Audition Season = Insanity

If you’ve never gone through a college audition season with a musical theater kid, there is no way you can fully understand what kind of insanity it really is. I’m told it just seems to get a little more nuts each year, with the surging popularity of musical theater. (Thanks a lot, Glee.) I honestly cannot imagine how THIS can become more nuts. Seriously.

I mean starting the whole ball rolling with the prescreen auditions feels like as bad as it can get. Ya. No. Figuring out what exactly each school wants and getting it on video is child’s play and only a sweet little prologue to the real deal. For sure the waiting is a charmer. Did she pass the prescreens? Should I worry that I have no space left in the schedule at NY Unifieds? Do her schools go to LA Unifieds? Jesus, do I have to plan to go to Ohio in blizzard season? Maybe she won’t pass and I don’t have to worry about it. Wait! No! Maybe she won’t pass… uuuuugh don’t let that be an option. Oh the wormholes of emotions we get to explore.

Once we get beyond the prescreens, the “fun” of working the jigsaw puzzle of actually scheduling the in-person auditions is a feat in itself. If I haven’t preached STARTING EARLY enough (yes, I’m yelling), let me say it again. If you get those apps and prescreens in sooner, you have more choices of time slots to juggle. Don’t be stupid and procrastinate. Because I can name at least one school this year that was so backed up on prescreens that they didn’t let a lot of students know if they passed until after the holidays. And if you need a reality check, early auditions start in November and NY Unifieds are the second weekend of January. Hellooooo last minute booking.

Everyone’s schedule looks different. I’ll share what my daughter’s looks like just for one example. She chose not to start with November auditions because she got a later start and didn’t feel prepared to audition yet. (see my yelly bit in the paragraph above)

Here’s what crazy looks like:
12/9, one-hour drive to audition in LA
12/10, another one-hour drive to mock audition with Mark Madama in LA (WORTH IT)
12/17, 90-minute drive and overnight start for mock audition in San Diego, MTCA (SO WORTH IT)
1/5, flight from LA to NY
1/6, session with her awesome MTCA song coach in person rather than Skype 
1/7, audition, voice/acting 11:20am, dance call 3:30
1/8, travel home, NY to LA
1/18, flight from LA to NY Unifieds
1/19, audition, 9am voice/acting call, 11am dance call
1/20, audition, 9am info meeting, 10am dance call, 2:30 voice/acting
1/20, audition, 4:30 voice/acting call, 5pm dance call
1/21, audition, 9:50 voice/acting call
1/21, audition, 11:20 voice/acting call
1/21, audition, 1:30 dance call, 5:10 voice/acting call
1/22, travel home, NY to LA
1/26, 8-hour road trip to next audition school
1/27, audition, 9am meeting, 9:45 dance call, 2:15 voice/acting slot
1/28, 8-hour road trip home
2/9, audition, drive an hour to LA for 2pm audition
2/10, audition, 10:20
2/10, audition, 1:30 voice/acting call, 4pm dance call
2/11, audition, 9:45 voice/acting call, 11:30 dance call
2/11, audition, 1:30 dance call, 3:45 voice/acting call
2/17, am flight, LA to Indianapolis and tour school that afternoon
2/18, four hour drive to audition city, tour campus
2/19, audition, all day w/meeting, master class, dance call, voice/acting
2/20, all day drive to St. Louis to hang out for two days
2/22, drive to audition city, tour campus
2/23, audition, all day w/meeting, master class, dance call, voice/acting
2/24, fly home
2/25, sleep in and celebrate that we are DONE… and start the waiting game

And such fun to pack this all into one of the worst flu seasons I remember in years. So adding to the paranoia of just getting a cold that would suck the life out of an audition, we have to worry about this nasty flu that would cause us to cancel it all together. Hello Clorox wipes… on the flights and every hotel room. “Wear your mask.” “Don’t touch your face.” I’ve become the crazy germaphobe mom. I can’t imagine coming this far and potentially missing out on a weekend of Unifieds and having to figure out how to reschedule five auditions in five different cities. It just wouldn’t happen. She would be out of luck. And the already slim odds would be taken down even more. *sigh*

Even without the fear of germs, these kids have to keep their instruments in tip top shape through the worst time of the year to attempt to remain healthy. Neti pots, nighttime humidifiers, mini travel humidifiers and handheld personal humidifiers… the tools of our singers. It’s our goal to keep them healthy, their vocal chords healthy, make sure they have all the tools they need, get them to their auditions, be the moral support and be strong when we accomplish our goal and send them off to college next year.

I’m sure next year I’ll be missing all the emails back and forth coordinating a dance call and voice/acting call with ten schools over the two three-day weekends that are the NY and LA Unifieds. But somehow twenty time slots over the course of two weekends figures itself out (with some mom elbow-grease). And let us not forget making sure the speaker is charged, the music book is packed with all the sheet music in order, and the resumes are trimmed down to 8 x 10 and stapled to the head shots.

But like childbirth, once it’s over it doesn’t seem so bad. While you’re in it, you’re begging for drugs or for someone to just shoot you and put your out of your misery. No one said being a mom is easy. No one would ever dream of saying that being a musical theater mom is anything short of bat shit crazy. But I wouldn’t change a thing. We love our kids and would support them through anything.