<p>My D sends thank you notes because her mother and I believe you should send thank you notes as a general rule of life. This is one of those things that make me shake my head about this process. It would never occur to me that sending a thank you note would be fraught with complexities.</p>
<p>Your comment confuses me. I didn’t raise my daughter in a barn and teach her never to thank anyone. I’m simply reporting on what were indeed the complexities that we ran into. If you didn’t encounter those complexities, that’s great but I’m not making it up and neither is connections.</p>
<p>Half hokum, didn’t mean to start anything. The initial post asked yes or no on whether you should send thank you notes and I guess I didn’t see why one wouldn’t.</p>
<p>Lots of these auditions are very impersonal. I did a big one at Unifieds and actually had an unexpected conversation with the auditors so they will get a nice thank-you note. They said they would not be interviewing and everyone else was in and out so I was actually caught a little off guard when they started asking me questions. I don’t know about the others so much. I mean, if they see a thousand people they probably wouldn’t remember who’s who and it could get annoying if we all send emails or cards. I don’t think it’s a big deal either way.</p>
<p>It’s surprising to me to hear that so many of these auditors didn’t even introduce themselves, and also that so many schools do not do interviews, even a short one, during the audition process.</p>
<p>@jeffandann, I have the same compass about these things as you do and also don’t see why one wouldn’t. I’m writing about why one possibly couldn’t.</p>
<p>I also require my D to send thank you notes out of courtesy. In those cases where she did not know the names, I had her email the POC for the audition to get the list of people who were in the room. The POCs were always helpful. She actually got very sweet replies from a couple of them.</p>
<p>I know my D sent them to all schoools so far but don’t know about content. I suppose in the absence of a specific name I’d just send a note to the chair.</p>
<p>I would certainly hope that in what is already a very subjective process that the nature of a thank you note would not make or break your chances.6</p>
<p>We have written thank you notes in the past and where we don’t know exactly who to specifically address it to, we have started out with “To The Staff of _____ Department.”</p>
<p>My S has written hand-written thank yous for every audition - but as several have noted this has been sometimes more straightforward than others. There are times when he knows who is in the room, and can address the note to them. He often uses the school website, which is especially helpful when they have pictures so he can put names with faces (as sometimes I guess they don’t even introduce all). He usually writes one note and addresses it to those in the room - or when in doubt to the department head.</p>
<p>Personally, what I do is after I get out of the audition room I go up to the students helping out and ask them the names of the auditors in the room. They generally have more time to talk and are eager to help. Of course this only works if you think of it at the time.</p>
<p>At this point I have sent out 5 thank you E-mails and already heard back from Mountclair, CalArts and CMU.</p>
<p>what did you hear from CalArts?</p>
<p>Just responses to my Thank yous.</p>
<p>I consider it polite to send a thank you note. The theatre is a small world and you don’t know when you will end up working together. My D wrote thank yous at Unifieds in the evenings and hand delivered them the next day. She did reference something that happened in the interview if at all possible. For example, at a dance call, one of the adjudicators pointed out my D’s sparkly purple headband and referred to her as sparkly headband during the session. The next day she walked into the room to perform her song and monologue choices. As soon as the lady looked up she said, “it’s sparkly headband!” When my D wrote her note to them she signed her name and put AKA Sparkly Headband" under it. Very nice way for them to keep track :)</p>
<p>That’s why many actors make sure to wear the same outfit for the callback that they wore for the first round.</p>