Any parents of would-be thespians here?

Ds2. God knows where he gets it from. He's doing his third professional (west end touring) stint next week. Second time for this show. I ran through his lines with him this morning as it's been a few months since his last performance of it and he was pretty chilled.

I actually think that ds2 will probably end up in IT rather than acting (not sure he wants the acting/MT enough) but the shows are fun at the moment.

DD started at full time theatre school in January this year.

I'm still unsure whether it was the right thing to do, but equally if felt like the only thing we could do. She loves it. I have sort of known, in the back of my mind since she was about 5, that she would end up somewhere like that.

What makes me think it is right for her is that she says she feels like she fits, everyone gets her. I worry that it is " messing" with her education, but they take 9 GCSEs, which I think is probably enough. She is too tall for the child musical theatre roles at the moment which is just fine really. I would rather that she concentrated on her studies at this age.

She doesn't know what she wants to do or be yet. She does have a back up idea for a normal job though. At the moment her strength is voice, 2nd is drama, dance comes a definite last, although she has made progress very quickly. She will never be a ballerina though!

Cory, one of DS's friends has just got into NYT. His fundraising so far has been to invite all his equally thesp-y mates to do a turn at a concert and fleece their parents of the entry fee. Despite being rather envious, most of his friends are excited for him and also weren't going to pass up a chance to get up and sing/dance/play.

Seems to have raised most of the fee in one go. Would that be an option?

cory -

My DTDs are very keen - they're only 7 but are moving to the junior class of our local youth theatre in September (it's an excellent one, linked to our local theatre) and are also in the theatre choir. DTD2 is considerably more confident (and tuneful) that DTD1 but both love it.

I'm a drama teacher, so spend my days with kids who dream of it... I have two supremely talented boys (about to go into Yr 10) and one girl (about to go into Yr 11) at the moment, and am pseudo "pushy mum/teacher" to them because two out of the three don't get much interest (let alone push) from home. Have managed to get 8 of them into a professional play in October through general pushiness with a touring theatre company who is coming to our local theatre, which is v exciting. I have to chaperone for the week, which I've never done before, but am looking forward to.

Another with no aspiring thespian children, but who is one themselves. Also willing to answer any questions :) Although probably more useful on here would be my mum, I think it's definitely more stressful for the parents. One thing I would say is that an endless list of backup plans is absolutely essential, I think I must be on plan 500 ish by now

Picturesinthefirelight my mum has never forgiven me for all the major Corrie plotlines she missed out on because she was ferrying me around!

I'm feeling a bit list as iced realised just how much time I've spent taking her to stuff & chaperoning etc. Her dancing & drama has been my social life She's got her last dance school show next week & they don't need me to chaperone so I'm feeling extra redundant (was really looking forward to it too)

I hope she has a great time at her new school. I hope you'll keep visiting the site though :)

A lot if the info on napm won't be relevant to me now as dd won't be allowed to take part in anything for the next t 5 years.

Aha! Hello. Now you'll know how much I swear . I try to be eversowellspoken on NAPM.

My username in there is related to the Thomas the Tank obsession my son used to have.

My username now is a song from a show dd was in at Stockport.

Oh god, yes, Cory. DS is adamant that an actor's life is the only thing he'd interested in.

Sadly even I can see that while he's good, there are at least two others in his school year alone who are as good or better (ordinary comp with about 200 to a year; two of them have just got into NYT, DS forgot to mention the auditions, which is sort of typical).

I suspect that means he hasn't got the edge to make it his profession.

But hey, what do I know abut it? This is a child who was painfully tune-free at 5, and last year sang the lead for his school musical, so maybe sheer determination plus a bit better organisation will see him through.

Russian I doubt we're the same place, strictly amateur, and quite small.

The panto was a local group that we were lucky to start in the 2nd year. It's now got a waiting list for the children's chorus, but because we're already involved our dc get to do it.

Dd1 in particular would love more opportunities, but we haven't gone out of area to audition because it would be such a hassle dragging all the children over there, so she is very limited to only a very few companies.

Pictures - I don't know WHAT you mean

Ds2 acts and dances (doesn't sing) but I'm very relieved that he wants to take school as seriously as his performing. It's a juggle and means he is really busy outside school trying to keep everything going but he is always adamant that he doesn't want to go to vocational school. He has worked quite a lot in the last couple of years but although he wants to carry on and be an adult actor he also wants to be a pilot or engineer so he has no desire to turn his back on school.

At the moment he is worrying about whether he needs to specialise (he is only 10 but a friend is going to vocational dance school so he has obviously been thinking about this). On the way home from school yesterday he said, "Life is very confusing at the moment. I feel like i need to make choices. I could be a very successful dancer and dance all over the world, or I could be an actor and be really famous, or should I go to university and invent something?" No problems with self-doubt!

Have you ever perhaps been a PostGraduate student?

Verlaine - are you a rather well known and esteemed poster on napm?

Both children were performance mad - ds now working as an actor (he really is working, too, rather than "resting" thank goodness). DD is a singer but will probably stick to it as a hobby rather than pursuing it as a career.

I am (ostensibly) an actor - but haven't had any work for ages. Not acting work anyway!

Do you know about the NotaPushyMum website/forum, Cory? Don't let the title put you off! There are lots of parents of budding thespians on the forum there, quite a few really keen and articulate teenagers and a section/strand on training which might be of interest. Lots of parents who are doing their best to support their children (in a bewildered fashion ) with their ambitions to go to drama school etc.

That's what I meant RussiansOnTheSpree!!!!

Oh, it's really not. But anything can be learned from.

ALL experience is good experience!

Oh cory My early life wasn't entirely dissimilar from your DDs. And it turned out fine in the end.

As for the exams - I'm fast coming to the conclusion that everybody is going to get skroty results this year. Everyone. Which will provide useful camouflage for your DD and my DD1 also, possibly. Although I'm sure we'd both have preferred them to take their exams in normal circumstances.