A new chapter, An empty nest, Drama school & Last year of Uni

Honeysucklelou2

Wow that is more complex than I thought! I’d not realised there is a separate conservatoire application system. Hope your DD is able to find the courses that she would enjoy and develop her skills.

Spendless

Honeysucklelou2 said:

Wow that is more complex than I thought! I’d not realised there is a separate conservatoire application system. Hope your DD is able to find the courses that she would enjoy and develop her skills.

Honeysucklelou2 said:

Wow that is more complex than I thought! I’d not realised there is a separate conservatoire application system. Hope your DD is able to find the courses that she would enjoy and develop her skills.

Yep, with an additional fee for applying on top of her UCAS fee. She thinks it's not worth it if she only applies to one place on there for the money it costs, so this year she's applying to 3 on there as well. Performance is a tough world to get into, even to access the training never mind find work afterwards, but it's her passion and I'll support that. 

savingholmes

I had no idea either.

Good luck to her.

Spendless

Yes it makes me laugh when people think performance is a 'soft' subject and mad when the likes of the Government clearly couldn't care less about the arts during the pandemic. The training starts in childhood and takes much time and commitment, let alone the expense and needs a lot of family support. Then you have to audition (and pay)  to see if you can find somewhere to train you (and spaces are highly sought after) before you start looking for work in a precarious career that is usually short lived.

You may have to fetch raw and personal emotions to your performance in order to make an audience believe. A good example of this is just as she broke up for Christmas DD was praised for her contemporary(modern) monologue but not for her classic one, where she needed to improve. One evening she decided to sing just one song, I could tell emotionally it wasn't her best and suggested she fetch a memory of a sad time to it. She did and it improved, so spurred on she did more and got better each time, but the things she was thinking of were the bullying at school which has left her with depression/anxiety PTSD, the horrible situation with ex, the death of her Grandmother. Eventually she stopped singing re-did her tragic monologue and had suddenly 'grasped' it, she then wanted to sing a couple more to make sure she was confident about it but on top I refused to let her go to bed with the last thing she thought about being numerous personal tragedies, so insisted she must sing at least one upbeat song first. Before that could happen I had knocking on the wall from the neighbours. Ok it was late but it wasn't early hours and it wasn't that loud, husband already gone to bed couldn't hear it! Neighbour then messaged my husband's sister to complain and she rang him! I was not best pleased and told husband that she would not be going to bed straight away without some 'happy songs' first as I considered it was potentially too dangerous (bare in mind the bullying caused her to have suicidal thoughts at only 15).

Later DD had a social media stalk of neighbour and discovered that she'd been spending the previous weeks at the theatre watching pantos and musicals. Yes, well the actors have to rehearse and train and sometimes that just happens at an inconvenient time.

I got my own back a few weeks later with DD back in Scotland and DH away, I'd gone to bed early then woke around 11.30pm to hearing said neighbour banging either repairing something or putting it together. Let it continue intermittently for around half an hour then banged on the wall in the same manner that had been done to us - haven't heard anything else since - lol and off my soapbox hahahaa xx

savingholmes

Neighbours!

Think you were wise to say should mix in some upbeat songs.

Spendless

Haven't updated for a while because not much debt busting to report. We have just returned from seeing DD in her final show at drama school. Her course finishes next week. I'm really sad about that. Seems strange that I started this thread really upset that she had gone and now I'm sad her adventure is ending. Whether she stays in her student location or returns home is unknown at the minute. Her accommodation is paid for until summer, but she understandably doesn't want to remain if the rest of her college students all return home. Either way she needs to look for some work whilst she continues to audition for degree places and comes up with a plan B if she's not successful. We have said we can give her a grace period of helping her financially whilst she looks for work if she wants to remain and depending on what she finds may be able to subsidise, but we can't continue to fund at the rate we previously have.  

The weekend was more expensive than previously. We hadn't got enough loyalty points to cover both night's stay, so had to pay for 1 night. This is because we recently used some on a 1 night stop for DD's friend to visit her over a weekend  as the accommodation rules allow for no more than a 2 night stay and they've issued warnings before about it. Plus some areas it's Feb half term so prices dearer. 

I returned to the shop where I saw a coat I liked last month but decided against buying I lived to regret not buying it so went back but it had gone. I didn't buy at the time because the following day back at work was the last I'd been asked to work to. I have the same situation tomorrow. I have only been asked to work till the end of Feb, so will see what they say. Part of me thinks the answer will depend on how well they've coped without me last week.  

EssexHebridean

Fingers crossed you get a good outcome from work and they want to keep you longer. 

That sounds like a good compromise with DD's funding - hopefully she'll find suitable work and will have pals also staying in the area. 

Coxy11

Hope you get some positive news from work - fingers crossed for you.

DD spent from 10 December to 30 January here due to Christmas holidays. Her term started again on 24 Jan but due to DS2's 18th birthday on 29th she stayed an extra week and studied remotely. She then came back the following weekend as it was DS1s birthday. She then came back again 10 days ago as no lectures due to strikes. She was meant to go back yesterday lunchtime as had made plans to see friends, but ended up leaving around 6pm, dropping her BF home en route. I was a bit short with her yesterday as she was testing the water to see if she could stay another week. Not being mean but she/we are paying £700 a month for a room in a house that she's barely using. She has gym membership in Brighton and some really nice housemates who are going to get a bit fed up if she keeps cancelling plans. As much as I like her BF, he is here in Kent, doesn't drive and it's all too easy to persuade her to stay iyswim. Sorry that turned into a bit of a deluge!

I hope your DD has a good final week of her course. You will have the same situation with an empty room you are paying for. These landlords have got it made!

savingholmes

Hope you get positive work news

Spendless

I lost my job today.

I'll update with more details at a later point.