I have gotten several questions recently about conflicts that have occurred between my senior high school coaching students’ audition schedules and their school activity schedules (particularly show/concert rehearsals). I would like to share my thoughts as well as extend my support to coaching students and their families. It is important, with all the stress you are weathering to apply to college theater programs, to insist that your school’s officials be flexible as well as supportive of your taxing audition schedules. College theater auditions, at best, are a trial by fire; School officials, teachers and show directors must do everything they can to make your college application process easier, not more difficult.
In my many years experience as a coach, all my senior coaching students are stretched thin between SAT’s, classes, rehearsals, shows, writing essays, getting recommendations, taking lessons, coaching, scheduling auditions, attending family activities and the like. Each and every one of my senior coaching students has encountered scheduling conflicts with their school activities. Some of these conflicts have been very difficult to deal with but in the end, all the schools have been flexible in solving these conflicts so that my senior students have been able to participate fully in senior year shows/activities as well as audition for all the colleges they want and need to apply to. And college theater programs, especially Musical Theatre, are so wildly competitive that seniors need to apply to 12-15 colleges to be assured an admittance
As well, it is unfair to ask senior theater students to choose between participating in their senior year activities/performances and auditioning for college; both are imperative. Think of it this way; it is in your school’s best interests to support their talented seniors in applying to college! It is not supportive to bar seniors from missing school activities to attend college auditions and interviews. After all, applying to college is the goal of high school. So be firm and clear with your schools about finding common ground and reaching a compromise. Set up a meeting with your principal if you encounter unreasonable opposition.
Although it is always preferable to travel to each and every college campus to audition in person, it is prohibitively expensive and time consuming for most families, especially during the recession we are experiencing. As well, scheduling large numbers of out of town audition trips are apt to cause a greater number of conflicts with school schedules. That is why the Unified auditions are such a great solution for many students and their high schools as well; college theater applicants can audition for a large number of schools in one weekend on a Saturday and Sunday, just 2 days, and save themselves and their families huge amounts of travel time and many thousands of dollars that would otherwise be spent on hotels, flights, meals, tolls, gas and etc. If you need to attend Unifieds to save money and time, please communicate forcefully with your teachers and school officials so they understand how important this particular weekend is to your college aspirations and that they must compromise in order to be fair and supportive. In addition to the Unifieds, the NYC schools (NYU Tisch, Marymount Manhattan, Fordham, etc.); the Boston schools (Emerson, Boston University and Boston Conservatory, etc.); and the Chicago schools (Depaul, Roosevelt, etc.) can be tackled in another weekend. As well, many programs, Like Syracuse and Ithaca, or Point Park, Penn State and CMU, that are geographically close to one another, often coordinate audition schedules so that kids can audition at a number of nearby schools on the same weekend trip.
You, my gifted senior coaching students, and your families bend over backwards to handle all the applications and tests and essays and coachings and lessons and plan your audition schedules. So, I repeat: you should not be pressured not to audition/apply to a particular college because you have to be at a school activity instead of traveling to the audition. In my opinion, making these kinds of rigid scheduling demands on seniors who are already stressed out from applying to uber-selective college theater programs is shortsighted, close-minded and harmful. With firmness, clarity and positive energy, you need to approach your teachers, show directors and school officials with the fact that they MUST work with you, compromise and make allowances for you and your families to attend your auditions, whenever they are and wherever they are, especially when both money and time are tight.
Please feel free to share these thoughts with your school officials. And share your thoughts and concerns with me as well.
XO Lisbeth Bartlett
