Performing Arts 2025

[doesanybodyhaveamap]

Starting a thread re: performing arts applicants for 2025. If one already exists, happy to be redirected!!

Anyone pressed 'send' on their applications yet? Curious as to timelines for initial responses and to submit self tapes....

Buckling in for a long and nervous journey!

Do kids really want total honesty on a foundation? Surely the reality check will come if they don’t get in to other places. Until then, stay optimistic?

Daughter has had 2 offers that she is considering, she was also offered foundations but has rejected them, also on waitlists but we are discounting those for now, we have MT degree at MPAA in Bushey which she really liked as they have a small intake and high contact hours, she also loved the feel of the place and teachers on audition day, she has also been offered performers in Brighton, on the performing arts contemporary musical theatre pathway, this was after she auditioned at Essex but they offered her Brighton instead, she loved the ethos of performers and liked Essex but Brighton wasn’t on her radar, does anyone have any knowledge of either of these schools as she is struggling to choose and I liked them both, she wants to do an even split of all 3 disciplines but also wants to enjoy the next 3 years as well? Any advice, knowledge, experience of these degree courses would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

But is the industry not brutal? DD has been going to open auditions queuing in February from 5.30am in central London to sign up, audition at 10.02am by 10.03 a no.
On the other side I have to say as a parent I have found the pastoral care at Conti really good not just for my own DD, but things she has told about other students.

I feel lucky that my dds secondary school had excellent teachers who had worked in the industry and they were good at saying the reality - you need to create your own work, have a portfolio of skills, complete your education, know that casting directors need a diverse cast etc. All while still being excited for her to go to drama school.

I do think there’s a better balance to be found between preparing them for the ‘brutal’ industry and recognising that at 17-20 these young people are often still very vulnerable. Just because something has always been a certain way doesn’t make it right or that it can’t change for the better. Maybe a little idealistic. I’d say on the whole my DC is pretty realistic about how hard this path will be. But certain parts of our audition journey have been needlessly difficult. The difference in the way they were treated as an applicant between organisations was crazy! They went into their GSA audition quite frankly on the floor confidence-wise because of their experience with their Leeds audition. I honestly didn’t think they would get through the day (they did, and held their own well enough to get a reserve list place).

Surely these places can share and recognise best practice and aspire to do better.

Sometimes the old ‘this process prepares you for life in a brutal industry’ feels like a bit of an excuse not to do better.

I'm not sure there is a conscious intention to treat young people harshly 'in order to prepare them for industry'. I think it's more the case that, with hundreds or thousands of applicants, and budgets very, very tight in Higher Ed generally, there aren't always the staff to facilitate individualised responses quickly. I think also the nature of the application process means it's inevitable there will sometimes be a long wait for news, while the colleges weigh up their pool of applicants and see who sits where on the waiting list, especially for those who audition early. Some colleges like to send news as they go, and others wait to do several rounds before they make decisions. Some send the yeses and nos and put everyone else on a BIG waiting list, others possibly think it's only fair to waitlist people with a realistic chance of ending up with a place, so they wait longer before sending those waitlist emails. I know it's horrible waiting for news though, especially when you've travelled a long way and given your all and the result is apparently tumbleweed.

And while I don't think the colleges are being deliberately heartless in order to weed out anyone who isn't hard-nosed and resilient enough for the industry (after all a LOT of growing up happens between age 18 and 22!), I do think talent alone isn't going to be enough, and you do have to be temperamentally suited to the way the industry works. There is of course time to develop the necessary rhino hide!

DD is on a Foundation after a gap year, and knew that only three or four ‘foundies’ would be likely to go through to BA. However previous cohorts all had offers from other good colleges to go on to. She turned down two BA offers for this foundation at her dream school, but knew no guarantees and accepted that, but there was always hope.

However, only one of her group of 25 has a firm offer, with one on waitlist, for the BA. Some of the cohort have no offers at all yet from other schools, yet she says some are incredibly talented, much more triple threat than she is by far, she went to a PA 6th form, so knows those that stand out.

There has been no feedback from the BA tutors/audition panel on why they may not have been successful, which would have been useful for their other auditions, honesty would have be good here, especially as it was for their students.

The course leader was new, whether that has had an impact, who knows, luckily DD has options, so she is happy and benefitted especially from the dance training, but from a previous tutor who got excellent results to the disappointing ones this year, transparency on what they are missing/lacking would be useful, not just for students, but for their future foundation students.

That is tough. If it's the college I think it is, I guess the fact that there are so few places each year on their degree explains why some of those amazing foundies haven't been offered places there - but I do agree that there shouldn't be lots of them with no offers at all. That suggests three possibilities - either that they took people who weren't ever going to be good enough for a BA (unlikely given what your DD says), or the training didn't provide for the necessary development, or that they didn't give sufficient and personalised advice about where and how to audition. I would have thought the latter is absolutely crucial and part of what should be on offer on a Foundation course.

This is exactly what I am saying.

Yes, acknowledged. I didn't know this had happened this year at this particular college. DS (who is on the Acting Degree and didn't do a Foundation) knew some of last year's MT Foundies and was under the impression they all got decent degree offers. I think the Acting foundation degrees are always a bit more hit and miss.

Exactly the same thing is happening at another very high profile place that I know of.

@Newgirlsmy DD wouldn’t take any notice of anyone who says she doesn’t have what it takes. She is realistic but very determined. She is also able to identify her strengths and weaknesses and ai try to help her fill the gaps where possible.
We try to keep her balanced and keep her options open. Let’s see what happens when she auditions dor the degree courses …

The world of perfoming arts is cut throat. She was rehearsing for a show over Easter and I was wondering why she is always at the back. She said no one puts you there but people rush to the fromt when an act js called and ahe didn’t want to push in. Hopefully she will have learnt how to put herself forward next time

In many respects the process does mirror the reality in the industry sadly.

Applying for agents - the vast majority of the time your application is ignored. If you get a 'no thanks' that is actually a good result as you can cross that one off the list.

Auditions - the self tape goes off into the ether and you write it off three weeks later or when you hear other people have been recalled/cast. Feedback or even a 'no' is vanishingly rare.

In general if it's not positive news, there will be no news.

Looking back over years and years of auditions, there's also a good 15% or so of productions that never get as far as the film set.

Theatre/MT you do at least have an outcome more often than not but I have known casting take in well in excess of a month to finally give you a no after multiple rounds to get to final 2.

Even if you are cast, until you step out on stage on opening night, or see yourself on the screen, every role is uncertain. I've seen people cast and then replaced mid-rehearsals. Contracts signed for film and then replaced. Weeks of filming as 'younger version of' only to find they decide to ditch the older version and so you're on the cutting room floor too. Weeks of filming to find your scenes are cut to nothing and there's nothing to make a decent showreel from even if you do have a shiny new credit on IMDb....

With so many people wanting to be in the industry, even agents and CDs who would like to be more personal or respond to things just give up because there isn't the time or the man power.

Some agencies are getting 200+ rep requests a week... if they spent 10 minutes on each one, reading the letter, watching the show reels, that would take over 4 days a week with 8 hours spent on that task.

Ditto for castings where they might get 10k applications for a single role.

Absolutely, a lot on the course were applicants for BA (not DD) who were offered Foundation instead. One had been wait listed last year, but didn’t get through at all this year, I’m sure she hadn’t regressed!

What was interesting was that all of them who had an audition for MV, were recalled for their foundation, which would suggest, none of them are ready. Or that MV don’t read the CVs and notes from the first auditions.

My DD knows both of these foundies that have the degree offer and the reserve offer from the school your DD is at. She also heard that a few foundies hadn’t got an offer yet. Do you know if they only applied for schools that are notoriously hard to get into, as they take so few?

My DD is on a different foundation course and she thinks there maybe a couple who haven’t got an offer yet, but most have applied to a lot of places so have been successful.

I don’t know if they applied to lots or not, TBH I think they’ve all been quite ‘closed’ in saying where they’ve applied and outcomes, but I think your DD is correct at the moment.

DD only applied to 4 had offers on 3, although cancelled the other recall, but then got that down to 2, but she went down the acting route this time, having more of an idea of the direction she wanted.

Has your DD got in the BA?

Just had the great news my dd got into National Youth Theatre! Yay

Congratulations to her

Well done her! Great experience.

Congratulations @Operagirl1!

Has anyone’s dc done the recent intensive at Urdang or done it in the past. Looking for a MT summer school and wondering which would be most useful ( dc applying for 2026). It’s just difficult when there is no accommodation for most schools but at 17 you can’t stay in a hotel with a friend etc. Obly one I’ve seen is trinity Laban with halls and bird with hosts. Trinity isn’t on their list and not keen on a host.

My DD just did the 5 day Easter Urdang one, she absolutely loved it, it’s mainly dance focused, she said the standard was pretty high compared to what she is used to (we don’t live in the UK). They offer a fast track to auditions to the top 6 participants, which allows them to skip the first step and go straight to in person auditions. I stayed in a hotel with her as they don’t offer accommodation.

There is a summer dance intensive in Scotland which offers accommodation, but generally it is difficult to find a programme in Europe with accommodation. There is one outside Barcelona which I think offers accommodation.

We saw Moulin Rouge and 7 of the cast trained at Urdang.

Urdang and stay in the YHA? Would be less daunting with a friend, perhaps...

Or look at the UCL summer accommodation website? I don't know if you have to be 18 but it's worth asking...