We’re attending the Washington State Thespian auditions this weekend and I have a question for those of you with experience at these events.
Will schools who call her back ask why she might want to attend their school? Or will it just be general questions about acting and musical theater?
Any other advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! 
If it’s anything like S’s SETC (SouthEastern Theatre Conference) high school audition experience, many of the callbacks will be for college reps wanting to talk up THEIR program - and why it might be a good fit for your kid. While a few of the SETC programs in attendance seemed to be actively recruiting my S and mentioned scholarships etc, at most “callbacks” my S was asked about his college plans and then they pretty much shared what their school had to offer. Perhaps Thespian auditions are a totally different animal.
^^ agreed with above
@MTheaterMom These conferences can be good experience but I am pretty sure students will still have to do a private audition before “asked to attend” Does anyone know of some that count as real auditions?
@Notmath1 it varies by school and festival. Some that only do callbacks at nationals over the summer may give an offer at a state or regional thescon that is during audition season. Some give offers at nationals. Others don’t do either but only express interest.
Many of the “smaller” programs that attend nationals may give an offer or wave a second audition. Not too many of the larger programs do that at nationals. We found the same at state thescon. All the kids we know got at least one offer out of these festivals. They may or may not have followed up on them depending on the school and their interest in it. Some kids got several offers of admission and/or scholarship.
A few of the more well known programs that sometimes give offers from Festivals include CCM (acting only and may only be 1-2 offers at nationals), Evansville (but we know many that still got in even if not initially offered a spot), Southern Methodist (call back only at nationals, offers after state audition after individual interview/audition at state).
Procedures per program change year to year as well. So a school may give offers one year and not the next.
Additionally, at least three programs at nationals caught my daughters attention/interest that she may not have initially applied to. She had individual call backs with them at nationals. While she had to audition again during the regular audition schedule, we feel She was basically “marked” for admission after nationals by at least two of them. (Was told that in one case).
Festival auditions can change a persons mind about applying and you may find a gem you didn’t know existed.
Be careful about getting too excited from Thespian conference auditions. I personally know of several students of the last few years that felt they were offered a spot at certain schools. Was simply not the case…
^^ yes- if not in writing then don’t count on it. But some do offer spots and my D got letters in those cases.
Thank you for all of the information here. D considered it a great way to work through some audition material. It was a very quiet day with half of the students who normally show up. She got great feedback and found a couple of schools that she had never heard of and now has interest.