Here are the dates and places for the 2017 Unified Auditions:
**New York **
January 21-22, 2017
Pearl Studios
500 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10018
**Chicago **
February 6-9, 2017 (note that we will be adding Thursday)
Palmer House Hilton
17 E. Monroe Street Chicago, Illinois
**Los Angeles **
February 11-12, 2017
Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel
5400 W. Century Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Ladies and gentlemen, you may start your planning. Best wishes to all!
Dr. John
Any idea when the room block will be released? The hotel is now saying no rooms available at the Chicago Hilton
Let me see what I can find out.
I have been checking for a few months, including calling the hotel, and have been told “it’s sold out”. I’m assuming this means the rooms aren’t available to book yet. Thanks @doctorjohn for looking into this. 
First time nervous mom…are these dates for sure? wanting to make travel plans, but Unified website doesn’t have these dates posted yet… Thanks!
These dates are for sure. And here’s the response I got today from the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago:
Regarding reservations, guests can either use the link below or if guests prefer to arrange for accommodations over the phone they can do so by calling 877-865-5321 and requesting group code TTA. Depending on their arrival/departure dates we may have limited availability, I’ve asked reservations add a few more rooms on the shoulder nights.
https://resweb.passkey.com/go/TheatreAuditions2017
Hope this helps!
online still says no availability.
I called the Palmer House. Turns out they have another conference, the Model U.N., that has booked the hotel completely on Saturday, February 4. However, there is plenty of availability for those arriving on Sunday and checking out on Thursday.
Hope this helps.
SHOULD I BOOK THE HOTEL STAY FOR A FEW DAYS BEFORE UNIFIEDS OR A FEW DAYS AFTER?
The actual date for NYC Unifieds is January 21 and 22nd, BUT I’ve heard that other schools piggy-back these dates and hold their auditions at the same time. Does anyone know if these auditions would be held on the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday leading up to the Saturday and Sunday Unifieds - or - would they be held the Monday, Tuesday after??
Also -
Why is Chicago 4 days and NYC only 2? Does that mean it’s better to attend in Chicago?
@DrowsyChaperone, the only way to know which schools are piggy backing is to look at the audition dates and locations of the schools you’re interested in. I will say that not all the schools on my daughter’s list for the 2013/14 audition season were in NYC so we went to Chicago where she knocked out 7 auditions over 4 days starting that Sunday.
Thanks @doctorjohn - and a warning about the model UN thing - we went early this year and it was not an enjoyable experience. The mock UN is all HS kids who seem to run everywhere and enjoy staying up all night (at least the ones in the rooms by us anyway!) They were riding up and down in the elevators and pushing all the buttons “for fun”, screaming at all hours, congregating in the little ice/vending machine rooms so we couldn’t even get a soda as we couldn’t get thru, etc. It felt like spring break in a very bad way. I saw very little adult supervision and they are not worried about performing and getting their rest so plan accordingly. They seemed to all check out about the same time on Sunday so you could barely get thru the lobby areas as they were everywhere waiting for buses, etc. If you want to come early, bring ear plugs and patience! My D had 2 camp auditions on Sunday and we were glad it wasn’t for the real deal. We were also very relieved to see them go! The funny thing is a friend of ours got a “noise violation” during the week for doing her vocal warm ups around 7am but no one seemed to be enforcing any quiet policies during the UN stay. We are disappointed to hear it’s the same time again this year but at least we know what to expect.
I have been told hat there are some colleges who have dance calls that begin on Sunday before Unifieds begin. This would make it difficult to get to the hotel auditions if you can not get a room until Sunday? Am I missing something? Wouldn’t you need to arrive on Saturday, February 4th?
There are plenty of other hotels within easy walking distance of the Palmer House. If you book on priceline, just use the Loop/Millennium Park neighborhood as a filter.
Last year, people were panicked about not being able to get a room at Palmer at this time of year only to find out reservations aren’t generally made this far in advance, as well. Also, as mentioned, the Model UN conference was the same weekend. Neither were a big deal for us at all. In fact, we made our reservation just a couple months in advance with no issues. Then, when we arrived, we decided to switch from a smaller room on the executive floor to a larger suite, again on the executive level, and that, as well, was absolutely no problem.
We arrived on Friday (audition Saturday), and we didn’t notice that it was overly crowded with Model UN, nor did we have problems with noise at all throughout our stay. The main lobby was busy, yes, but no busier or noisier than when our theatre people converged on it. Our experience was likely different because we stayed on the executive level. We didn’t have to deal with them on our floor or in the elevator (which is different for exec level).
There is no deposit needed to make room reservations at the Palmer House. I initially reserved a room from Saturday night - Wednesday night. then I later cancelled Saturday and Wednesday night and only stayed Sunday - Tuesday. Plus I upgraded to the executive floor at that time. I recommend reserving for a longer time and then cancelling the times you do not need once you have the schedule of auditions. Also, there was a huge delay to check in and get access to our room on Sunday due to the Model UN departures. If you are a Hilton Honors Club member, you can go to the shorter line for check-in.
@DrowsyChaperone -this year we arrived in NYC the weds before unifieds and left Monday after. CMU held auditions starting weds and had slots daily through Sunday. UNCSA, guthrie and juiliiard started Friday. New school had auditions Friday on campus. NYU may have too. Ithaca and DePaul were also around. Unifieds were officially only Sat/Sunday - but my D had seven auditions scheduled Thursday - Sunday. Seemed most that “piggy backed” started early vs later. We got reservations in late October or early November and it worked out fine
As noted above each school is different and details will be on websites. I would guess each year is a bit different too. Good luck!
@Notmath1 Our D had a Texas State dance call on Sunday, late afternoon. We were fine arriving on Sunday for it. But I did hear of a few others that were on Sunday morning. It will just depend on where your S or D applies. You can always book a few extra days on either side and then throw them back in once you have a better idea of the schedule.
You can also book the Palmer through Hilton.com for about $15/room cheaper, for some reason.
I just booked at the Palmer House. I booked 3 different reservations as the prices are quite different during the week.
On the unifieds website Carnegie Mellon doesn’t seem to be on the list of universities who participate. So can someone tell me whether or not I can audition at Carnegie at Unifieds