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!

my DD has been doing MT since she was very young and her school normally holds auditions for NYT. No one from her MT or school mentioned NYMT or BYMT. I came across them by chance ……. Not sure what that says about her MT teachers ….

New thread started for Drama school auditions 2026 entry- Acting/MT to help us stay sane!!

We found NYMT by chance too. I think when teachers have recommended it to their students, it's often because it's something they have had involvement with themselves. Others may not be aware of it! I make a point of telling keen and talented young people about it because I think it's such great pre-professional training, and socially I think it's where young people who love performing can really be themselves.

I’ll be totally honest & say that we were wary of mentioning it to people due to the costs involved. Dh has taught in a wide variety of schools from private specialist to deprived inner city as well as Saturday schools and some students just would not be in a position to apply, even with a bursary.

I’ll be totally honest & say that we were wary of mentioning it to people due to the costs involved. Dh has taught in a wide variety of schools from private specialist to deprived inner city as well as Saturday schools and some students just would not be in a position to apply, even with a bursary.

@Comefromawaygood point re costs.

Posting this on both threads ... for those who are not on the other thread.

Has anyone done the GSA pre audition weekend course ? i put DD on the waitlist for September and just got a notification now that she got a place, however i obviously didn't read the details initially as it says there are two tracks, MT and acting, but i don't think it gave me the option to choose which track when I put her on the waitlist. Tried to call but no answer.

other question, is it worthwhile ?

Friends of my DS did the GSA pre-audition course and found it very helpful. They got advice on song and monologue choices etc and also just the experience of being in a mock audition which steadies nerves ahead of real ones! Be warned though that although they both got hugely positive feedback and felt very encouraged by the weekend, neither ended up with an offer from GSA when auditioning for real (despite getting offers between them from Arts Ed, Mountview, Royal Welsh, Royal Scotland etc!). So their advice would be that it's useful and enjoyable, but don't let it make you set your heart on GSA, because they have so few places and they turn away amazing people.

Also true. I make a point of mentioning bursaries, but it's hard for those who earn just a bit too much to qualify for a bursary, but not enough to be able to afford the cost. If anyone out there works for a company that would like to sponsor a very worthy organisation for young people, I'm sure NYMT would be delighted to be able to offer more bursaries!

Thank you for that,

Yes, we understand these short courses don't guarantee anything.

Ideally, she would love to study in the US, as she would like to double major in MT/acting and psychology, or even do a 2nd minor so that she has something to fall back on.

It just doesn't seem to be possible to do that in the UK though, maybe combine with English in some Uni's , but she doesn't want to do English. She likes the idea of a performing arts school combined with an academic curriculum, some of the US colleges do 3 days PA and 2 days academic, so even if she didn't do a double major or a minor, she would still have the academics side. I don't even know if any colleges offer that in the UK.

We really are so clueless.

Even the expensive schools in the UK are a fraction of the US colleges, plus the current political climate there is a huge factor for us, and it's so far away !

I think it's important to understand that training at one of the UK schools is vocational training for industry, yes, but it also confers a degree. You might feel the degree is not especially useful when compared with more traditional academic subjects, but my feeling is that times are changing. Many graduates of traditional subjects such as history, English etc are struggling to find work. If you do an Acting or MT degree and decide not to go into performing, I would argue you're not worse off than a history grad and arguably you're better placed to start a career in the theatre industry even if you're not performing - casting, directing, marketing, producing, being an agent - all these careers require a deep understanding of the industry. A performing degree teaches you to be confident, to work as part of team, to value soft skills and relationships, to negotiate, to be punctual, to be reliable, to work HARD. It may be that all those skills end up being more useful than the 'something to fall back on'. Just something to think about...

That is so true @biscuitsneeded, my older daughter is graduating with a masters degree from a top London university and there is absolutely no jobs out there, she is full time sending out applications and not even getting an acknowledgment.

We are telling DD2, that if she did find nothing was happening career wise after graduating, she could always go back to study something else, loads of people do it. Also the joy of being able to follow your passion (hopefully), not many people get to do that, I know my husband, myself and my daughter all went down the business route purely because we didn't know what else to do.

In fact, the school counsellor at her school studied dance and then went back to university to study psychology, as she aged out of her dance career.

A Young Person from a single parent family on UC got place but was told before a bursary cold be considered they had to fundraise first. The thing is that fundraising is easier if you have a network of people who an afford to contribute or have a parent working for a company who will get involved or (like my son did) have a parent who can afford to pay £50 up front to hire a venue to put a fundraising show on.

This YP worked full time during the holidays to pay for the course, but this impacted greatly on their preparation time and even the cost of travel to the venue was tricky for them.

Sorry it's tough currently for your older daughter. I think employers seem to be wanting relevant experience over, or as well as, qualifications. My older son is training to be an actor but the younger is about to do the normal university route and I am really hoping he can do a placement year for this reason. It's so difficult for young people now.
The idea of studying for something else after a performing arts degree is a nice back-up to have. I think your DD is an overseas student so possibly this doesn't apply to her, but UK students would only get student finance for one bachelor's degree. However, I suspect a performing arts student could very easily get accepted onto a teaching course or an Arts Management/production Masters.

@Biscuitsneeded just FYI my DH and DS1 both did history and DH has a great career and DS1 also landed an graduate scheme as did his colleagues who also studied history. It’s actually a very versatile degree with desirable skills.
However, your point being that a degree is a degree is also true. To get into any graduate programme you have to pass the psychometric tests and these require a different set of skills altogether!

Oh, I wasn't knocking history! I personally love it, and I completely see that it teaches you research skills, analytical skills, forming an argument, synthesizing etc. I was just making the point that grads of lots of disciplines are struggling to find work at the moment, and performing arts grads may not be any worse off than any others!

Well done to your daughter. My daughter slso turned down a couple of BAs hoping she could get better offers after a year out, which she did, although what she did in her year out probably helped. (Working in a holiday park, local theatre).

Definitely better BA offer and being that little older helped. She took a foundation MT at GSA and decided acting was her thing and starts BA at GSA this year.

Totally agree. DD did GSA pre sudition who suggested she change her song, after this she started to get recalls, just a shame she’d had a couple of auditions and submitted self tapes before attending!

She slso did a week at Arts Ed, which was brilliant for her monologues. It made her realise how poor her PA college had been in audition prep! Worth every penny!

How’s everyone doing?? I’ll be honest it was a bumpy first couple of weeks here - wasn’t sure we’d even get to this point in the early days! But happy to say DC is now settling well, has had first day of lectures / sessions today and called briefly to say ‘best day ever!’. Such a relief!

That’s great news to hear it’s all fallen in to place, it’s a big change so I guess a wobble or two in the early days is to be expected.

DD did the GSA pre-audition course, said it was really helpful, they suggested she change her second monologue, and also suggested she changed one of her songs to showcase an aspect of her voice she wasn’t really aware of. She loved the dance part of it.

They don’t get a lot of one on one time, I think she said they get 7 minutes for their monologue. She liked the campus and Guildford is such a gorgeous town, I really enjoyed the weekend there, lovely shopping with cute cafes and restaurants.

They told the group they get over 2,000 applicants, call 500 in for auditions and accept something like 25. It’s a bit deflating when it’s laid out in black and white how the statistics are stacked against you from the outset.

@lamadaits particularly tough for MT I think. But ultimately, someone’s got to get those 25 places, so all you can do is try! And I’m sure the advice from the audition workshop will be super valuable.

Thats partly why it rocked me so much when DC wasn’t immediately ‘living their best uni life’ - the idea of falling at this particular hurdle after all the hard work, determination and emotional tax it took to get them there… yikes. But hopefully we’re good now 🤞🏻

This was exactly what happened with my DS! He had two weeks of wobbles and after a chat with his teachers he’s enjoying it. My nerves are shot though. They work so hard to get these places and mine just needed reassurance that he deserves to be there.

This!!!! In our case waaaaay too much time between moving in and starting classes to panic and feed their self doubt.

I personally feel that "freshers" is over-rated. A young person I know who has just started university decided to bypass freshers altogether.

Does anyone on this thread know about the new funding arrangements for Italia Conti? My DS is really interested in auditioning and applying as we can't afford a private drama school (ie Arts ED, Mountview) but from 2026 if you do the MT degree you will no longer get a west end showcase, singing lessons etc you have to pay an extra £3000. He is gutted because we would consider IC due to being able to use a student loan for the fees. You can still do a BA degree and use the student loan for funding but the contact hours are alot less so it isn't really worth it

Basically if you are a mid income family are university BA's the only option now?