Six Out of Town Trips for Auditions---Are We Crazy??

College Majors Musical Theater Major
1

Well, we are really paying the piper for getting a late start in scheduling D’s auditions. As a result we’re faced with the following brutal schedule:
1/21-24 NYC Unifieds (Roosevelt, Penn St., Hartt) plus NYU/Tisch, plus Texas St and Shenandoah (open audition)
1/30 Carnegie Mellon (in Pittsburgh)
2/12 Elon (in North Carolina)
2/20-21 CCM and Wright State (in Cincy/Dayton)
2/28 Baldwin-Wallace (in Cleveland)
3/4 Oklahoma City (in OKC)
This does not include possibly Michigan (we’re waiting for prescreen results) or any follow-up visit to Texas State (if open audition goes well).

Are we certifiably nuts? Or is this the life of an MT audition parent?

2

This is the life! Enjoy it–seriously! :slight_smile: Try to focus on the adventure and fun of it all even amongst the craziness of it.

3

Nope!! We logged 5234 miles on the road last year!

And honestly, I’d do it again in a heartbeat! I had the best time in our weekend audition adventures with my daughter … great memories!

4

We did a total of 9 trips last year including Moonifieds and Unifieds, although they were spread out a little more than your schedule (2 were driving, 7 were flying, 8 involved hotel stays, in one 8 day period we did 3 separate trips including Chicago Unifieds and d still got in 2 days of school).

It goes with the territory.

5

I think this is how it goes for MT parents!? We’ll have 6 trips including unifieds…3 road trips and 3 via air travel to cover 13 schools. This was the schedule she hoped for, but we did have to shuffle a few dates to fit everything in.

Of course when people ask, they think we are certifiable! My new shortened answer to the college question is, “We won’t know where she’s going until May 1…she has several upcoming auditions…and it’s a complicated process.”

I’m really looking forward to the trips. Like @KaMaMom and others say…great opportunities to make memories!!

6

I agree with @KaMaMom ; we had a fantastic time together throughout all of these trips (plus the visits to accepted schools)! We both look back with fondness at it (as does my husband, who went, also).

7

It is what it is! My D and I traveled EVERY weekend between the 2nd weekend in January and the first weekend in March. A wonderful woman on this forum (who is a nurse and went through this) urged me to do two things that got us through the season: CheriBundi juice every day, and Thieves spray. Both are available on Amazon. We still use them to this day. They kept my D healthy (she got pneumonia for her BoCo audition, had to reschedule that, and we realized she could NOT get sick again). spray the Thieves spray IN YOUR MOUTH twice a day. Spray it in the airplane on the air ventilation. When you walk into the hotel room, use alcohol wipes (NOT anti-bacterial wipes) on all door knobs, faucets, phones, TV remotes, heating controls, etc. Between the alcohol and the Thieves and the CheriBundi juice, we were good to go. Have a blast…it really was quite fun. :slight_smile:

8

We’ve already done three trips that included four schools (mostly driving, one plane flight), and have auditions planned literally every weekend in January and three of the four in February. So if you’re nuts, then we’re certifiable.

9

Ok I know im the odd one out here by asking but not only factoring in the " possibly getting ill" factor during all this and hoping that doesn’t happen but of course you can’t really control that with all the remedies in the world…isn’t this just a HUGE amount of stress to put on your kid? I mean that’s quite a schedule & maybe some kids could handle that schedule but I’m thinking its a lot of pressure. But… I know everyone’s going to respond “well when your kid is in the business it will be a lot of pressure” but that’s different as they are an adult and don’t have school work to consider too… But I realize you have to schedule all these trips … I don’t know though…I’m glad my D doesn’t want to go all over the country to audition. My family would be a hot mess

10

This is the life of the MT parent. This year for my transferring kid we had 5 out of town auditions, 4 of them back to back weekends. For me it seemed like more trips because I had to drive from NC to her school to get her then onto the audition location.The year before it was 4 trips that included Moonifieds and Unifieds–3 plane trips in all. So welcome to the life and enjoy the time spent with your daughter!

11

I second the advice of things like throat coat, emergecnC and alcohol being necessary part of the traveling and audition season- but I recommend DRINKING the alcohol. =)) @theaterwork - you are right, remedies can be a barrier (and sometime I think it is as much mental as anything else- you THINK it helps prevent illness and therefore…) but there is no way to guarantee health. Since 1/2 of my D’s auditions were at Chicago unifieds in Feb - a notorious time for illness- I was a hot mess/germophobe for weeks before hand. We were lucky, and D was the picture of health that weekend. But I know people who have not been so fortunate. We tried to spread things out a bit - at least 2 weeks between travel/auditions so that she would have time to recover if she was not well one weekend. We also tried to go early/mid season - with the thought being if she got really sick, and we had to attempt to reschedule, there would be other dates out there. We knew someone who came down with strep 3 days before their Michigan audition the year before- on the last audition date, and therefore they didn’t get to audition- so that had me all freaked out. But then again- my D only had a dozen schools on her list (including a couple non audition) so that made things easier.

12

I’m not trying to be critical. I get that you’re in a pickle and have little choice if you have tons of schools you’re auditioning at, I just think our kids have SO much stress and pressure the way it is and you have your adult life and college to be a stress basket and trust me I am not a parent who coddles my kid. I’m sure if you approach the auditions in a way that reiterates the fact that “it’s ok if something goes wrong cause they’ll be another audition somewhere else” then that would help take some of the pressure off. I just recently realized how stressed my D has been lately and I really had no idea the pressure she was putting on herself with school work and performing etc. it’s a lot for them in this major and they’re not even 18 in some instances.

13

My D would have felt more pressure if she had had fewer auditions (and therefore, trips). Even though they were, naturally, stressful, D genuinely enjoyed the traveling (even as much as we did, which was a lot), meeting people from various schools, and auditioning. It was a fun, exciting adventure!

She also had a health regimen that included vitamins, probiotics, Secret of Thieves, etc. This actually helped relieve some stress, as she felt that she was actually being pro-active against illness and taking control of another area during this process. She did experience sickness for what was supposed to be her first audition, which was the first weekend in October. She had to re-schedule that audition because she didn’t have a voice. After that, she vamped up her health regimen, and, fortunately, didn’t get sick again. Trust me, it was far less stressful to take a bunch of preventatives than it was to get sick and re-schedule an audition!

I have mentioned this before, but I think it bears repeating: the more we parents focus on the positive, the fun, the exciting, and the adventurous during this entire process, the better off our kids (and we all) will be!

14

We have 6 trips to make outside of Chicago Unified auditions. The first two have been awesome! We feel very fortunate to have some friends to carpool with to a few of them to save on expenses. On the health side…mine also uses the vitamins, essential oils, and some kind of nasty vinegar with something called “mother” in it. I agree with you @myloves , make it an adventure…

15

This is an interesting thread, as the logistics problems many of us are running into now are likely a result of the panic we all experienced earlier in the process when deciding where to apply. The stories of 10, 12, 16, 20 or more applications adding to the ever-growing pool of applicants probably fueled many of us to add to our lists, trying to hedge our bets and avoid the situation where our kid is the one left with no offers at the end of the season. I’m as guilty as everyone else, frantically looking for new schools to add after pre-screen rejections. And this is where the “must fill out more apps” frenzy lands us–too many auditions and too little time to fit them all in. When we were adding to our lists, how many of us really thought through the travel, cost of flights and hotel stays, roadside food, time off work, absences from school, risk of falling grades, potential illness, etc? I know I didn’t. While I suspect there are too many schools on my son’s list, that kernel of doubt still gives me moments of panic. I’m happy to be located close to one of the Unifieds so that I can at least limit my son’s stress to four days of madness in February. My heart goes out to all of you, like the original poster, who have to deal with multiple auditions scattered across the country. Take care of yourselves, as well as your kids, during the rest of the process.

16

Yes! We use that nasty apple cider vinegar with the mother in it!

Kind of funny story: D2 (not the MT one) had a lengthy illness. I had her gargle with ACV and water and even drink some. She said it was disgusting, but, strong person that she is, she did. I’d say, “It can’t be that bad. You can do it!” Then I got sick. One little drop of that stuff entered my mouth and–gag! No way! I could not do it. What a hypocrite, lol! I can put a tiny bit in tea when I absolutely must, but even that is unpleasant. I know it’s supposed to be really beneficial, but I just can’t do it!

17

My D applied to 8 schools. We did all on campus auditions. It involved 6 trips (two were flights and the rest were road trips). One audition was in December. The rest were January through the first weekend in March. She also was rehearsing the school musical during this time (among many other things of course).

We did not do any of the health regimens mentioned. I guess we didn’t think of it. The first audition (Emerson) in December, she came down with a cold within 24 hours before the audition. Oh well. One thing I like about campus auditions over Unifieds is that if you are sick or have a cold, only one audition is at stake and hot a whole bunch riding on that weekend.

D was healthy for the remaining auditions. Then, immediately following her final audition (first weekend in March) which was at BOCO, we ate dinner out and then we were walking to the parking garage to get my car to drive 3 hours back to VT that night. In middle of the walk, D is literally bowled over with severe abdominal pain all of a sudden. She cannot walk. I stop with her at a hotel and leave her in the lobby. I walk to get the car, and the hotel personnel brought her out in a wheelchair to my car. She was in bad shape and so I headed to an ER, because it was a Sunday night and I didn’t think the 3 hour trip back to rural VT was going to have many options along the way. The ER checks her out and can’t find what is wrong. We return late at night to VT. She ends up being fine. I don’t know if it was what she ate or what.

A couple days later, I fly out west to see her sister in National Ski Championships, racing for her college team, leaving MT D home with Dad. (as an aside, in the thread about getting to sing JUST one 16 bar cut and spending all that money to attend, etc., my mind turned to flying across the country for a ski race which lasts less than a minute and in this race, D’s ski released near the top of the course and so she was out and didn’t even get to complete the race!). But I digress. Anyway, MT D, who is 16 at this time, is in a very serious car crash with severe injuries, while I am traveling back from Idaho. She is hospitalized for a long while, has surgery, and is laid up in a hospital bed at home for a while and it out of everything, including the school musical, her final dance show and so on. Most importantly, she survives, get some college acceptances in the hospital and makes a full recovery in six months in time to start college. Thankfully, all her auditions had JUST ended. Whew.

Looking back on it, I really did enjoy the college trips with my D. It is very valuable one on one time with a child, and maybe the last time a parent can do that. Plus it is tied to their future and exciting. I enjoyed all the campus visits as well with my non-MT daughter.

18

There is no denying this is a stressful process. And no denying that whether you audition for 5 or 15 schools, the travel and logistics are expensive in both time and money. But like others, I look back so fondly on that time spent with our D. Precious time talking about hopes and dreams - hearing the excitement in her voice and seeing the sparkle in her eye as she envisioned her future. I saw her world and its infinite possibilities open up to her as we explored different cities and campuses. Really relish these special moments. It is one of my most cherished memories.

19

I’m a nurse and rarely get sick, so here’s my best advice: don’t touch your face! And if you do, Purell your hands up the wazoo first. Really think about where your hands are and eventually it becomes second nature. Also I worked at a summer camp the year of the swine flu (EVERYONE was sick, it was unbelievable!) and sucked on Cold-eeze the entire time; so did another nurse and we didn’t get sick, but the third nurse who refused the Cold-eeze DID get sick. I realize that’s anecdotal, but it turned me into a believer. My son also swears by Moringa at the first sign of illness, and I recommend probiotics to boost the immune system. Of course also lots of fruits and vegetables and water and SLEEP, the old standbys.

20

We are taking 5…put me in the loony bin too