NYMT

My daughter said there was a boy in her imaginary audition who was playing the headteacher role and he was amazing. She said there was no doubt that he will get it.

The lead girl in SA was at my daughter's audition, Aplo. She had a lovely voice etc, as did many of the others. She was definitely known to the production team, who did not try to hide this. My D picked her out as the one they would cast, and she was right.

To be fair, they cant possibly cast people who haven't even read for them - so at least we are spared the angst!

We're hoping it's not much longer here. We are on half term so not even school to take our minds off things.

Yes they should all at least have had the chance to read or to sing. It's not a nice feeling to think you went all that way and got your hopes up of you weren't even in the running.

My D is at one of the leading drama schools, and at the time she still felt that it was a closed shop. No sour grapes, just a feeling of thanks but no thanks.

Ah to her credit, DD is not bitter. She just says they need either to improve their organization or learn to act ! (They might have PRETENDED to be interested enough in them to let them read something....anything....Or let them sing something among themselves to fill the time till they could respectably be sent home!?)

Yes, the industry is merciless. Travel to auditions, outfits, singing/dance lessons all have to be paid for and then very often the role goes to someone else they had long been preparing for it anyway. The NYMT initial audition costs £48 I think which is pretty good value for a full day workshop with some great industry experts, so I don't have a problem with that. It can't be a closed shop because people move on and they have to complete their ranks with newcomers - it's just sadly the case that it's much more difficult to break in at an older age. And also if you are 18/19 you are competing with people who not only may have done previous NYMT shows, but may already be at drama school or similar, honing their skills 24/7. It does seem unfair but it's realistic. However I do feel a 'sham' recall, if it really does turn out to have been so, is unfair. Will be interesting to see who ends up getting cast. Really hope all the DC hear very soon.

Unfortunately that is the way the industry works. I have a relative in the west end and he once spent a fortune on falsetto singing lessons, a dinner suit and lots of travel for auditions for the lead in Jersey Boys. He had 8 call backs for the role only for it to go to someone from S Club 7. Im sure they would have cast a known name because it draws in the paying crowds.

I take all your points on board Biscuits, but I do feel that if they want to have their "older'' show as some sort of a flagship event, then they should make this clear before they invite thousands to audition[and charge them!].
In my opinion, they do re cast, and there is most definitely a clique around the older age group.
This time last year I made the point that the boy who was to be cast as one of the two main male leads was featured on the NYMT twitter feed singing one of his character's songs from SA at the Curve Theatre. Unfortunately, they decided to do this before the cast list was announced. I said at the time that I thought that it was a foolish thing to do. I'm sure that the others who had been re called for the show noticed the tweet, and would have felt disappointed that NYMT felt the need to do that .
I don't doubt that at the younger age groups the experience can be really worthwhile, but I would just like to suggest that is not the case for everybody.

I wonder if the problem area is the one show each year that gets most of the press and attention. By definition it's the 'grown up' show featuring the oldest young people playing adult roles. Last year it was Brass (and slightly SA) and this year it's Sunday. I think it's legitimate to a point that they would prefer to cast known entities in their flagship show, as the show's quality affects the reputation of the organisation. But it's not really on to hold an audition where the participants get the sense it's already cast and they're just going through the motions. And if that's not what's happening then it's a shame if it was perceived that way. However, in DS' cast last year there were several 17/18 year olds who had never done NYMT before. One of them had only ever done one school play, and yet took a lead role. I think the difference is that the team were more willing to take a risk on some unknowns because although it was an incredible show it wasn't THE show of the season and had a cast of mixed ages rather than all young adults. I think it's fair enough if they prefer people to have earned their stripes before they get the flagship show, but then maybe they could recall newcomers for shows they could have a realistic chance of getting into, alongside their recall for Sunday or whatever. Jan, if your daughter had had a recall for eg Billy the Kid too alongside her Sunday recall then maybe she would feel she had been given a fair crack of the whip? But don't rule anything out - you just can't second guess these things! I don't really want to criticise, as DS had the most amazing experience of his life last year as a young participant; I can't fault the way he was looked after, the quality of the show, the brilliant sense of community that was fostered. If he doesn't get in this year I won't change my opinion of the wonderful opportunity he had. But I do take the point that he is very lucky to have discovered NYMT at a young age, and it is probably much, much harder to break in as an older auditionee. Minimits I wouldn't worry too much about Imaginary - my DS said they are going to write some parts around people they have cast! - and Jan, I'm sorry it wasn't such a great experience for your DD - I hope her gut feeling is wrong and she may yet get some good news.

Ours was for imaginary. Although they had asked 13-15 to audition for 'Oogie' I get the impression they had decided that it was actually an older role as no one got to audition for it in his group and all had to do Milo-the younger role. Which I assume means they won't be up for a part whatever as Milo is a young boys role. Don't mind but wish they had not bothered asking them to prepare for a part they were never going to audition them for. But then again maybe they have opened the possibility to older ones. Who knows and I'm terrible for reading into things!

Janinlondon,
What you are saying about Sunday does not surprise me at all.
i know that loads of people on here have nothing but good things to say about the organisation, but, I think that if you get cast when you are relatively young, you tend to stay on the radar, and they will use you again at some point. In the older age groups however, the do tend to re cast. I think you may find that many[not all] of the older cast have already got some profile, they have agents and at the very least are already training at places like Arts Ed. if you suddenly turn up at the age of 17/18/19 you stand little chance, since they already have their go to cast.
My daughter tried for spring Awakening last year and for previous shows. She got the distinct impression that SA had basically already been cast. She definitely felt that there was a clique, which was disappointing.

Ours was for Sunday in the Park with George. They were allowed to sing their solos, but that was after the selected four had done the duets. DD said there were several outstandingly fabulous voices in the solos who were not chosen to sing the duet, and she felt sorry for them as it seemed to be a random four who were chosen. There was a feeling that the play had been cast already, and that they were wasting their time (group as a whole, discussing after they were turfed out).

Was that for imaginary or the park one?

It was a bit odd! My DS spent so long on his part and didn't get to read for it but then none of them did-they were all asked to read for another character as they 'didn't have enough Milo's' but they were all older than the part said so not at all optimistic. They were all in the same boat though! Wish they didn't ask you to prepare a part if you aren't going to get to do it though-waste if a half term!

That sounds very odd, Jan. Did your DD get to sing solo at all? It may be that the 4 girls who sang the duet were being considered for a particular role, doesn't mean the others weren't being considered at all. But I agree it's a bit odd if they didn't ask them to act. Did your DD query the early finish?

Biscuits - there were quite a lot of disheartened kids I'm afraid. Not one person in DD's group was asked to read anything. No acting at all. There were four boys and about 17 girls - so they only selected four girls to sing the duet. The other 13 missed out. The session finished an hour early. No one really understood why........

Lol biscuits. My DD has been scouring twitter. You can see photos on the sheets too and some are very clear but not hers. I'm wondering if they realised you can see some pics on there!

It was a very sound idea to tell DD it would be a while. Unfortunately DS has looked at Twitter, so has seen the mention of 'a few days' and thinks they will hear tomorrow. I really hope they do! I think last year they tweeted to say they would be sending out results later the same day, so we knew to keep an eye on our email..

JaninLondon, your did your DD get on on Sunday?

I'm thinking Wednesday, or possibly Thursday. If the decisions are made they surely don't need more than 48 hours ish in case they want to change their mind?
I also think that quite often they cast the show but don't reveal roles until the first residential. So if they're still undecided between 2 good candidates they pick both and then once they have them all together they do a sort of audition on the first day, and then give one the main role and the other an ensemble role. DS is fairly sure this happened last year with his show. It wasn't announced as such, but with hindsight he realised that was what was happening!

Last year it was Wednesday though looking back through the messages here