Eric's Road to CCM (Parts 3, 4, 5)

477
476
475

(OK, we're heading to Ciny and I'm not going to guarantee I'll have time to write, so I wrote this one 3x as long. Read it in chunks, or all at once. It's long.-cg)

The Research

Eric had been going to Longview Community College since he was 15.  We knew he was going to continue to go there at least one year after he graduated High School and possibly 2 years.  He knew he wanted to pursue music or theater.  His band was very good and he had the skills of a drummer and vocalist who could get work, but it was all very general or nebulous.

In 2010 he performed two of his best roles back-to-back. He was “Fagin” in Oliver! and “Harold Hill” in The Music Man. These two roles solidified in all our minds not only his potential, but his love for theater as his primary calling.  So I began to do what I do best, I started collecting and organizing data.

At the university-level there are two kinds of theater degrees; academic degrees (BA-Bachelor of Arts) and performance degrees (BFA-Bachelor of Fine Arts). A BA in Theater could be related to teaching with the possibility of performance where a BFA has a goal of performance with the possibility of teaching or administrating. A BFA has very few general education classes (history. literature, psychology) and some academic classes (music theory, history of theater, Shakespeare).  The bulk of the classwork is in voice lessons, sight singing, dance (jazz, tap, ballet), acting and performance, hence the term “conservatory” being attached to these programs.

More and more schools have now added a BFA in Musical Theater to their conservatories.  These programs tend to accept 20 to 40 students a year. Most have some sort of live audition process where you must sing two one-minute excerpts from songs, do one or two monologues, and learn a dance audition.  A student must first be accepted academically to the university and then be accepted into the conservatory.

As I (thoroughly) investigated Musical Theater schools, I noted there are generally three mentioned in everyone’s top 10 lists when talking about “Best” musical theater programs in the country, they are:

>The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor

>Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg

>College Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the University of Cincinnati.

Then there is another tier that are talked about a lot (but not by everyone):

>The Boston Conservatory in Boston

>New Your University’s Tisch School of the Arts in Manhattan

>Penn State University at State College

After there were some old, established, and respected programs as well as up-and–coming programs such as:

>Chicago Conservatory of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, (downtown)

>Ithaca University in New York

>Pace University in New York

>Elon University in North Carolina

>Webster University in St. Louis

>Point Park University in Pittsburg

>The University of Oklahoma in Norman

A lot to choose from…

Narrowing the Field

This was our thinking: an actor is like a general contractor in the construction industry.  No one cares where your carpenter went to school (or if he even went to school) they want to know, “Can you install these cabinets and will they look great?”  The more skills a contractor has (plumbing, HVAC, dry wall, roofing) the more work he can get.  So if he has some training, it better directly translate into skills that can help him make money.

Eric needed skills, not a degree, to be a working performer.  Most people in Hollywood do not have some kind of acting degree.  They do however; take lots of very expensive acting classes.  On Broadway most performers do have some kind of degree and they still continue to take acting and dancing classes and they have vocal coaches.

With that in mind, we targeted a small number of schools.  Some of Eric’s friends applied and auditioned for over 20 different schools.  He narrowed his list to seven.

1. Missouri State University.  They have a comprehensive conservatory model.  The in-state tuition and possible scholarships meant we could afford it with very little debt, and it was close to home.
2. Texas Christian University.  Because Gina Milbourn (a TCU Grad) had such a profound influence on Eric as a performer (she had directed Eric in 6 different shows) he felt obligated to audition.  They also have a full conservatory.
3. Point Park University.  They are an up-and-coming program that was aggressively looking for talent.
4. Penn State University. An established Major University in the 1^st & 2^nd tier discussion.
5. The Boston Conservatory. A conservatory unto itself without being part of another University.  Also in the 1^st & 2^nd tier discussion.
6. The Chicago Conservatory. Part of Roosevelt University in downtown Chicago. Closely involved with Professional Theater in Chicago with the opportunity to get professional work (and Equity points) while going to school.
7. CCM. Arguably the #1 program in the country.  Known for producing spectacular vocalists and a record of their graduates getting lots of Broadway and Tour work.  The National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST) musical theatre accreditation standards were based on CCM’s practices.  This was, overwhelmingly, Eric’s first choice.

The annual cost (without scholarships) to TCU is $44,000.00 a year (Boston Conservatory was higher).  The annual cost at Missouri state is around $14,00.00 a year.  CCM was somewhere in the middle.

So Eric applied to all seven schools (and yes, we paid the non-refundable application fee for all seven schools).  Being home-schooled, Eric’s transcript was “tricky” but he was academically accepted to all of the schools.  The next step was the auditions.

The National Unified Auditions

To audition for a Conservatory, you can schedule a time at each individual campus (which means flying or driving all over country) or you can go to one of four places where all the major musical theater schools gather together and hold a four-day audition-fest called, “The National Unified Auditions.” They are held in February each year in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and the Grand Daddy, Chicago. 

The Chicago Unifieds are held at the Palmer House Hilton in downtown Chicago. They advertise that 25 Musical Theater programs will be represented, but I imagine it is closer to 50. All the major, sub-major, and unknown programs have representatives there.  There are also representatives from England, Scotland, and Ireland.  Here’s the picture; in one location (or general location) there are hundreds of musical theater performers (teenage men and women) from all over the country running around with their parents in a huge hotel from one audition to the other, warming up, stretching, crying, being dramatic, laughing hysterically, fighting with their moms, hugging their dads, sprinting to their next auditions three floors down in 2 minutes. It is one of the funnest things I’ve ever done with Eric & Amy.

My attitude through this whole process was that I was going to act as Eric’s Agent and Manager as long as I could.  I wanted all of his energy to be focused on singing, dancing, acting, and interviewing.  So I had a very thought-out plan for the auditions.  Some schools wanted you to Sing, Dance and Act all at the same time.  Most had a separate dance call from the singing and acting, sometimes on different days.  He was going to see 6 schools, which meant 12 audition times.  I scheduled everything with a one or two hour break in-between.  Everything was done mid-morning to mid afternoon, and I always built in time to eat (Eric will not eat when he gets focused.)

We took the Amtrak from KC to Chicago Sunday morning. His dance audition for Chicago Conservatory (CCPA) was that evening.  Roosevelt University is a couple blocks from our hotel.  He was in a group of about 20.  The audition was led by Luis Perez, a principal dancer for the Joffrey Ballet and a Broadway veteran (Original to Phantom, and  Chicago as well as the Lead in the revival of Man from La Mancha.) It was fun for us to sit around and talk to the other parents from around the country while we all waited.

The next day he did his songs and monologues for CCPA.  He sang/danced/read for Point Park University and TCU.  After his vocal audition for Point Park the director of the program pulled him aside and offered him a place in the program on the spot.  They accept around 20 students into their program annually.  They also offered him the most scholarships of any other school, about 20k in support.  The people from TCU were suspicious.  After his audition they asked him, “Are you really interested in TCU, or did you just come here because Gina told you to come and you practicing for other auditions?”  Eric assured them he was interested, although, the folks from TCU were exactly right.

His next day auditions were his top priorities, Boston in the morning and CCM in the afternoon.  We wanted to have several run throughs “live” before that CCM audition.  Eric said the Boston dance audition was really fun, but very long.  It put him back for his Boston vocal audition which was in another location. It was the only time we had to run up the stairs (and it wasn’t due to my lack of scheduling, thank you.)

Eric said the mood of the CCM audition was different, more pressure.  They had a large group dance audition and then settled in to the vocal auditions.  One of his songs was “All I need is the Girl” from Gypsy (they wanted classic Broadway style which is Eric’s bread and butter.) CCM had stated in their printed literature, on-line, and they were told directly that the song could not go more than 32 bars or 1 minute.  They were told they would be marked down if they did not adhere to the strict time limit.  So Eric timed his song to stop right before the chorus, because that was exactly 1 minute.  So he launched in and sang all the way up to the chorus, then stopped (because generally, Eric is pretty obedient.) Diane Lala, (the resident choreographer at CCM and a professor there) said, “Why did you stop?”  Puzzled, Eric replied, “Well, that was one minute.”  To that Miss Lala responded, “You’ve got to give us the pay-off, sing the whole thing, sing the chorus.”  So he kept singing. That was a very good sign.

We went to Les Miz that night and of course, Marius (Eric’s dream role) was a recent CCM grad.  He was pumped.

The next day was Penn State, and he just wasn’t feeling it.  He said it was rough and they didn’t seem that into him.  We had a train to catch that afternoon, so we went back to our hotel (The Silversmith) to pack-up, relax a bit, and walk to the train station.

A Wild Card?

Many other schools and programs also would schedule auditions near the Unifieds to try and pull people in.  They would be in nearby hotels like the one we were staying in.  There was a school from Scotland doing auditions in our hotel.  The Royal Scottish Academy of Music And Drama (RSAMD) was pulling people in.  They were there one day of what sounded like a world-wide tour to fill about 4 international spots for their upcoming class.  Eric was in street clothes eating a sandwich in the lobby when a rep came to him and asked, “Are you here for the Unifieds?  Would you like to audition?”  Eric said he would so he dug out his notebook and went on in.  We didn’t have to leave for an hour, and we thought he would have plenty of time (they usually take about 10-minutes.) But he didn’t come out, and he didn’t come out, and he still wasn’t coming out.  I finally had to tell the rep, “Hey, we have a train to catch and we have to start walking in about 10 minutes, can you go see what’s happening in there?”   So she went in and about a minute later Eric came around the corner with a traumatized look on his face. He was pale and glassy-eyed.  He said, “Uh, these guys want to talk to you.”

Around the corner walked two of the coolest guys I’d ever seen.  They looked like alt-rocker-dudes rather than theater guys.  The lead guy, Andrew Panton, came over and got right down to it with his ultra-cool-Beatles-esque accent, “Well, I know you’ve got a train to catch, so here goes.  We’ve been all over the world, and Eric did the best audition we’ve ever seen.  Eric represents exactly what we’re trying to do, artists who can sing, act, dance, are musicians, and who can create music.  We’ve never done this, but we’d like to guarantee him a spot right now and offer maximum scholarship to our program in Glasgow.”  Amy began to cry, (because it’s always great to hear from someone else what you already know.)  He finished by saying, “Please take all this material and here’s my number and contact me as soon as you can.  Please keep us in mind when he gets other offers, and believe me, he’s going to get other offers.”

We then had to sprint to get a cab, sprint to the train station, and sprint to the end of the line to jump on the train as it was just getting ready to pull out.  Eric said he went in and sang “Moving too Fast” by Jason Robert Brown.  He said the piano player was perfect.  They then asked if he could play any pop songs, so he played and sang a song by Panic at the Disco. Then they asked if he wrote any music and he played and sang “Unsure.”  They were hooked.

The Final Decision

A few weeks later, after Eric had found out he was in the final group for CCM he called me at work, he was having a hard time keeping it together (he was crying.) “I got in, I got in.” he kept saying, and that was that.  He was CCM bound.  The school reports that they auditioned 800+ applicants, though, people in-the-know say it is probably more than that.  He is one of 18 in his class.  Pretty impressive considering the odds.  He was also accepted and offered scholarships from Boston, Chicago, Point Park and Missouri State.  Penn State wasn’t interested and TCU got de-interested when he was accepted at CCM.

So now, we’re in the midst of getting him to a school that is a 10 hour drive from KC.  A fun, but preliminary chapter for Eric.

Yeah, I’m proud.

chris