2025 Checkerboard

“I don’t even know where to begin to thank MTCA and all the coaches that helped us through this journey! We were so naive to the level of difficulty to get accepted into these universities’ MT & Acting programs and how truly competitive they really are. My daughter invested many hours with her coaches throughout this process. Learning and growing, fine tuning her talents, learning what she excels at, and embracing it all!

Amy Breslow helped us develop our list and talked us through ways to keep organized in the very beginning. Initially, our heads were spinning in a million directions- she was able to keep us on path and focused. Samantha Massell, Annabelle’s song coach, was so amazing in how she pushed Annabelle to develop her storytelling through song, directing her though these fine nuances which made all the difference in how the story was told. Candi Boyd, Dance Coach, worked closely with Annabelle on her dance prescreen and guided her technique to help her through the audition dance calls. Amy Linden, Vocal Tech Coach, was simply wonderful! Annabelle got to explore different techniques and grew with Amy dramatically over the time she worked with her. Annabelle’s coaching with her monologue coach Carman Lacivita brought out a love for acting she didn’t realize she had, and her Shakespeare monologue became her favorite piece of audition material.

Finally Leo Ash Evens, what can I say other than he is an incredible human! There were countless times Leo was there exactly when you needed to hear the words, “You got this,” “I know it’s hard,” “We’re almost at the finish line,” etc. These didn’t come in one-on-one coaching sessions that you paid for— no, they came on Facebook or Instagram or in an email as a little pep chat to get you through the day. Leo also did many Facebook Lives which were incredibly helpful. The things my daughter has learned from Leo and MTCA will continue with her all throughout her career.

A word of advice when you hear the words “Trust the process”: believe it.”

“Where do I start? Going into the pandemic I knew I wanted to be an actor and at the time I had actually given up on musical theater because I thought I wasn’t very good at it. And that’s when I started taking dance classes and song lessons! Those classes and workshops that I was able to take at MTCA changed the way I saw myself in regards to musical theater. My song coach John-Michael not only pushed me to sing every song I auditioned with from a place of truth, he also taught me how to connect over a zoom screen which was really needed this year!

Anyways, fast forward to the callback weekend at Juilliard and that was the weekend I fell in love with Juilliard. On the 2nd to last day at Juilliard I found out I got accepted as a BFA musical theater major at Carnegie Mellon. Made my decision a lot harder. Then about a week after the callback weekend at Juilliard, I get a call from New York and I answer it “welcome to group 55”. I think in that moment I forgot what was real. MTCA and my coaches and mentors there have really seen me go from Texas State to Carnegie Mellon and then finally land at my perfect school, The Juilliard School. All of them so different and special in their own ways, but MTCA helped me the whole way through and I am forever grateful.”

“It can be challenging for students auditioning for college Musical Theatre Programs to balance their preparation while maintaining their own authenticity. MTCA coaches are able to help in all areas of audition preparation including choice of appropriate material, proper vocal technique and mock dance calls allowing each student to present their best unique self in every audition. MTCA students are always well-prepared, confident, and ready to share their best selves in the audition room; it is always a joy to see them.”