For Parents

Hey, parents.

If you’re reading this, chances are your child wants to apply to a college theatre program. And chances also are you are already feeling overwhelmed by this uncharted wild land of BFAs, auditions, interviews, portfolio reviews, prescreens, monologues, and even more stuff (sorry!) you have yet to discover.

This isn’t what applying to college was like for you. You picked a few schools, sent in your applications and transcripts, wrote a few essays, and waited patiently for your admission letters to roll in. You majored in something sensible like accounting, or education, or marketing.

You’re staring down a pretty steep learning curve, so now what? Should you hire a coach? A consultant? Maybe your kid’s high school theatre teacher can help? You’ve started reading the online college forums… what exactly are you signing up for here?

Stop. Breathe. This is going to be okay.

First, recognize that your child is amazing. Working in theatre is HARD. I’m guessing your kid is already putting in darn near full-time hours at school at crew or in rehearsals. This is great! She is picking up skills that she will call upon for the rest of her life:

  • Discipline (see “darn near full-time hours.”)
  • Problem Solving (The set we built doesn’t fit on the stage. What now?)
  • Resourcefulness (We won’t get the specialty prop on time. What can we use instead?)
  • Punctuality and Reverence for Deadlines (Opening night is OPENING NIGHT!)
  • Confidence (presenting your design to the company or performing onstage.)
  • Quick thinking (TFW your scene partner forgets his lines!)
  • Adaptability & Teamwork (sometimes you’re the lead, sometimes you’re the chorus.)

So second, good job raising such an incredible person!

It’s tempting to fall into the common trap of thinking that you are paying for a degree in waiting tables. There is no earthly reason why this has to be the case, however. Theatre kids do great working in all manner of areas besides theatre. Lots of theatre grads go on to law school. Some find themselves working (and killing it) in PR, the hospitality industry, teaching, counseling, account management… really anything that needs poise, creativity, motivation, and discipline.

Of course, that’s not what your child wants to hear right now. He is ALL THEATRE, ALL THE TIME, FOREVER in that obsessively-focused way that only a 17 ½-year-old can pull off. And that’s fine, too. Maybe he will work in theatre, making a decent living, and living his dream. But you can rest easy knowing that if that dream doesn’t shake out exactly as planned, or if he eventually burns out on long rehearsals and late shows, he has plenty of skills and experience to draw upon to use elsewhere. The secret here is that theatre training is its own backup plan.

But before all that, you have to get that acceptance. That’s where I come in.

I’m not a monologue coach. There are already lots of those out there. I’m a former admissions rep for a highly-ranked BFA theatre conservatory program, where I worked for 12 years, meeting thousands of prospective theatre students and parents. I know this process and its pitfalls. At times, I’ve rolled my eyes at an applicant so hard I think I pulled a muscle; but conversely I’ve also sat back in my ergonomic chair, blown away, and thought “WOW.” As an admissions rep, I’ve seen it all.

My own undergraduate degree is in theatre, and I was a working theatre artist in a major city for 18 years. I eventually obtained a graduate degree in communications, and worked as a PR/Marketing freelancer for arts organizations and theatre companies in my city, uniquely qualified because I already know the industry and speak the language.

I’ve been where your child is, where she wants to be, and where she might be in the future.

At work, I often caught myself giving general college search advice to families visiting my program, just because I could see the mistakes they were making and I wanted to help. I also briefly ran a small online business editing application essays, but there was more demand than I had time for (between working in admissions and theatre), so I had to put that on pause. Throughout my years of experience I’ve wished that there was a guide out there, helping parents and students navigate the BFA application process in a way that makes sense, before the application ever crossed my desk.

Finally, I decided to create the guide myself.

Hey, parents? If you’re reading this, you just met your new best friend.

-The BFA BFF