I would absolutely love to hear from parents who have been through Chicago Unifieds with their kids. Based on your experience, could you share tips and advice on the best practices for Unifieds audition schedule? What is the optimal number of auditions for the entire length of Chicago Unifieds? What do we need to take into consideration while scheduling auditions? How many auditions a day are duable? How much time should we allow for each audition, and in between, just for safety (staying at Palmer)? Is is best to start Unifieds with your top choices, or is it better to schedule them toward the middle or even the end of the 4-day audition period? How should we incorporate the non-Palmer colleges into the schedule with all the trips around the city? Is it smart to get some of them out of the way a day before (on the 5th)?
Anything and everything you can share would be very much appreciated. We are about to start scheduling daughter’s first auditions, but don’t really know how to best go about it to get the most effective schedule.
Thanks!!!
It depends on lots of factors. Many “unified”
Schools only need you for a 15 minute slot. But putting at least 30 minutes between auditions that will all be at the palmer house is not a bad idea in case one is running late.
Schools that say to block off a whole morning or afternoon - do that. Don’t over schedule. Our strategy was to schedule ones in same location around the same time frame (2-3 in the same morning) then leave travel time to get across town and grab lunch before an audition that required blocking out the whole afternoon. We aimed for two to three per day using that mindset.
I do know many kids that did more per day as all were in the same location and only needed 15 minutes or so for each one.
We also found it nice to leave the craziness of Unifieds and get to another location for part of the day. If you can spread out Palmer house vs auditions at other sites that may be nice.
If possible don’t do top choice school first. Maybe towards middle. Some kids get pretty worn out by the end.
Excellent advice, bfahopeful. Thank you!
Be aware that some programs also require a dance call, which can last up to an hour (maybe more…). As I recall my d had at least 4 dance calls at Unifieds. With clothes changes, etc., these can absorb a lot of time at Unifieds. My d did two dance calls on Sunday and a total of 6 auditions and 2 dance calls on Monday and Tuesday. She took Wednesday off and we went to the Art Institute before flying home. Some students in our group did 8-10 auditions, and I think the record at her high school is 14 at Unifieds (that student did lots of walk-ins, including one done when the flight home was delayed for 2 hours and the student ran back upstairs at the Palmer House to do one more audition).
Thank you, EmsDad. Your information is always extremely helpful
My daughter originally planned 6 auditions…two per day over three days (4 dance calls & one movement call) …extremely manageable schedule!
If she were to do it again…we would cram everything into two days and enjoy a day in the city like @EmsDad! She loved the energy and the social aspect of Unifieds. However, as others have previously posted in this forum, it can be overload for many, including parents. We were anxious to get out of there and day 3 felt really long.
My advice is to be flexible…I told my D if at any point in the process she felt overwhelmed or had a change of heart or gut feeling about a school we would take it off the list. She ended up cancelling one audition at Unifieds and withdrew an app after another. Others went as planned! (Her list started with 14, dropped 4…ended up at 10 auditions. Half on campus, half in Chicago)
Other advice…The Gage (a few blocks away on MI Ave) makes a great brandy old-fashioned! And, if you haven’t already heard, there is a dance store around the corner…that saved us from some leo or tights emergency that I can’t even remember!! Enjoy & breathe!
Other schools hold auditions in town that are not on the official Unifieds list, right? How does one find out about them?
@spike27 you have to look at each schools website. They all post audition dates for on campus and any off campus auditions.
You schedule each audition with each school separately-- even official unified schools.
My D did 2 a day (one day might have had 3 scheduled ones because we knew it’d be a 15 minute one), 1 on-campus the Saturday before, and several walk-ins. We arrived on Friday and stayed until the last day. My D loved the environment and got energized by the auditions. The day after we returned home, though, she was exhausted! In fact, she cancelled an audition that she was supposed to do the following weekend; she just felt like she was done and that she was satisfied. However your auditioner reacts, it’s important to let them totally lead the way not only with this process but also when it comes to where to eat meals (in the hotel or out, and, if out, how far away), how much totally down time and alone time they want, etc. And, some advice on the side: Never discuss auditions outside of your hotel room or completely empty elevator.
If your D is doing an audition or two prior to Unifieds, I wouldn’t worry about the order of auditions. D had acceptances at the beginning of her auditions, the middle, and the end. In fact, her very last audition at Unifieds on the last day of Unifieds and during one of their last slots and the last of her whole college audition process is the school she attends.
One piece of advice we were given regarding time slots anywhere is to try not to audition in the slots before lunch if you have control of that.
If you can swing it, I recommend staying on the executive levels. The elevator always being available, the snacks and water provided throughout the day, the calm and quiet, and the free breakfast and appetizers at dinner time (which were enough for our full dinners at least twice) were so nice. It was also great to have a room with two bathrooms so D didn’t have to share one when she was getting ready for auditions.
Thank you both, deelight and myloves. So many great points!
My D did 6 auditions at Chicago unfieds- 2 each day. She “could” have done more - (I had hoped she might try some walk-ins, but she adamantly refused) but it was nice to have some extra time to prepare/decompress etc. 4/6 of her auditions were NOT in the Palmer house - so we stayed elsewhere, which we liked b/c it provided a bit of a buffer between us and the intensity of the process. Also, I have stayed in the Palmer other times (for non theater related events!) and while the lobby is stunning, it’s not my favorite hotel - I think there are better ones in the area. JMHO
My d loved the whole experience at Unifieds: the Palmer House, Chicago, etc. Her school group arrived on Saturday and they spent the afternoon walking around the city and then rode the “El” to Second City on Saturday night (which was amazing, I don’t think that I have ever laughed that hard). Some students did have auditions on Saturday afternoon.
After dance calls on Sunday, the group went to Giordano’s for Chicago pizza (in the great blizzard of 2015!) and then on Tuesday we went to Ed Debevic’s, where they also had a blast. We got everyone Do-Rite donuts twice in the morning which the kids loved (of course).
The Palmer House was awesome for a group because the kids can easily stay 4 to a room with two bathrooms per room. They loved hanging out together in the huge rooms.
@EmsDad -What was your group? Was it with a coach, a PA high school, etc? I am debating whether to chaperone, tag along, or to stay at home! I wonder if my d would do better with me staying far away; or whether she may want Mom. PM me, if you wish 
My D attended a PA HS and the theatre department attends Unifieds each year as a field trip. Typical group size is 8-14 students and 3-4 chaperones (several parents usually attend because its fun to visit Chicago). The students were very well prepared, focused, organized, and supported each other, so very little chaperoning was involved. The students met with the department head each day for warm-ups, critiques, and to answer questions that the students had as a result of their auditions. We did escort students who needed to get across town for auditions. I mostly worked from my room and did some sight-seeing around town. I only helped d out when she asked for assistance with getting an application printed out or whatever. We had two group nights out with the kids and the parents ate together the other two nights. Both groups had a very good time.
Thank you, toowonderful! And EmsDad, sounds like you D and you had a great experience, and a lot of fun :))
My D scheduled 2 one day and 3 the next actually 2+2+1 but we moved the 1 up; she probably could have scheduled more but some had movement calls (some dance/movement calls take an entire block - am or pm). She did 3 walk-ins and had 2 auditions outside of the Palmer House. We arrived on Sunday and she spent the afternoon exploring Millennium Park and local coffee haunts with friends. It was cold but not snowing when we arrived so we got lucky. I wouldn’t count on no snow in Jan/Feb! We saw an outstanding performance of Cabaret while we were there - last minute decision on our part but managed to get great seats (in a theatre packed with MT/Acting candidates – GREAT audience!). I mostly worked from our hotel room and performed Sherpa duties (went on a few smoothie/coffee runs!) but we did get evenings together.
She finished all of her auditioning in 2 full days. She initially had an audition scheduled for Wednesday but was able to get it moved up to Tuesday late afternoon. We were concerned about some weather heading in and wanted to get on the road. We did not quite beat the weather home but it did get worse later in the week. MT candidates may need the extra day but can do some dance calls on Sunday.
We, too, stayed on the executive level and it was worth the extra $$ to us for the supply of food and drink!
To those who previously did Chicago unifieds, did you also do more auditions the following weekend or was it too draining & needed a break? Thoughts?
@cpx4gb - we flew home on Wednesday night from Chicago and then turned around and flew out again late Friday afternoon for a Saturday audition (that was actually d’s third trip in a week, we flew out the Thursday before Unifieds and d did an audition on Friday morning, visited the hilarious City Museum in St. Louis in the afternoon, flew home that night, and then got up really early on Saturday to fly to Chicago for Unifieds). D was none-the-worse-for-wear through it all, and actually enjoyed the third trip since it included a day sight-seeing in Washington D.C. on Sunday before we headed home. I was worried that the Friday trip after Unifieds was going to be too much, since it was a 3 hour flight plus a one hour drive pretty late into the night on Friday. But she did fine. Sadly, she did not connect at all with the faculty and students in the program at her audition that Saturday and was more or less glad to move on to sightseeing around the nation’s capitol on Sunday. I think the chance to see sights in all three cities removed some of the tension of all the auditions. Also, at that point she had done enough auditions and plane trips that she was a hardened “audition road warrior.”
I think on-campus auditions give you a much better chance to judge how you might fit in a program, or not, since you usually get to interact with several students and faculty members at the check-in, briefing, dance call, etc.
One kind of funny note: during the third audition trip in a week, d’s throat was dry and scratchy the night before her last audition. As luck would have it, the only place we could find open to eat dinner at 10:00pm was a Five Guy’s Burgers, which is about the greasiest burger you can get, anywhere. We were not excited about eating there, but, it turned out that all the grease in the burger made her throat feel much, much better the rest of the weekend. Go figure.
@cpx4gb - I did an audition on Friday, drove home Saturday, flew out to Chicago Sunday, did Unifieds Monday and part of Tuesday, flew home Tuesday night, then drove to another school that Friday afternoon for a Saturday audition. All total it was five auditions in a little over a week for me (I only did three at Unifieds because I was adamant about sticking to my list of schools - in hindsight maybe some walk-ins would have been nice, but I’m extremely happy where I am and how it all turned out!) and it was 100% doable for me. Again, I probably could have done a few more auditions and still been fine, but it is totally a personal thing!
I would love to hear some advice/best practices about walk in auditions: So, I assume-if a school allows them, they have a sign up sheet, and it’s first come first serve? Do the schools specify ahead of time that they have walk-in auditions? What are the audition requirements-do they have an accompanist? Is dance ever a part of walk-ins?