Sending one's child to stage school - bold and brilliant or completely irresponsible?

When I acted as a child, I seem to recall most of the adults in that world being all "Oh God, stage school kids are awful" about them.

Maybe I should have titled this thread: "Stage school kids: defend the indefensible".

Which one are you talking about?

(And which one did the Libertines meet at? Because that's what I mean about Stage School being the new Art School. Don't learn how to be creative, learn how to be stage managed.)

I have never set foot in one, unsurprisingly.

I can't off-hand think of any actors who went to stage school as children (obviously there must be some). They seem to more be breeding grounds for teen pop groups.

One in ten applicants to stage school get in. Stage schools give rounding: they are taught to act, sing, dance in various styles. Most come in being VERY good at one or two of these. Oh and they have to take all their GCSEs and A-levels too. Most stage schools are professional from the get-go; they have agencies within the school placing the kids in meat-and-potatoes jobs such as 'chorus, West End musical', 'child in Sunday teatime drama' and in various adverts. If you want a laugh try to find Sonic Youth track called 'Eyes and Teeth' as I have a cowrite credit with Kim Gordon on it (she used my article about this to write a song).

Drama school: you get a BA/BFA and they don't really pimp you to the trade until the last year. However, some come from stage school to drama school complete with agent and terrifying CV.

At my college, which had TWO theatre programmes, I studied theatre for a year (so I could write plays and learn interesting things about self-presentation). There were a LOT of students who rucked up for 'interviews' who made big noises about their agents ALREADY (but many were NY/LA/London biz-brats).

I am still trying to find that damned article where the Libs talk about meeting at stage school or drama school, I *know* I read it somewhere, but I keep getting... distracted. It just suddenly made sense.

Alba: stage-school kids who went on to acting etc. success are legion, starting with ItalCon alums Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence (we'll forget about Naomi Campbell).

Call me a sad old fan, but I am genuinely impressed by this.

Maybe the proportion is higher than I think. I just never seem to read "He spent his childhood at stage school" in interviews with actors. Maybe they keep quiet about it.

My sister went to one (a dance academy, in this case) instead of sixth form. I don;t see the need to do this before, greatly. Unless your kid is a 'star' type who needs to be amongst 'equals' rather than always getting the lead in the school play sort of thing.

Oh, re. the Kim thing, it's funny: the magazine went under two days before their manager called me and asked permission to use the stuff. Also she knew me already because I'd read my own stuff onstage with Huggy Bear on a tour with them and Pavement.

(Why can I remember which stage school every boyband went to, but I can't remember any field names for my database, ever? I hate my brain.)

Oh yeah - I meant to say, TV presenters as well as pop stars.

Whereas boy bands are umm, .... ah!

OK. I guess this is the root of it. I guess I (and maybe others) are rockistly contemptuous of light entertainment, TV presenting etc., seeing it as a refuge of those who want to be famous for fame's sake. Which in itself, perhaps there is nothing wrong with, either.

I like the concept of 'heavy entertainment'. That name should catch on.

Some heavy entertainers, yesterday.

Word: How did you meet Pete?
Carl: I went to Brunel [University, west London] to study acting.

(OK, I can't believe that I actually went and looked that up, that is sad. But still. It was bugging me.)

No, it's bloody goddarned fantastic! Thankfully it's only a movie though. If any real cab driver stopped in the middle of a busy street in Times Square to blast motivational synthpop for high school kids to dance to, he'd be killed within minutes.

I'm not sure how I feel about performing arts schools. I love hard-nosed conservatory environments, but I wonder how many PA schools these days are just dedicated to turning their precious little angels into pop stars. There's a fine line between cultivating talent and coddling it.

In my day, performing arts students were taught from the get-go that they're not special. The teachers tried to strip us of what we already knew because they thought it was bullshit. They're right, of course.