Hi. Does anyone have Summer Stock experience with the Unified Summer Stock Companies such as Straw Hats or NETC. I’d love to hear about your child’s audition and summer stock experiences. Thank you!
@MTmom2017 - I don’t have any first hand information but I did find a couple of older threads that were very informative.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/2118550-netc-strawhat-experiences.html
I was hoping someone would post about this soon and would also appreciate some more recent feedback too. My son will do Strawhats in March so I reread the older threads a few weeks ago; not sure if it’s because the board isn’t as active anymore that it hasn’t been an active topic the last couple years. I hope some veteran MT parents will chime in!
My D has been to SETC and A1s but not Strawhats or NETC. If you have any specific questions and want to send me a message I will do my best to answer. 
Hi, I’m on this board as a mom of a HS sophomore who wants to eventually major in Musical Theatre. I also am the Auditions Coordinator for NETC. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have. Just as an overview, NETC is open to musical theater (and acting only) students and adults 18+. We bring in 40+ producers from theaters, cruise lines, theme parks, etc each year to audition approximately 800 people for summer stock and year round work. This is a great way for those who are looking to get a jump-start on their career to get some paid work and/or Equity points towards membership. We specialize in non-Equity performers. In addition, auditionees have the opportunity to attend workshops on subjects such as headshots, demo reels, and tax prep for the actor before and after their auditions.
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@TinaBC thanks for commenting on this thread! My D applied for NETC this year and is excited to be considered. How long after applying will she know if she is accepted (or not) to attend?
@TinaBC - thanks so much for chiming in! Can you tell us - are most of your theatres in the NE area or is it a wider regional mix? I know there are several regional auditions for summer stock but I don’t know if that translates into mostly work in that region.
Hi, CMB625. Your daughter should receive her selection decision email next weekend! Best wishes.
CaMom13 - our producers are mostly East Coast, but we also have a few from the Midwest and a couple of casting agencies that book theme parks nationwide and cruise ships. We don’t tend to get West Coast producers, but I am working on expanding the number of producers that come each year.
@TinaBC Thank you so much!
Thank you so much @TinaBC !
I know some of the large auditions are MT or Dance only, are there any non-MT Acting positions booked through NETC? Also - I know this won’t be exact but do you have an estimate for how many total summer jobs are booked from NETC auditions each year?
Does anyone know when kids are going to start hearing if they are cast or not? My son did A-1s… got a couple of callbacks.
Wondering if we are going to be able to plan a summer vacation or not.
I know A1’s is early in the audition season, so Theatres like The Lex don’t do final casting until mid to end of March. With that said my son has received a couple of offers already through A1’s.
CAMom13
We have two rooms of auditions running simultaneously at NETC. One is for MT and the other is Acting Only. We have quite a few producers looking for actors. Shakespeare is popular, touring productions kids show productions, theme parks looking for characters.
It is very hard for us to say how many jobs are booked through NETC. The producers are often busy finishing up their hiring and then starting their season, so they don’t respond well to requests for numbers. I do know that one of the casting agents last year hired over 75 MT and straight actors for jobs on cruise ships and theme parks.
TexasMTDad… it is still early. A lot of producer will attend several regional auditions and will not make their hiring decisions until April.
SO helpful @TinaBC - thanks again!
@TexasMTDad The last 2 summers we opted to take an early May vacation (our D got out of school late April). A lot of summer stock places will have the actors arriving sometime mid May or even in June depending on if they got a full summer contract or a contract for partial summer (say, 1 show). Our D didn’t know if she booked anything until late April last year and the summer before she had an internship which I’m pretty sure wasn’t decided until April also. Haha, we are very envious of the students who get contracts early @Troykat -Congrats!!
I still have two kids in school, so May is not an option. Looking like late August is not an option either… if he gets a gig.
My daughter has done MWTA (Midwest Theatre Auditions), SETC, Institute of Outdoor Theatre Audiitions (I think they are now SETC-Outdoor), and UPTAs. She hasn’t done A1s, NETC, or Strawhat. The year she was accepted to Strawhat and NETC, she got a job through SETC so she cancelled her Strawhat and NETC spots. It would have been good for her to go to for the experience and exposure, but she was able to save the hotel and transportation costs.
Hi @TinaBC - did you say NETC decisions emails were coming out this weekend or next? I have a friend whose D is waiting on the email to make Spring Break reservations. Thanks so much!
Hi, CaMom13
Notices have gone out for Musical Theater applicants as of 3pm today.
Acting Only notifications will go out later this evening.
TinaBC