<p>austinmtmom, the time does fly by! My D graduated 5 1/2 years ago now and I still can’t believe that. :)</p>
<p>Break a leg and Merde! to all auditioning this weekend!</p>
<p>Today is the first audition, and I’m already realizing it stinks to be the parent who stays home!</p>
<p>I understand! I just spoke to my husband to fill him in on what’s going on. I feel he is missing it also.</p>
<p>Keep your chin up, jeffandann, waiting for the letters, email, and phone calls from the schools on program acceptances/rejections was worse for me! She will be great and you she’ll have wonderful stories when she arrives home!</p>
<p>Seriously LOVING all the DAD support in these posts! Go dads : )</p>
<p>@jeffandann just so you know it can also stink to be the parent who is there. Especially if your kid comes out of the audition really unsure of themself and doesn’t want to talk about it while they “process”. Meanwhile you have to field the anxious calls from home about “how did it go?” and you can’t answer the question because you yourself don’t know and the person on the other end thinks you are holding out. Hopefully you won’t run into ANY of that but you might so just wanted to point out that it isn’t always wine and roses to be the one who is there either. It is truly a team effort no matter what role you are playing but in the end most of it is up to the student. Hope everything goes well for all of you!!! Break legs!!</p>
<p>My poor husband is so completely clueless about the process. That’s okay. He loves his daughter no matter what and she knows it :).</p>
<p>The time and experiences my daughter and I shared during her audition process were some of the most special that I will ever have as a parent. From being the one to organize all of the binders, charts and spreadsheets she used to map out her college application, audition and final decision process, to the hours we spent together sitting on the floor of Barnes and Noble as she looked through plays for monologs, to the hours we spent together in our car engaged in conversation as we drove to college visits and auditions, to her sharing of her dreams, aspirations and fears, to holding her as she emerged in tears from an audition to one of her favorite schools she thought she had blown (she was accepted with a very large scholarship :)), to watching her smile with glee when the “fat envelops” came and handle her disappointment when it was a “thin” one, to being her sounding board when she was deciding among her acceptances, these are all moments locked in time which have indelibly stamped my relationship with her. As I watch her now as a young performer making her way as a fiercely independent adult through this crazy life she has chosen, I feel blessed that she has shared and continues to share so much of her life with me. To all the parents out there going through this process with their kids now, experiencing all the ups and downs, the stresses and the joys, and particularly to all you Dads out there, enjoy and relish this very special time in your child’s life.</p>
<p>OMG Halflokum, you are so right. It IS very stressful being the parent there - ugh! Though I may be more nervous than my child.</p>
<p>At the risk of sounding a little smug and preachy, for all you parents that are feeling so stressed out about upcoming auditions, you need to take a deep calming breath! 
. Believe me, I know where you are at. But it’s just the beginning of the audition season and your kids are going to need you as their safe harbors and safety nets to recharge themselves emotionally and physically as they deal with all their stresses. If you yourself are so stressed out by this process, its tough to be there for your kid. </p>
<p>If your kid’s list of schools, including non-audition safeties, contains schools all of which your kids could see themselves attending, at the end of the day, it will all be fine. Your kid will have an acceptance to a good school from your list and will be off to a great college experience. So as tough as it is, try not to be overly stressed. The audition process really does present some wonderful opportunities for sharing and bonding with your kid as you travel from audition to audition. This is a unique time in their lives in which you can share, whether you are the traveling parent on the scene or the parent left at home who can participate between auditions. Enjoy this time, its a very special one. Once it’s over, it’s gone.</p>
<p>Break legs to all of you.</p>
<p>I read about those wonderful bonding moments last year before striking out on our (all on campus) journey around this time. I do not doubt their existence, but I kept waiting for them. Sure there was plenty of time together which was nice but depending on the pacing of the auditions and the amount of travel and other logistical headaches I didn’t find that there was much time for that. There was also the need to keep up with homework and the desire for my daughter to keep in touch with her friends back home none of which had anything to do with me and I was OK with that. I was the facilitator, the support when she wanted it and sometimes my support was the last thing she wanted unless you count giving her the space she needed to think or remaining calm if her nerves boiled over and she got a little snappy with me. Breathe. </p>
<p>The highlight was after her NYU audition. NYU mind you was her dream school. She came out of the audition and all she said was, “I need to not think about this and move on to the next one”. I tried every angle that I could (gently) for her to tell me more but she was a nervous vault. It was lunch time so I pulled a rabbit out of my hat. “Let’s go eat at the Stardust Diner”, admittedly a tourist trap but she loves it there. She brightened slightly and we went. I had the pleasure of sitting there like a fly on the wall listening while she told the singing waitress everything about her NYU audition that she was too keyed up to tell me. That’s how I learned some of the details and realized it was more a case of her wanting it so badly that she was second guessing every little thing she did or they said. She is now a freshman studying MT at NYU so the story does have a happy ending.</p>
<p>So I know exactly where you are coming from @Calliene. That was my experience too. I agree with MichaelnKat that you should do what you can as the parent to remain calm and minimize the stress. But I honestly never saw the wine and roses until after it was over even following auditions that seemed to go really well because you still have to gear up for the next one or catch a plane, or drive hundreds of miles through a blizzard or finish homework or whatever. My daughter and I get along just fine and always did but the audition trail IS stressful and saying “don’t stress” doesn’t make it less so. You just have to cope as best you can. Break a leg!</p>
<p>Haha halflokum, maybe it’s the diff between mother/daughter, father/daughter thing, but your child sounds like a clone of mine. I often hear more about things as she tells other people than I get myself. She, too LOVES the Stardust Diner and has proclaimed it as her dream job while she’s auditioning (and, why are we going for that expensive college degree?..lol)… And there is a reason I’m not a performer: I would die of fright, which my child does not. She’s happier on the stage than anywhere else. I ALWAYS get more nervous than she does before she performs. But I agree MichaelNKat that we have to be their rock and sounding board going through this. To me that means biting my tongue when I WANT to ask a lot of questions, or when I get snapped at, or when the Ipod comes out to check with friends at home while we are out to dinner together while traveling (ugh, I just wanna snatch that thing sometimes). Her relationship with my husband around all this (who is relatively clueless and can’t believe she has to apply to so many schools or do all she’s done to prepare for this) is completely different. I am trying to find some “fun” whenever possible because I do remind myself that next year she’ll be gone from home (with luck) and who knows if she’ll ever be back. BTW, MichaelNKat, we went to Honey Grow and it was GREAT! Thanks for the tip. What a cool neighborhood!!!</p>
<p>^^^Clones indeed! My daughter wants to work there too and all of the other scenes sound familiar as well. </p>
<p>I was literally not kidding when I said the wine and roses came after it was all over. So here is my one and only true bonding story from the audition trail last year. Very last audition in the middle of nowhere at a school that will remain nameless. That school’s last audition slot as well and everyone was rather punchy to get it all over with. Audition went fine and we stayed around a little longer to do a quick informal campus tour on our own. That decision proved to be a weather mistake. We had a 6 hour drive ahead of us and the weather turned badly not long after leaving the campus but before we had reached any major roads. We got into a major accident involving a flatbed truck in the wrong lane of traffic on small road far from any town or support. Luckily nobody was hurt but it was a huge headache and caused us to return to the college town and deal with sorting it out for another day. </p>
<p>My daughter was an absolute rock through all of that. So helpful and so caring with me because my nerves were pretty shot. She even managed to laugh when I was brushing off the glass that was all over us as I said to her “honey, if you get into this school you are NOT going because I’m never ever coming here again.” I guess that was our bonding moment. Take them where you can get them. Glad you enjoyed your visit to Philadelphia. I think that would be a cool place to study theatre. Best!</p>
<p>I wouldn’t have traded those audition moments, but it was very stressful for all the reasons previously mentioned. We had to take planes to 8 different states over a four month period while the rest of real life marched on. The time changes nearly killed us going West to East and having to be somewhere by 8AM. We were late to her very first audition in November because we had to scrape ice off our rental car windshield and we had never done that before! We learned to always leave extra time after that lesson…D hates walking in late!</p>
<p>I found it best not to ask how things went after an audition. When they want to share with you they will and you can’t take it too personally : )</p>
<p>Interesting input from all. My daughter and her mom had a great time at Elon, thought the audition went very well, enjoyed meeting kids and parents from different parts of the country. She loved the campus. And now a break until January, when Dad gets to take her to the next audition! And starting then it will be two months straight every weekend of either auditions or show choir competitions.</p>
<p>Yup, sounds familiar! I keep the old calendar for fun just to prove that it all really happened! February was the craziest month ever. Best to your D : )</p>
<p>I really liked visiting Philly and especially the UArts neighborhood. It took a while but on the drive back I was able to get fair amount of details from my son. He felt like he did well on his audition and but it was hard for him to get a read on whether the faculty felt the same. I guess you can’t know anything for sure until you get that acceptance or rejection notice. Since, UArts is rolling we should know soon. </p>
<p>He has one more audition this year (Rider) and then we wait until the Jan-Feb craziness.</p>
<p>I remember there was a CC parent who said they would email a list of the unofficial schools that attend Unifieds. If you are still out there and you have it for NYC, would you please email or Private Message me? Thanks!</p>
<p>Hi everyone, I’m new to this board, although I’ve been reading different threads for months on here. My son is just beginning the audition process. He has applied to 17 schools in all, including 3 safety BAs/non-audition BFAs. We decided against unifieds because he wanted to see campuses to know for sure he would be happy there.<br>
He attended National Thespian festival in June and got 12 callbacks to schools like Hartt, Viterbo, Roosevelt, Ohio Northern, Cap21. He has pre-screened for Shenandoah and just got the call to come to campus. Whew. Things seem to be happening in a good way so far.
His first on-campus audition is next weekend at Cincinnati. Might as well get the most intimidating one out of the way first - then on to Point Park audition on December 15. He video auditioned for Rider and we are hoping to hear from them soon since they are on a rolling admission. This is a great thread and I will be checking back in from time to thanks for moral support!</p>
<p>Best of Luck! Sounds like you have it under control with great options!</p>