NYMT

[aplo]

Hi, have just joined here so hope I am posting in the correct place. Just wondering if anyone here has a child auditioning for NYMT or similar groups this year.
My DD (age 11 ) is auditioning next sunday

Smurphy I am not in Dublin so don't really know much about the scene there but the Gaiety school of acting has a great reputation and does a weekly musical theatre class and drama classes and any of the schools that have kids in Panto in the Olympia or the gaiety would be good starting points for a mixture of dance and musical theatre - off the top of my head I don't know what school's they are but I'm sure if you phoned the theatres they would help.

Thank you Alpo for your reply, sorry i wasnt clear she goes to a residential for a week in summer, not drip feeding just forgot to say residential, lives in the North east Cavan/ Monaghan / Louth / Meath area, sorry im being vague in this so as not to out me, thanks for your help TIA

Smurphy I'm afraid I am completely the wrong end of the country for you, I am about as south as you could get! Maybe try the Association of Irish Musical Society's (Aims) for a local group and go from there.

Thank you so much Alpo, niece is now investigating groups and thank you for the info

Aplo and EvilTwins, can I just say (because I'm sure you can empathise) that the waiting is killing me! DS doesn't even audition for another 10 days... I feel like some dreadful over-invested mother but the reality is that DS, while usually pretty good about rejections, is going to be really disappointed if he doesn't get a recall. Last year's NYMT was the best experience of his life. So I am feeling anxious for him and trying not to let him pick up on it! And on a practical note I really want to know what our summer will look like!!

Biscuits I can totally and utterly empathise, knowing exactly what they could have makes it harder than some audition that "might be fun"! I also feel like our summer plans are completely on hold here too. My DS has an audition for the Irish youth choir and also for the world youth choir in two weeks time also so we will be waiting on all audition results to see when to try and have a family holiday, which if both or either DS and Dd are successful will probably be the rest of us going to see one or other perform!
Has your DS picked his song?

Yes, the song is picked and he just has to decide where to cut it, to get it to approx 2 mins. Hoping we will have a bit of time to practise this weekend but as usual there's a lot going on! Sounds like your kids are equally busy, and the chances are that (hopefully!) at least part of your holiday may be spent travelling to watch performances of some kind... Is your DD recalled on the Sat or the Sunday? Has she been sent any recall material, or not yet? I have come down with a cold today and DS left for school saying his throat hurt, so I'm hoping he can shake off whatever it is before next weekend. Agree it's the knowing what they could have, plus the feeling of being in limbo in terms of being able to make any plans for Easter or summer, that's so unsettling. Thanks for replying and confirming that I am not obsessing to an unnatural degree (or if I am, that I am not alone)!

Biscuits, all I can tell you is that my students mum feels the same way tool!
We haven't heard yet what day she is recalled and haven't any material - she has been going through songs from Honk here and has just finished reading A Little princess as that is about all she can do for now. I presume she won't get the material until all first round auditions are finished so there is no advantage for those who auditioned earlier. Our only problem with that is she will most likely get the material the week before when she has her school musical (which in her school is a huge thing) all week and is playing one of the leads. We will just have to grab whatever time we can!
If it's any help Dd is rooting for your son (or as she says the son of the woman from your weird internet group!)

Thank you! Guess that week before the recall weekend isn't half term in Ireland then?
That's a good idea to look up the Honk songs. It's not a musical I know. Seems a bit presumptuous at this stage though!

Hastily adding, not presumptuous of your daughter who knows she has a recall. Just for my DS!

Not at all presumptuous! Dd was listening to the honk soundtrack on the flight over to the last audition and we had looked up the storyline etc. They might use script at the audition so knowing the story at least will help. (They didn't at Dd's audition but they did improv around animals)

Half term is the week later here. The only advantage of having her school show on will be that there will be no homework that week but there are two evening performances.

Off-topic slightly, but do you get the (rather cheesy and dreadful) BBC/Gary Barlow show Let it Shine in Ireland? Two NYMT alumni in it tonight, I believe! My whole family except DS all have a stinking cold. He's either had a miraculous escape, or it's brewing just in time to render him unable to sing at next weekend's audition... Hope it's the former!
Aplo, I'm sure adrenaline and excitement will carry your DD through the school musical and recall week. At least she can relax afterwards!

I'm glad it's not just us with no recall material yet though I remember from last year that there wasn't much time to learn it, I get that it makes it fair.

Last year, he was recalled for Spring Awakening and the recall was at the end of half term so we worked on it during half term week. This year he'll have three to prepare for and it looks like the same timescale! It's our school show the week before half term and he's one of the leads (and that sucks up all my time) so it looks like it'll be half term again. He needs to do it with me as well - no piano/music reader at home!

Yes, for those with recalls half term will be hard work! It does seem fair that way though, as the last auditions only happen the weekend before recalls. At this stage poor DS just wants to GET a recall - we'll worry about learning the material if we get that far... Feel like I'm wishing my life away here!

Question: have any of your DC or students ever done YMT? Is it comparable to NYMT? There is an audition where we live for YMT too but unfortunately it's on the same day as the NYMT one! I hadn't heard of YMT until last year on this thread, but it sounds as if the experience is similar. If DS doesn't get NYMT this year I think we will try and go on holiday instead, but I wonder if it would be worth looking into YMT in future years? Any experience to share?

A student of mine did YMT a few years back and really enjoyed it. He's a professional actor now. I don't think it's as highly regarded as NYMT though I'm not entirely sure why.

Good to know EvilTwins, thank you. If this year doesn't work out DS might audition for both next time around. I know a couple of NYMT kids had also auditioned for YMT last year, and then not taken up their places as they had got into NYMT (the YMT offers come out later so I guess they were already committed to NYMT by that point anyway). I'd be interested to know which they would have picked if they'd received offers on the same day...

I have just been having this conversation with people here about nymt/ymt and wondering if we should try YMT to possibly have a back up if the auditions doesn't go Dd's way. From what I can gather the reason YMT doesn't seem as highly regarded is that all of the work they do is new work written specifically for them whereas NYmT do a mixture of established works and new works.
YMT are auditioning in Ireland over the next few weekends so we are thinking about it here.
Did you see the dates of all the shows and rehearsals are on the NYmT website now. If it works out for DD she will miss a week of school at Easter as our holidays don't start until the 10th April but thankfully school's here are generally much more easygoing that school's in the U.K. with regard to missing days and Dd's school have no problem at all if it is for something like NYMT.
How is your DS feeling about his audition biscuits? hope he hasn't caught what the rest of you had.
Three of my former students auditioned last weekend (I used to teach them about four years ago) so they are all waiting to hear at the moment, the waiting game is horrible.
We are also waiting to hear on a college audition that my DS did last Monday , he is hoping to do a degree in Opera studies/ classical singing so we are on intense email alerts. My youngest (who is only 7) also had an audition for his drama class show last weekend (they will all get a part) and he is convinced that it is as big a deal as the older two and is really looking forward to Friday when he will hear!
I need a break from auditions at this stage.

Re Let it shine.
I know that there were two NYMT alumni featured on Saturday. Th Welsh guy was very musical theatre, and grated on me. The other boy seemed very full of himself. Contrast both of these performers to the boy from Yorkshire, who sang Bring him home, and was brilliant and modest. Not sure I could see him as part of a boy band though.

I really didn't like the Welsh guy either, he came across as rather fake to me. I think he ended up on the reserve list at the end too (or maybe I just thought he should have) I did like the other guys energy. I had met him during the gala rehearsals and he had the same energetic vibe about him.
It will be interesting to see who they go with in the end, I think when the dance comes into it it will change things quite a bit.

Oh gosh, intense email alert is stressful! Every ping could be good or bad news!!! (Hope it's good news all round Aplo!). DS auditions this Sunday so I'll update next week... I could theoretically book him into a late YMT audition in London still, but I think actually we could all do with a holiday so if he doesn't get into NYMT I'll use the money I'd saved up towards getting us all a bit of sunshine. Thoroughly fed up with Winter now! However, if he's still keen by next year we might book both YMT and NYMT and see what happens. I was a bit put off by the idea that they have a 3 hour audition, then a very long wait, and then the shows are cast - it feels like NYMT do their casting much more thoroughly as they recall for specific shows and in many cases even for a specific role.
Hope both your DSs and your former students all get good news!

And re: Let it Shine, much as I love Hamilton I didn't think it was the right choice of song for the TV show and I think the Welsh guy was lucky to go through - but I wouldn't be surprised if he was actually really good when singing more typical boy band stuff, if he can dump the musical theatre style. The boy in the cat T shirt just exuded charisma and deserved to go through. And the boy who sang Bring him Home - just wow! Unfortunately I would bet none of those 3 will end up in the final line-up. In the end they will cast 5 more conventional-looking boys, I'm sure.

NYMT results for last Sunday came out today. Of my former students one girl didn't get recalled, haven't heard about the other yet and boy has been recalled for Billy and a little princess.
I also heard that a boy who was my student last year who is now in 6th form in London has been recalled for Imaginary , Billy and a little princess so there will be familiar faces there at the recalls (and lots of Irish accents!)

It's interesting that quite a few Irish young people over the years have taken part, even though to do so requires at least two flights for auditions plus rehearsals etc. I notice they don't hold any auditions North of Newcastle and I don't think there were any Scottish kids in DS's cast last year. Since Ireland is clearly so fruitful you'd think they'd do an audition round in Dublin (though I think they may have done one in Belfast last year???). Well done to your recalled student.
I hope they have a left a few recall spaces for the likes of DS and his friends auditioning this weekend!