International Thespians Auditions

College Majors Musical Theater Major
1

<p>Wondering what your experiences are with the auditions at the International Thespians . . . especially regarding current acceptances, on the spot offers, and the callbacks that required your kiddo to go to campus anyway (In other words, Thespian auditions were just a pre-screening process for the schools.).</p>

<p>I do recall reading posts that very few admittances are granted at that early date (June), but I'm curious about the benefits vs. the costs of attending. </p>

<p>If you prefer, PM or email me. </p>

<p>Thanks so much!</p>

2

<p>HI KKsMOM5:</p>

<p>I thought i would reply…just for the sake of getting info out there, even though you and i have talked too!</p>

<p>I have attended the International Thespian Conference as a chaperone with D’s school twice. Once when D was a freshman and once last summer, the summer prior to her senior year.</p>

<p>There are lots of good things about the Festival that have nothing to do with college auditions, please feel free to ask me about those things if you want, but i will focus on the college audition aspect on this post.</p>

<p>Both times i attended, i was chaperoning a number of kids who were auditioning, both girls and boys.</p>

<p>The Audition:</p>

<p>The Audition itself is done in front of all of the auditors at the same time. There were approximately 40 schools in attendance. Kid scheduled their appt time upon arrival at the Festival and were ushered in in groups of about 50. They were seated and each could perform any combo of songs and monologues, not to exceed 2 minutes…so 2 songs, 2 monologues or one of each. Accompaniment is recorded and provided by the student. There were many, many students auditioning. The auditions ran over 2 days and 1 evening at Festival. The list of schools that were there last year is available on the International Thespian website. It seems that they tend to be similar schools every year! The ones that D was specifically interested in were both in MT and Acting and included CCM, USC, Webster, Otterbein, Evansville, Coastal Carolina, and Oklahoma, Harrt but there were many, many other interesting and fine schools in attendance.</p>

<p>Once auditions are finished, “call-backs” are posted by the individual school. 99% of the CB were much more like interviews than actual call-backs, with the exception of Webster, who actually scheduled traditional callbacks on one of the later days. The University of Oklahoma offered those who were “called-back” an opportunity to come to one of their CB week ends later in the year.</p>

<p>RESULTS:</p>

<p>D’s HS has many auditionees every year and has for some time now, so i can give a little bit of historical info on results as well as D’s own experience.</p>

<p>D was “successful” in terms of the number of call backs she received, as was the D of another CC poster who i was chaperoning as well! They were CB by nearly 2/3 of the schools who were in attendance, which basically meant that they they went around from school to school (in a college fair type setting) and met with any or all that they wanted to meet with.</p>

<p>D was offered a CB at Oklahoma and CB at Webster, as well as admittance to Evansville, a few other schools that she was not interested in, directly as a result of these auditions. She is currently on-hold at OK and was admitted to both Webster and Evansville…caveat, her HS does hold its own Thespian Auditions and both OK and Evansville were at those auditions too. </p>

<p>Historically, kids from D’s HS have been successful at Thespians. Over the past few years, we have had people offered on-the-spot admissions to many of the schools, as well as many admittances shortly there after. A close family friend was admitted to CCM as a result of these auditions.</p>

<p>I know that most of the schools are not offering direct acceptances…but some are, so there is the possibility. Many schools also offered scholarship money within a couple of weeks of the auditions. Truth be told that our HS has seen some kids come away with 0 or few CB after auditioning, which is informative to the student as well.</p>

<p>You do need to be an inducted Thespian and have at least a 2.7 GPA to do these auditions.</p>

<p>COST VS. USEFULNESS:</p>

<p>Its about a $1500 trip from the west coast, all inclusive…its also a week long “camp” for the kids…so if its in your budget, it can net some good results for the money, but there is no guarantee.</p>

<p>It was a good experience for us. Though because our HS holds a similar audition in the fall, we could have skipped it and may have had a lot of the same results. it was fun, although blazing hot!!!</p>

<p>I’m happy to answer any questions about Thespians, and if you live in the Northwest, i would be happy to share about our school Thespian Auditions which are open to Thespians in neighboring states as well.</p>

3

<p>Hello! (me waving to mybroadwaybaby!) Thanks again for this information.</p>

4

<p>D attended with mybroadwaybaby’s D (many thanks, fabulous chaperone!!). It was a fun experience which either saved us some $ or cost us a LOT, depending on your perspective. </p>

<p>As mentioned above, D did land two concrete BFA acceptances and some on-campus callbacks, plus many contacts that later pursued her through various means. The confidence that she could get into some good programs, plus the discussions she had with various schools (coupled with a summer program she attended that same summer) helped her decide on her first-choice school. Another thing that helped with her decision was having the experience of living in college dorms and being around a campus for a week.</p>

<p>Since she was subsequently accepted ED to that first choice school, we saved the $ we would have spent on traveling to Unifieds and various on-campus callbacks. On the other hand, that school is by far the most expensive of the schools on her list, so in that sense you could say the Thespian auditions cost us a lot… though presumably she would have eventually reached the same place even without the ITS Festival.</p>

<p>Bottom line is that she had a lot of fun and got a good jump on the college audition process, so if we had it to do over we certainly would.</p>

5

<p>MomCares, the International Thespian brochure’s section in regards to Individual Events and the showcase mentions Young Arts. Do students who perform in the festival showcase get invited to be involved in the Young Arts week?</p>

6

<p>Not as far as I remember, but it’s possible they get reminded to submit an audition tape to YoungArts or passed through one level of adjudication. I honestly don’t remember. I am QUITE sure they are not automatically involved in YoungArts week, as I don’t think D had met any of the Miami YoungArts finalists in Nebraska (she had met two at MPulse).</p>

<p>Let us know if you learn more since as I say I don’t remember.</p>

7

<p>I know this thread was from last year, but I have a few questions about who can go to this festival. Do you have to go with your school? I am pretty sure that our school doesn’t usually attend this event? However, it is in our region, so I would be interested in the early audition possibility for my kid and savings on time and money. Could you clarify how the festival works in terms of who is allowed to attend? I am pretty sure that our high school is a troupe member as I just paid the dues. Thanks so much!</p>

<p>Oh, I have spent quite a bit of time at the website, but still couldn’t quite figure it out.</p>

8

<p>Mybroadwaybaby and momcares are still active on CC so they can give you a better answer. Track them down if they don’t chime in. </p>

<p>I was tipped off by mybroadwaybaby to a regional audition sponsored by our state thespians. As it turned out, my daughter could attend even though her school was not a member school. Last year’s post #2 from mybroadwaybaby says: “You do need to be an inducted Thespian and have at least a 2.7 GPA to do these auditions”. Not sure what it means to be an inducted thespian and whether or not you have to attend a member school for that to apply for International Thespians but it is worth asking about.</p>

<p>If it is possible to become an inducted thespian even if your school’s theatre program is not associated, I’d say do it. We didn’t attend the international thespian auditions because we had no idea that they even existed, but the regional ones that we were tipped off to (about a week before they happened) courtesy of the CC turned out to be well worth attending. You get exposure to schools you might otherwise never have thought about, you gain college audition experience early on and if you are lucky enough to come away with an early offer or at least to have completed the audition and only then need to fill out the application, well that sure is nice. I absolutely would have had my daughter attend International Thespians in hindsight had I known about it and if she could somehow be eligible.</p>

9

<p>Thank you!! Will do!</p>

10

<p>Mybroadwaybaby is much more knowledgeable than I, but I will tell you what I know. In order to audition at IT, one must be have a Thespian card. To my understanding, the Thespian card has to come from the student’s troupe and troupes are based in a high schools. There are certain requirements to earn membership and earn a card such as documenting hours for doing tech, performing, and the like. I called the IT office and asked if my D could join another active high school’s troupe because her school did not have inducted Thespians and I was told “no”. However, we did learn that if a parent outside of the school wanted to start a troupe at the school that could be done with the school’s permission and input of course (it was too late for us to do this). </p>

<p>As mybroadwaybaby mentioned in her original post, there may be other regional auditions that are more lenient about the Thespian membership . . . thanks to mybroadwaybaby, my D attended their regional audition and it was a very valuable experience.</p>

11

<p>Southeastern Theatre Conference is one of those regional auditions. My D actually attended as a junior and learned quite a bit. But there are also auditions for high school seniors or college students wanting to transfer.
[Undergraduate</a> School](<a href=“http://www.setc.org/theatre/undergraduate-school]Undergraduate”>http://www.setc.org/theatre/undergraduate-school)</p>

12

<p>I need to go to the source, see if dk’s school is a member and call International Thespians as well. We just started at this high school this year, so I am learning the ropes of the attending competitions, etc. I will also look into the Southeastern Theatre Conference. Thanks so much! Getting a head start on this would be such a help in so many ways.</p>

<p>Edit: SE Theatre Conference, too late for this year! It was last weekend. Good to know about for the future! Thanks!</p>

13

<p>Hi Ewanes:</p>

<p>Sorry it took so long to respond to this…i was at the Washington State Thespian Festival!</p>

<p>I think i can answer most of your question about Thespians:</p>

<p>The Washington State Thespian auditions occur in October each year. If your school has a troupe in the pacific northwest, and your son is an inducted thespian, he will definitely be able to attend…if he is not an inducted thespian, i bet he still has time to make that happen. I will check in with the director of the auditions to see if they are open to non-thespians who live in the region, but my guess is that they are not. However, i know some home schooled students have participated in Thespian events, so there must be a way…</p>

<p>From the info sheet that comes with the application, students must be graduating seniors when they audition (October of senior year) and they must have a minimum gpa of 2.7. There are some other rules regarding length of material, etc. Students attend as individuals, rather than as schools…although some schools do travel together to the event.</p>

<p>To attend the Washington State College Auditions, you must be in the Pacific Northwest Geographic region, which includes WA, OR, ID, and British Columbia. There are about 20+ schools that come most years, but the number is always increasing.</p>

<p>I think Momcares, KKsMOM and Halflokum can all attest to the fact that it is really worth doing if you live in the region and you are eligible! </p>

<p>I just want to put in a little plug for the International Thespian Festival in Nebraska that also features auditions (summer prior to senior year). I believe a student must be an inducted thespian for the auditions that take place in Nebraska each June. There are over 40+ schools represented there as well.</p>

<p>If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask or PM.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

14

<p>^^^I think Ewanes is actually asking about the International Thespian Festival in Nebraska which is not state specific and how one can be eligible for that event vs. WA state (or any state’s) Thespian event . I did not know the answer to that question but I bet you do! :)</p>

15

<p>Oh i see…</p>

<p>Well, i know that students must be inducted Thespians in order to participate in the college auditions in Nebraska…i just took a look at the application. However you need not attend with your school…many folks go on their own. I was the chaperone for our school’s troupe a couple of years ago…we had to “guests” with us, who were both “inducted Thespians” from schools who were not planning to attend, including Momcares’ D! So you can take your son on your own…if you are looking at this summer, you will need to sign up soon. But if you don’t want to attend with him, there is likely another school in your area who is attending. If you are in the PNW, which i think you are…PM me and i might be able to get you connected to a school that is attending!</p>

16

<p>My D attended ITF as a freshman in Lincoln last year and loved it! Students attend classes each day, and attend full performances and a dance each evening. Last year, my D saw The Drowsy Chaperone, Godspell, and Avenue Q. She received a superior in Musical Theatre at our state conference, which allowed her to perform her piece in the Individual Events. She will be performing in the IEs at Lincoln again this upcoming year. I highly recommend this conference, and you can go with or without a thespian troupe. My D will definitely audition next year as a junior for colleges there.</p>