH & I were remarking on it

[MILLET]

There was a cruise ship advert when I was scanning through initially but that was for someone who was under 5ft 3" and dd would not get that sort of thing because she wouldn't get thru the dance part of the audition. I know she loves doing shows and she isn't a bad dancer but she is not a great dancer. What is really confusing me and making me want to tear my hair out in frustration with her is that she says she wants to do either drama or music long term but loves musical theatre and wants to do that.

[riverdancefan]

A suggestion is that before she makes any decision she maybe goes for something like NYMT, YMT etc to gauge the standard she will be up against.
Does she perform in local productions ? What experience has she of performing ? Especially in musical theatre . Like
you say , the competition is huge, however not all MT performers are dancers and they do very well in lots of roles.
You mentioned voice overs which are fabulous experience and it doesn't matter how tall she is ( my DS is also tall and does a lot of voice over work(
Maybe drama is the way to go as actors who sing and possibly dance or move easily seem to be cast on a regular basis ?

[2dancersmum]

Auditions have gone very quiet at this time of year for graduates. There were loads up to the end of June as many companies start looking agàin in September. My DD graduated this year and I can tell you that for cruise ships as many other roles minimum height seems to be 5'4" or 5'5" and for theatre companies in places like Germany the minimum height is more like 5'7". I am talking cruise and Mt roles here, not drama. DD,s friend is 5'2" and the cruise job you saw advertised was the only one she was able y to apply for since march. Cruise ships vary in their requirements also as some want those who can dance andsing and others run separate auditions and recruit separately for dancers or singers . we were told that height was not such an issue for singers but I do not know if they have upper limits. They still need the cast as a whole to look right together

[MILLET]

She has done panto at our local theatre a couple of years running where fortunately there is another girl of similar height so they share the costume, they are the tallest in the show, including adult cast. Any sort of paid work because of her age and height has been none existent. I feel terrible for dd because a lot of her friends are in various West End shows and she would love to do a run in a West End show but most have a cut off/height restriction of something around 4ft 10" so it wouldn't matter what dd is like she wouldn't be considered to even audition.

[cupcakephoebz]

I feel your pain as I an assuming your dd is about the same height as me. I'm 5ft11 and have had major issues with acting work. Although I am not Looking for courses yet as I will apply when I am 18, but I wish your dd the best of luck and please tell me how your dd does, I think your dd is looking at slightly courses to me as i am a strong dancer not singer but woukd love to find out how she does xx

[Caroline A-C]

There are a number of actresses who are 6ft and over (Brigitte Nielsen, Uma Thurman, Brooke Shields, Geena Davis) so don't let that put your dd off following her passion. Musical Theatre is a bit more difficult I think with regard to height. When starting out after college, most will go into the ensemble who tend consist of performers of a similar size. My ds is 6ft 3in and has never been put up for ensemble as he just couldn't blend in! This might not be quite so much of a problem in the straight drama route. Perhaps it is worth contacting some of the colleges specialising in MT as see what they say.

[paulears]

I'm a little confused by her history. Most colleges from the local ones to the select ones look for experience. In my own quite backwards area there are at least three youth companies who run multiple major productions through the year, where the kids have to learn real scripts and attempt to get the lead roles. Panto juveniles are a bit tricky, because the quality can vary so much, plus they rarely get a chance to shine. If they are doing the sharing costumes parts, then this on a CV isn't going to be much of a positive. Playing Dorothy in the Wizard of OZ, or one of the leads in Bugsy Malone are much more impressive. Of course you also have good kids roles in things like Annie. When they do an interview or audition, one question they always get asked is "what have you been in". This is usually because in their application they say they live to perform, or performing is the biggest thing in their lives, and then the paperwork reveals they've not really done any!

I've never seen the people outside the classic dancer jellymould do poorly in auditions, unless size is a production requirement. It can be when costumes are remade, and they are filling a dead slot - simply walking into the role with no problems. Nobody is going to want a costume cost on the budget when there is no need for it.

That said, the West End is nothing particularly special for the supporting cast. Damn hard work, and average pay, yet it's seen as some kind of holy grail. It isn't!

Short, tall, fat and thin people are always picked up by the colleges because there are always roles for them, alongside the cloned brigade. Colleges nowadays have problems. The numbers for the majority are falling slightly, so they are taking a broader range of students. The more exclusive colleges have far more applicants than they need, so cherry pick. Some colleges are really having problems filling their places. Music is falling off badly in many locations in the country. Dance as a school subject kind of blew itself out, and has now gone back to the mainly private local dance school kids for 16+ (who were always the best anyway).

When I was teaching, we used to go to the Disneyland Paris events, where they do a few seminars on what Disney are looking for, and the ONLY person we had who ever got through the Disney audition process was the very pretty and slim 6 footer who did two years as Cruella - she really did stand out at the auditions.

Being tall is being special, for a girl. You do need to hot up the CVs with some real roles, though. Panto juveniles is not enough (in my humble view).