Missing days.
@MTmom725 no we are at regular public high school. She gets one “college day” that doesn’t count against her, but otherwise she will be counted absent - we are lucky she’s only missing one Friday and one Monday. We will focus on getting plenty of sleep, staying hydrated and eating healthy, washing hands, etc… and pray a lot! Ha - forgot she has all-state chorus in the mix too :))
My daughter is also playing the lead in her March musical (Mary Poppins). Fortunately, she has a director (also her choir director) who has been through this process before with several other kids and understands what it entails. We gave her a schedule in advance of all of my DD’s college auditions, and her absences from those rehearsals will be excused. Most our long-distance travel is over now and all her auditions but one are within a 2 hour drive and on weekends, so no more missed school.
It’s going to be crazy! My S is Gomez is the Addams Family and he is student directing it as his senior project (along with the director.) Luckily he’s only missing 9 days of actual school. He managed to schedule two on school holidays and some weekends! @MTmom725 - he goes to a performing arts school, so they understand - to an extent…
@MTmom725 I think the biggest challenge to my daughters health is me as I travel several times a week for work. I have become a bit crazy with my antibacterial sprays and wipes and reorienting airplane vents before I sit down (then have to decontaminate my hands again).
College counselor at school warned my daughter to talk to directors before auditioning about conflicts. She ended up not even auditioning for the big show as a result but did some smaller projects.
My D decided to not audition for anything during audition season, which was a decision her coaches fully supported and even suggested. She had one show that ended the first weekend of November, and she even sort of regretted doing that as she could have auditioned at a school that weekend. She was eager to begin a show in the spring, though!
(D’s situation is different from most, as she was homeschooled, so all of her productions growing up were in regional/professional or, occasionally, community theatres.)
D did 6 shows her senior year (PA HS) She was generally rehearsing 2 shows at same time. She also took 4 ap classes senior year. We set up her audition schedule to prioritize missing as little school as possible - both for her, and for me with missing work. At the time- it was insanity, but after she started college she has commented more than once on how glad she was that things were so intense- it was good prep for the life of a BFA student…
@Dankadon I thought the Wright State audition was the 22ns? Am i getting my dates wrong?
My daughter went to a public high school. She participated in everything as usual in her college audition year (for her that was her junior year as she was an early graduate). She did all campus auditions and no Unifieds. Yes, the schedule was intense…a musical in fall that was an hour from where we live, school spring musical in April, created/produced/directed/performed original musical revue at our HS that performed in early Jan., voice lessons an hour away, monologue prep lessons an hour away, 13 hours of dance classes 25 miles from home, weekly rehearsals for dance troupe 25 miles away, piano lessons (and prep for national piano auditions), guitar lessons, a cappella group, jazz band, auditions for All States and All State Scholarships, NFAA YoungArts audition submission, etc. And of course all the applications, campus visits, etc.
Managed all of that except a week following her last college audition in early March, she was in a car accident and due to severe injuries/hospitalization/surgery/recovery, was out of everything (like the school musical and yearly dance shows) for the remainder of the school year.
I love you, Soozie, but your daughter is a wonder woman and makes most of our plebeian children seem like schlubs. I say that sincerely, because she is extraordinarily talented and accomplished, and you have so much to be proud of. I do believe though that for most kids, something’s gotta give, whether it be the school musical or something else. This is a grueling, time and emotionally draining process, and staying healthy and focused is important. Most of the kids going in this direction have risen up in their school theater programs, and letting go of what they love most when they are at the top of their (high school) games may be too much to expect. If that’s the case, look for ANYthing else. My kid’s school’s musical was the third week in February, WORST possible time but she got to be Mama Rose in Gypsy and just was NOT gonna give that up. So a bunch of chorus stuff and state and regional auditions and an a cappella group went by the wayside. And I think a little bit of dance. And still, sanity was hard to maintain.
Thanks, @Calliene…but really, what would a kid doing these sorts of things give up? I mean the voice, acting and dance training are important if pursuing this field. One could argue that being in theater productions is not crucial, but if this is the kid’s area of passion and the experiences themselves are building blocks to pursuing this field, I can’t imagine giving up the shows either. In my D’s case, she was only a junior in high school and so she would want to be in the school musical. She was slated to be Ado Annie in Oklahoma. Her dance troupe was something she had done throughout HS and I just can’t see giving that up. Studying musical instruments are things she had done her whole life and so I’m glad she didn’t stop (and it turned out to be more than handy in her career). It was crazy, but then again, being in a BFA program was a very similar sort of schedule. Even now in my daughter’s professional life, it is a very busy life juggling many things (most people who are actors/singers don’t just do ONE thing). I don’t think doing this stuff was out of the ordinary for a high school kid going into a BFA degree program. And since my kid only went to HS for 3 years, doing these things were an important part of that experience, and time in her development since she graduated at age 16 and so she needed and wanted to do these things. She had given up sports in 8th grade. So, yeah, that had to go. What was pretty time consuming for us is that living in a rural area, my D had to spend a lot of time traveling to do all these things (except the things at school). But everybody is different and I think my kid thrives on being busy. She never seems to want to do nothing for like a few days. 
@Calliene, I can understand while such a rich list of activities can cause one conclude that they have plebeian children but hold on for a second. It made me take a breath too but then I thought about it. Hmm… if I were to list the activities in creative detail that my own daughter was busy with during HS including her final year, it wouldn’t exactly look all that different. Probably would have to sub out varsity swimming for hours of dance but the hours would still add up and maybe a few other tweaks here and there. Let’s face it, no state has more than 24 hours in any day unless Vermont does but since I used to live in New Hampshire, I can pretty comfortably say that it doesn’t and you would know about VT better than I 
Not specific to anyone’s case, but don’t forget some high schools offer quite a bit of flexibility in their programs of studies that allow for credit towards graduation to be earned in some of these out of school activities. Other schools have programs contained within the school day (performing arts HS come to mind or a school like my daughter’s HS that had an excellent drama offering all 4 years which covered a lot of the formal acting training very nicely.) Many schools offer music lessons etc. All of this can be contained within the school day or netted out of the school day if it is for credit and the school offers that kind of flexibility for out of school study. The net result is you can still have a list that looks insane when presented as a list but it actually fits together like a puzzle in the same, 24 hours minus sleeping time that it would for anyone.
Know your kid and what he/she can handle. Know what the chauffeur can handle. Know what your checkbook/credit card can handle. Plan for snow. Try to get some sleep. Eat your fruits and vegetables. Try to feel some sunshine on your shoulders every day. My S chose to forgo the musical his senior year. I STILL managed to see more of the inside of my car than the inside of my house that year.
Yeah, I think what I described is what I think a lot of MT kids do in HS who are the type who are thinking to go to a BFA degree program (or even a BA one). In my kid’s case, there was a lot of car travel time. We also did not have a PA high school. The only related things during the school day were jazz band, chorus, and private guitar lesson. But piano lessons, shows (except school musical), dance classes and rehearsals, voice lesson, monologue lessons, & some theater productions were all outside of school and not nearby. School musical, musical revue production D created, and a cappella were at school, but after school hours. Schedule conflicts did arise! By the way, my daughter who did not go into MT in college had just as a full of an activity schedule after school, evenings, and weekends, as my MT daughter. I don’t think they are unique in this way.
PS, I will add that if your kid doesn’t go to a performing arts high school, or goes to a high school that doesn’t have a drama program/classes (but does put on 2 shows per year), you have to piece together the training and production experiences outside of school and outside of the school day. And if you live in a rural area, you have to travel to put together this stuff.
This made me laugh out loud. This chauffeur was awfully glad she lived in the city and had no problem telling kid1 and kid2 to “hey it’s your time or mine… take the public bus!” Exception though was for those 4:45 AM trips to the pool. I did do those and yes, I’m still waiting for my medal!
The one thing that my daughter did give up her Senior Year was an additional auditioned out of school chorus that she had added on and it became just too much with piano and voice lessons and the author high school activities and clubs and of yes… a full slate of AP classes.
I also have to laugh at:
I used to refer to myself as “taxi mom.” Both kids were heavily involved in activities afternoons, nights, and weekends. With just two kids (what would we do if we had more??) and two parents, we went in different directions. We each put on 100 miles per day in our respective taxis, er, I mean vehicles. It did help when the older one got her license. My kids used the car rides for a variety of things…study hall, eating a meal, changing clothes for the next activity, etc. A LOT of time was spent in the car. Their endeavors were spread out in all directions and again, we lived in a rural area in the mountains.
I recall in one of older D’s college essays, she recounts in one part of the essay an example about how she left the house before dawn to be in a ski race across the state and then as soon as she was done her race, got into the car and travelled 80 miles in another direction, changing from ski clothes into recital type clothing, for All State auditions (clarinet). There was a part of the essay with a visual of her leaving the house in the morning for school with skis on one shoulder, a ski boot bag, a dance bag, a clarinet, and a book bag, for the various places she would be going to that day and evening. 
The Soviet Union used to give out “Hero Mother” medals. Think we can get a bill through congress??
My daughter gave up the things she knew she couldn’t fully commit to. With traveling for auditions many weekends, it made no sense to audition for state choruses that rehearsed or performed on those weekends. Ditto her a cappella group that rehearsed on weekends. She took on fewer pieces in her dance show than previously because of the rehearsal time she would miss. She was fortunate that the director of her school musical and the choreographers she worked with in her dance show were willing to work around her college audition schedule, which she had to declare up front prior to casting. But absolutely, she was still breath-takingly extraordinarily busy, as I’m SURE all our kids are!
^^@mom4bwayboy, I’d not be eligible. (Well maybe a medal for Flonkerton). I would get these pleading, “please come pick me up…” calls from my kids and I’d turn on the traffic map and do a quick calculation which would normally conclude, “you can get to me in one direction in the same amount of time it will take me to drive to you and back. Take the bus!” I was a very mean mom.