The Busy Life of a Theatre Mom

with No Comments

I am not a stage mom. I have to say that right at the top. If you asked me I would never wish for my kid to have a life in the theatre. However, with three generations of working actresses and a father who was an actor what chance did she have? Talents run in families. So here we are going through auditions for jobs, auditions for colleges and meetings with agents. She is on a reality show(pray for us) and right now I sit in my car at a university where she is auditioning for their theatre program.

I watch my friends with their daughters and sons who are applying announce where they are going to school. This has actually been going on for two years as the athletes were chosing and declaring last year and early this year. Our girl has been a touch behind in her apps(no early decision early action possible) due to her making up junior year over summer as a result of the car accident that almost ended everything. She and we are incredibly lucky that all is going well and that she is doing so much better. Migraines are still an issue but the rest has moved on for the most part.

So we wait, and she auditions and we wait to hear while all the while she is going to school, rehearsing for the spring musical, auditioning for more colleges and for real life jobs. The life of an actor is a constant on the go life.

For background when you apply to school these days you most likely will be doing the common app which a great number of colleges take and a supplemental piece for each school. If you are a theatre kid you will also be writing a supplemental supplement and auditioning. Some auditions you travel to, some are on tape and some are at the unified auditions in a major city near you. Unifieds are where you do your same pieces over and over again for each different school in room after room. If you are acting you need a minimum of 4 poss 6 monologues up and read to go at any time. If you are doing a musical theatre concentration there will also be 4-6 songs up and ready to go at any time. Each school has their own desires, Two monologues contrasting(comedy and drama) sometimes 4 because they want time periods(shakespeare, classical not the bard, modern and then comedy and drama in each). If you are a jock you go play your game and they watch. Theatre kids spend a great deal of time getting ready for this moment. Songs break into ballad and uptempo, classical theatre rep(lerner and loew, rogers and Hammerstein) sometimes a sondheim,  ballad and uptempo modern, rock or at least since 1980. Some schools want 16 bars some 32 bars some 90 seconds, some 2 minutes. You have to be ready with the right version for the right school. Some want pics and resumes and some don’t , some want your sat score on it and some don’t. All of this you have to prepare and keep straight. And there are also dance auditions(with specifications as to attire) and movement auditions. All of this prep work is being done when you are going to school, doing two or three other productions and trying to work. My kid is amazing and I am looking forward to a relaxing moment around my birthday when all of this work is done!

So if you were wondering why the radio silence in my blog this is why!
I will be writing more now that we are in the swing of it.
This is also why I couldn’t do another non-profit fundraiser this year. Two weeks ago we were out of town for two auditions and now we are in a school a weekend for three weeks and still have one to tape!
Best of luck to us all!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.