Come & join me in general chat all you patents of performers - be it dancers, actors, singers or musicians

OMG!!! Hope she's okay cory.
In his first ever professional production ds1 saw one of the adult cast members fall over on stage. I think it helped him really to see how everyone reacted and how they dealt with it & to realise that even professionals go wrong sometimes :)

We had a bit of excitement last night: dd fell through a trap door during performance (apparently it looked very dramatic) but she extracted herself and carried on with the scene, like performers do. GP reckons a sprained knee and should be fine with supporting bandages and painkillers for tonight's show.

I think you know your own child, Downton. Not to mention that children who learn a certain amount of independence early on tend to cope better with things. Dh used to travel all over London at that age and I don't see why a journey to London should be any more difficult.

Glad it went ok pictures apart from lunch!

The nerves have started to kick in for DD. not about the school, but the being away from home. She has gone from being adamant at the end of term that she would do the train journey on her own ( when I booked the ticket) to now asking me to take her, so I've booked tickets for us to go down on Monday instead and stay in a hotel so I can accompany her to school with her suitcase on Tuesday morning.

Of course, I can't do that every week but I think once she's back with her friends it'll be fine. I hope. She is only 11, and I know lots of other people wouldn't dream if allowing an 11 yo to travel by herself to London. Plenty of the DCs at the school do though. Sometimes I think we are mad.

Glad it's all going well for everyone. :) We meet the new production company tomorrow, just starting to try and sort everything out for the licence. I'm hoping it should be straightforward as he won't need to miss any school.

Not professional (yet) but my DD lives to perform.

She is incredibly busy this half term with a dance school show in October, school production of a Chorus Line- rehearsals starting next week with performances next March- where she is in line for a main part, youth theatre production of Little Shop of Horrors where she has a main role and a schools' Shakespeare thing in November where she also has a big role with loads of lines to learn.

This on top of singing, piano and guitar lessons and eight performing arts classes a week not quite sure when she will fit in homework for the GCSEs she has just started...

DD would think that 'not much' too.....they need more carbs I think & protein

DD has been rehearsing all summer for the Bi-annual Ballet show (is that twice a year or 2 yearly? I mean 2 yearly)

The show is in October, the following week is a show DD is putting on for her Arts Award - raising money for a school in Zimbabwe; she has organised everything, arts, theatre, stage management, publicity - it's all going well

As a result of all this she can't do her first half-term of her Sunday dance class in London - but is making up for it with a Saturday school which we hope starts in late Sept.

When the shows are over we start applications for Vocational 6th form & I'm panicking

Hello!

You started without me....how did I miss this?

How is everyone? & the DCs? Is everything going to plan?

I'll catchup on DD later

Hope it goes well today for your DD Pictures

I'm sure she'll love it!

Oh good luck to your dd's pictures and cory. :)

oooh, just spotted this thread

dd's show opened last night- 3 more nights to go; I thought it looked rather good

and this morning she set off at 7 to start sixth form college where she will be doing A-level drama and BTech in acting; not a performance school as such though her college does have a very good reputation for drama

it will be a tight fit getting back to town for the evening performance and very long hours, but she might as well get used to the idea of long hours now

she is in the chorus+ small character part and is very happy with this; she's loved the physical theatre training they've had

When does your DD start school Pictures? We have another week to go. Although the school isn't new to us, it is the first time boarding and a whole new intake for Y7. DD is with 3 of her friends from last year, which is good, but it is still daunting.

I have a feeling ds2 will always enjoy theatre because you get that feedback from the audience. I also think seeing how weirdos others behave around famous people was a bit of an eye opener for ds2. 'WHY are all these women here?' he said as he had to push his way through hordes of them at the stage door.

Ds3 told me yesterday that he wants to be famous - but he is NOT a performer. thank goodness. Ds2 is the only one in the house (another thank goodness I think - but maybe quite unusual judging by NAPM??? I have no idea where he gets it from - he is a family anomaly!)

Dd has no interest in being famous. It's about the performance for her. Fame would be a by product. She is already quite infamous locally and had a reputation that she finds difficult to love up to sometimes. She would much rather just have the oppurtunity to perform and she is by far her hardest critic too.

I'm not sure ds1 wants to be famous but he does like performing in front of large crowds. When he was confirmed for his second stint of the west end tour I showed him some photos of the theatre (it's a really beautiful one). He just wanted to know how many it seated - and was happy with my answer of over a thousand :rolls eyes:

Ds2 has just stated singing lessons. Decided we ought to organise some if he was going to do more MT. His teacher also teaches piano & music theory & he is having sessions on both of those as well as I think it will support singing. In his case of course his voice will change so we have no idea what it will be like in a few years

DD1 certainly has no wish to be famous. It's about the work, for her. Which of course she doesn't see as work. She has a clear idea about what she wants to do. DD2 on the other hand while not wanting to be famous does want to do what is clearly high profile stuff. We shall see (or, more likely, we won't).

I agree saintly. I think for a dancer or musician it takes a certain singleminded ness to get to the required level in the first place. Singing maybe slightly less so but acting is something that can be taken up at any age.

My DD is not single minded in that she does not have an aim that she is going for no matter what. At the moment she has a talent that has been recognised by others but not necessarily herself. It is just something that she enjoys, no maybe more than that, it is what she is that marked her out as "different" at her old school, but now she is at vocational school she is the same as everyone else. She fits in, they " get" her. That is her understanding of it. I hope belief and confidence will come.

That said, she is physically not a MT child, or a dancer. She is too tall for the roles. Mainly it's the singing that interests her, she has dabbled with some piano grades and while she will never be a pianist she says she hopes to get to a level where she can write her own songs. All I can do is support her and keep her feet on the ground. As yet she has no desire to be famous, she just wants to do what she does.

I'm not sure you need to be single minded at a young age. Not for acting anyway. Dance/music different maybe, but ds2 is an actor and singer so I don't worry too much. I'm not sure the work he's doing now (great fun though it may be) will count for much in the future (eg if he wants to apply for drama school) as so much will depend on the audition. Having said that I'll be encouraging him to apply for things like YMT, NTMT and YT as he gets older. Of course these early experiences are giving him the confidence to go for things & to some extent getting him known to CD's etc I guess - but not convinced that will be much use for the future.

He also loves IT/computer programming etc, and I am very much encouraging that as well. Seems a good combination with acting.