Plot Your Way to a BFA

You can probably pull that one closer to you a little bit. Kathy, can I? Yeah. Am I That'll be drama. Moms doing smr. my squeak. It's the nail tapping, right? Tap. I'm not to cough my, we'd love to hear about how, um, sorry. That's, that'll be a new short later. A smr . And it'll have like 50 million views. . It will, Hey, surpass whatever it takes you guys to go viral all for it.

Chew away. Go for it. I personally wanna hear about how Autumn got her start. Oh yeah. When did you first know she was like it and how you all like lessons and that kinda stuff. Exactly. What journey did you take to get her there and then your, how you got involved. Yep. That, like you were just saying, you started here and it just kind of leveled up, kinda like we're doing.

You've already leveled up, but we're still in the leveling up phase. Yeah. Be careful. Be careful leveling up. I know. It's a scary thing. Okay. And then kind of getting into the summer intensivess and all the different things she's doing to prepare for getting into a college and what that looks like. Okay.

Um, oh, and I, I wrote this down because your child is such a beautiful child. Like how do you have someone so talented yet so grounded? They are so sweet. Well, it's for real. Like she, yeah. Serious actually. Yeah. That parents need to hear like Yeah. I mean may, I'm sure some of it's just her natural being, but that also has a lot to do with the way she's raised.

The raised, yeah. Angela. Oh yeah. I've always been a firm believer. , like your kids are a product of how you raise them. Mm-hmm. . Um, and that's, you know, I was harsher as a parent, you know, growing up, but she's definitely, she's taught me a lot over the years. She's definitely amazing. She is. And I can't take all that credit, so she's just, she's a good kid.

She is. She's, she's such a great role, role model for our kids. Oh, sweet. Well, yeah, I mean, I love that our first, some of our first things that we saw with Autumn, like not just her being in theater in general, but like, um, her, her work with like the out of the box kids. Mm-hmm. . Oh, yeah. I mean, that was some of the first stuff I saw.

Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . But like, um, it's amazing. Which is weird to think that that's the first stuff I saw, but it, it kind of was, at least it's the first stuff that sticks in my brain anyway. Um, with her specifically and just how sweet she is with all those kids. Mm-hmm. or adults, some of them are adults, and how patient.

And everything. And like she was just so dedicated with everything else that she was doing, she was still making the time to be a part of that program. And I thought, wow, like we need our kids to see her and be like that. Yeah. And emulate that. She, so my brother has special needs. So he was born, he was the first born and he was born with the umbilical cord tied on his neck.

So as he got older, my parents didn't at first know that he there was anything wrong. This is back in the early seventies. And, um, they found out later when he was kind of missing those milestones that something was wrong. Um, and eventually he just lost all functions. So he, you know, he has to be strapped into his wheelchair.

He can't, he can't talk, he can't walk, you know, he can't eat on his own. Um, so growing up, going to see him all the time, um, in a facility over in Titusville where there's different houses and there's just so many residents there. So she, we just would spend the day over there and we'd walk 'em around, we'd meet the other residents and all varying levels of special needs.

And so I think having exposure to that definitely gave her a little bit of a comfort level when she got involved with that of the box. Cuz it's definitely not something that someone can just run and just be comfortable doing it. It's, it's all intimidating. It is intimidating and you know that, you know, a lot of people don't know how do you act or what do you do?

Um, but I think having that exposure when she was younger definitely helped that. And that's definitely her favorite, her favorite program that she's involved in. It's my favorite by far. Oh yeah? Yeah. Such a special place. It is. You know, just warm fuzzy. I know. If you wanna get in this Christmas spirit, man, go see them.

They're amazing. Oh my gosh, yes. Um, I was here before we know it. Yeah. Next week actually. . Yeah. Next week. I always would tell my kids and we've kind of jumped right in, so we may have to edit some of this, but, um, when they were younger, I would say, all right, I want you to look at Autumn. And then I would pick a boy and I would say, if you're not sure if you're doing the right thing, I want you to look at those two people.

Mm-hmm. . And if whatever they're doing is the right thing, that's what you need to be doing. And now they've kind of grown into that. All right. You guys are the role models now, so you need to be careful about what you're doing. Yeah. That's cause the little kids are looking at you, but they, I always used her as an example of, this is what you're supposed to be doing.

Everybody does. It feels weird to me though, because like to me, our kids are still the babies. Mm-hmm. . But they're not. But they're not anymore. It's gonna go by really fast. That's not how it feels really fast. Like Yeah. I mean I was thinking the same thing when, when she started getting involved, it was always like, oh well, you know, look how good, how talented this person is.

Or you know, this person is helping backstage or, you know, doing the lighting or, you know, helping with the sound. And she just wanted to learn everything she could about the theater. So, um, Yeah. So I think it definitely role models in the different, I'll say generations. I think they're all the same generation, but they're kind of different generations.

It's, we're kind of cycling out into a little bit. Yeah, and I'm sure that happens a lot. And you've seen that cuz she's older than our kids. Yep. Should we back up and introduce ourselves and just, or just keep free. So I'm Kristin. I'm Angela. And I'm Kathy. And we have with us today our awesome friend Cat.

He's gonna tell us all about her amazing daughter Autumn and her journey to get into a musical theater college, which will be next year. Yes. Oh man. How scary is that of it? It's very scary. It's crazy. I remember when she was your kid's age and younger. I know they say it goes by fast, but it. A blank of an eye.

It's, it's faster every year. I feel like the older we get, I think the faster it goes. , unfortunately, sadly. So , and I'm sure it feels that way for you because she's older and she's driving and you know, you're, you've been able to step, that's good and bad and I'm sure it feels, you know, happy and sad at the same time.

But yeah, it, it is, it's a good independence for her to be able to go and do her own thing. Yeah. So it's nice for you too. I'm kind of looking forward to it to get a little bit of that back, not having to wake up at five 30 or six o'clock in the morning to drive from school. And yeah, that definitely is late rehearsals and yeah, it's definitely, definitely nice.

That's a lot. For sure. It's a lot. Well, we're super excited to have you with us. Thanks for having me. Yeah, we definitely consider Ka to be one of those OG drama momma. She's kind of our role model. We would the coming in and you were, it's a little intimidating for us in the, so when we first met Ka, I think we just kind of talked about this, but our kids were just starting out.

Mm-hmm. , you know, and you had already kind of catapulted up into the, you were our role model. Yeah, exactly. Oh, totally. No, absolutely. As moms just starting, we had no idea what was going on. And you definitely, I mean, you know, I know for all of us, but especially for me, kind of walked me through that process with Gabby.

Um, you were there with us when she had her first big role in Miracle. Yeah. That was awesome. Yeah. And I was like, I don't know what to do. Like what do I, what does she wear? What do I, you know, what do, how do I help her? How does she learn her lines? And I mean, You were just fabulous. So thank you. You'll always have a special place in our heart.

Um, even in the very, very first for Pinky and Gabby doing, um, sleeping, beauty, beauty. Thank you. I It's one of those Princess Yeah. Doing the Sleeping Beauty . So, um, Gabs was a bird and Pinky was a, she was a squirrel. A squirrel. So I was distracted cuz I was hearing porn dog and it, Kate was a frog live radio.

Yeah. My little woodland creatures. I know. Yes. So Woodland creatures. And then you met Cat even before then that Mr. Popper's Penguins. Yeah. Yeah. That was our first go around. I remember Lily Kate was a twin. Yes, that's right. Yep. Yeah. So it's been a long time, you know. Yeah. It's been, been a few years doing theater stuff together and you know, all our kids, we looked up to you and our kids looked up to your daughter.

Oh, a hundred percent. You still do. Mm-hmm. absolutely wanna be like, autumn . I wanna be like, I wanna be like autumn too. . That girl's got some talent. When did you first recognize that she had something special? As soon as that girl opened her mouth, like she, my, my older son was always very quiet, so he, I don't think he even talked until he was like three years old.

Very quiet, could comprehend. But autumn, as soon as she was born, she was making noises and she was always running around the house, dressing up in costumes and putting on shows. Um, all the typical signs. Dancing. Yeah, just we're typical. But she was also, she was a tomboy too. She loved playing sports and she, you know, she was into soccer and she did baseball.

She didn't wanna do softball, she wanted do baseball. So, you know, we just had her in a bunch of different activities when she was younger and she kind of enjoyed everything that she did. Um, she was just one of those kids that was very happy go lucky. Mm, very, very easy child. So, um, but she would just, she just loved to perform.

Um, wasn't the best singer, you know. And then she, we heard about a summer camp, um, that they were doing theater summer camp. So I was like, I'm gonna enroll her in the summer camp. And that was it. That was the end. I think she was eight or nine. Mm-hmm. . Um, she got a solo, um, in Schoolhouse Rock. She was the bill, so she, oh my gosh, I love that girl.

Went out there, belted, love him. Um, I'm just a bill. Um, and like, you know, the proud mom in the back just beaming cuz you know, her kids on stage doing a solo. But I, from that day on, she just wanted to get involved with everything theater. So she wanted to take voice lessons, she wanted to do dance lessons, she wanted to do acting classes.

Did the summer camp for many years after that too. Any kind of, any kind of musical. Theater related things she wanted to be involved with. She still did sports. Um, and her goal was to just, you know, get into an actual, an actual show. Um, she had auditioned so many times, and I remember this about her, and this is just her personality, and she auditioned.

I think Little Mermaid was her first audition. She wasn't cast. I think they cast, I mean, 60, 80 kids. Um, she wasn't cast and she was like, that's okay. I'll get it Nick, I'll, I'll get the next one. Good for her. Love that. And it wasn't something for, sometimes you have to talk and tell your kids, you know, it's okay.

There's other opportunities. You gotta be positive. I didn't have to say any of that to her at, at eight or nine years old. She was just, that was just, that's her personality. So. Wow. Yeah. Something that, that's pretty rare. Somethings very rare I can learn from. I'm like, dang. Okay. . Um, and she went through several more auditions for different shows, main stages.

I think she auditioned for Cinderella, she auditioned for. iCal. She auditioned for all sorts of shows. Bin Get Cast, she had callbacks and then wasn't cast the whole, the whole time. She's like, it's okay, like I'll try it again. There's another audition coming up in a couple of months. So finally her first show that she was cast in was Aladdin and she was cast as ensemble and she was the most excited I've ever, like she didn't care.

Oh, she just wanted to be a part of it. And then we did everything, I think at the theater. Several, you know, community theaters locally. Um, every opportunity she had, we were in a show. And you guys know the time commitment to that? Yes, we do. Absolutely. Jumped from one show to the next. Mm-hmm. . She just really, really enjoyed it.

So I remember like her, I think it was her fourth grade journal she had written. That she wanted to go to a performing arts high school because she, you know, when you're in theater, you work and you meet the best, like the best friends of your life. Um, there's just some great people at the theater and she just made some great connections.

She had heard about the perform local performing arts high school, and so that was the next thing she had to get in there. So I remember her pulling out her journal and writing and her goals. Um, totally un like I didn't prompt her to do this either. So That's amazing. Yeah. I dunno where she came from. . Um, so that was her goal.

And then over the next couple years that's, she just focused on doing shows and taking lessons and just bettering herself. Her first, her first big lead role was Hairspray Junior. She played Tracy Turnblad and that was like, like the turning point where she got a taste of like, oh, like I like this better than ensemble

You know, that's pretty awesome. She enjoys ensemble too, but, um, and then there's shows where she didn't get cast in, so she'd work. She'd work as a tech. So she's done all the stuff backstage, she's helped build sets. Um, she wanted to know every aspect of the theater, um, to the point where she did stop doing soccer.

That was like her last thing that she kind of stopped, but she had to make a choice. And yeah, we left it up to her and she, she's like, I theater's where it's at for me. So fast forward, she gets into the performing arts high school for musical theater. And her thing going into it was, you know, I don't know if I wanna do this as a career.

Like, this is something that I've done for years that kind of consumed me. But that's, that's worth, she thrives is on stage. Yeah. And she just loves it from getting to know the younger kids, working with the older kids and even the adults. Um, just every aspect of it. So, um, her goal into going into high school, into performing arts was to really decide if.

That was, she was cut out for going further. Mm-hmm. . So, and has she made that decision? She has . So, and it's funny because I think her class size originally was like 17, I think in the musical theater class. And I think it's down to like 13. So, um, musical theater, I mean all of the, the, the, the programs, I guess at the, the high school, they, you have to put a lot of time in to the point where they were like, you know, you're not gonna be able to do the community stuff as much anymore because you know, you're gonna be so swamped with everything for school.

Yeah. We've missed her. Yeah. Yeah. She's definitely missed. Um, definitely missed out. And it is very different. It's very different coming from a local community theater, um, going into a, an educational, um, but it's different, but it's also good cuz you kind of get, she, you know, she misses the theater. It's, it's fun, it's relaxed going into, um, The high school, it's just more, there's a lot more structure.

Um, you know, it's a lot more serious. Um, so that she knew, like that's probably more what it's gonna be like when she gets older, if that's what she chooses to pursue. And a lot of the kids in her class slowly kind of dropped, um, from doing it because it just takes up so much of your time. And if you're not dedicated and you don't really love it, there's no point for you to be in that program.

Yeah. Um, it's a great high school. Um, the teachers are phenomenal, but if you're not dedicated then, um, you know, you can still be a part of another, you know, area or something that doesn't take so much of your time. Um, but she loved it to the point where she, that's what she wants to pursue. She wants to go to college specifically, uh, for musical theater, for a Bachelor of fine Arts.

So at this age, is she, has she already started the applications right for the colleges that she wants to go to? Oh yeah. So, She started probably the beginning of her junior year actually looking into colleges, because some of these colleges that she has found, I have never heard of. Um, so you have your big, you know, you have your ones, like everybody knows Michigan, university of Michigan and Florida State, um, Penn State.

Um, but there's, there's smaller ones that have great musical theater programs. I think Baldwin Wallace is on the top of her list. That's in Ohio. They're all outta state. Um, a lot in New York City. Mm-hmm. , um, just small, mostly private colleges. Oh goodness. Yeah. So there's definitely a lot that goes into that.

So she started looking into, um, what, you know, where the colleges were, um, what, you know, what type of campus, what type of program. Um, cuz when you go into a BFA for musical theater, it's not a traditional college experience. Um, you don't, you know, you don't sit in with your gen eds. You, you go straight into a musical theater program.

So you might have one gen ed class a semester, the rest of it's training. I didn't realize that either. Yeah. So my son who's at uf, he, you know, he had to get, go through, you know, he, he's like, yeah, I got like 3000 people in my, my English class. You know, we're in this auditorium. Like, it's not like that for, for musical theater.

And she will have a class, you know, classes like that eventually. But, um, they, you jump right in your freshman year. So it's not like you have to wait till your junior year. Right. There's no prereqs essentially for that. Okay. That's interesting difference to even from getting into the high school, cuz that first year that they were, they're in the high school Right?

They're ushering, they're not actually allowed to audition yet. Correct. Not until the spring. Mm-hmm. . Yep. So they, cuz they have to observe because even somebody coming. You know, it's done a lot in the community theater. It's just a, it's just a different ballgame. Um, but they, they teach them so much and being a part of the ushering or like building the set right and learning the backstage stuff, um, that first year, it's still a lot.

Um, but yeah, it's, it's different. You need to jump right into these programs, so, huh. Um, so yeah, she started looking her junior year and, and carved out a bunch of different colleges. We have notebooks over notebooks of, just cuz she's a writer, she likes to just Yeah, I know, right? Probably a self-publishing or something.

Oh, seriously? Yeah. She's just, just looking at, you know, she's like, oh, this has got, this is a huge, you know, cute college town and it has a little downtown. She loves downtown and, you know, where we live in proximity to downtown or it's a walking distance. Yeah, it's great. Yeah. It's so nice. That's my favorite lifestyle.

Yeah. So it's like, you know, does she like being in a big city and she, to this point, like. To this point. I think her junior year, beginning of her junior year, she still had never been to the city. She'd never been to New York City. We had scheduled a trip that got canceled and then I think it was three or four days before they left for their school trip because her freshman year they were supposed to, um, they were taking a, like whoever wanted to go, they, you know, paid their dues.

They were going to New York City. They were gonna like be at 54 below and they were gonna do an intensive Yeah. Covid 54 below. Oh man. Yep. Like three or four days before their trip. Right. That was her first year. And so she, it was her first wasn't on the stage at all for Yeah, but you know what they did, her school did some amazing things.

Um, they actually, um, a friend produced a musical and they did it all through film. They individually filmed each of those characters and then they spliced it together to make this musical. And so, um, just, I can't talk enough about the people that you meet doing this stuff and just the talent level of people thinking about how, how can we get these kids to still perform?

Because it was pretty, you know, just like all your kids, it was a sad time. Like yeah. You know, we couldn't perform, we couldn't do much and mm-hmm. . Um, but she did a lot of research, so she had her list, but still, it was still kind of new to us, the whole college process up until probably the summer is when we really started to, um, we met with some friends that had just graduated and gone through the process, got some advice from them.

Um, and then she ended up getting a scholarship to go to a summer intensive. So explain what that is. So, They do. I mean, you can look 'em up, like places do them all over the place. Um, over the summer, um, it's kind of like the, the summer camp we all do here, but kind of on steroids where, you know, it can last, you know, two or three weeks.

Um, some of them I think go up to like six weeks or two months. And a lot of them are through colleges, so there's varying ones. The one that she did was actually through a company in New York City, um, and she got the scholarship to pay for her tuition there. So for eight days we lived in the city and went to that intensive and it was just as grueling as what she's used to.

So it's not, you know, um, not any different from what she's used to. But she was surrounded by brand new people that, you know, she instantly became friends with cuz that's just what they do and have that special bond. Um, but she got to actually train with people that are currently on Broadway. Um, and people who had been on Broadway casting directors for, for Broadway and touring shows.

So, um, she just gotten a little experience that way and got to do a little, um, a little showcase at the end of the week in front of casting directors. Wow. So that was, oh, that's great. That was pretty neat. What would something like that cost without the scholarship? Um, I think I've put the numbers out of my head.

scary numbers. Um, I wanna say it was probably for the week, maybe $2,000, 1700, $2,000. That's just the tuition's, not, it's not staying there. Staying there. And it's not the plane. It's not the food, it's not all the shows, which is expense. You have to see when you go to New York. York City. Yeah. So it's, it's pricey.

Is it something you're invited to or you can apply or how does that work? So there's different ones. Um, the one, most of the college ones, and the one that she did is audition. So you have to audition for it. Um, and we didn't know it at the time, but this was, I guess this week that she went was like the, the Primo Week.

Everybody was like, have you never done this before? We're like, no. We're like, oh, well how did you get into week four? I'm like, I have no idea what you're talking about. . I don't know. We just auditioned. She's good. She's just that good. I dunno what to tell you. Yeah, and exactly. , I think our kids got used to like filming themselves through Covid, you know, being on Zoom, being, um, and even though my daughter's not the best with technology, sorry, autumn , um, everything you had to submit, you had to submit videos of you singing, doing monologues, dancing in order to be accepted into, um, into the intensive.

So, and that, I think a lot of them are like that. Okay. And probably if they're more expensive, I'm sure you could find ones that are non audition that you can probably, you know, people kind of buy their way in, but, um, it's pricey. So it's definitely, I think it was worth it for sure. Um, I think it gave her a little bit independence.

We stayed a couple of blocks from the studio, so, you know, not the first day, but after I got comfortable, you know, she was able to just, she just got ready on her own. She had her, she had her bag, she had her water bottle, and she just, she walked herself to the studio and she loves the city. So it was a good experience.

I would've, I probably, you know, would've scraped up the money to do it, you know, had we have to do it again, it definitely would've considered it. But it's something to save up for if your, if your children are not at that point yet. Because usually they do it the summer, you go into your senior year.

Right. Okay. Um, you can do it before. Um, but definitely that summer before senior year is where most of the colleges, they want you to kind of get a taste of college life and even some of the colleges. Um, we had a friend that did one for Penn State and. Like they say, okay, you're here in this intensive, so now you've passed your pre-screen.

Um, if you apply here, which we'll talk about in a second because that's a whole nother process for Hear all terrifying. Yes. But it is pricey. So, um, definitely something to save up for, but it's definitely something that will look really good on a resume going into college. Yeah, I think I have a whole theory about college resumes, um, and going off topic to my son who is not a performer at all and he, you know, very intelligent kid, but he was, you know, I think, well-roundedness is very, very important and he had a lot of well-roundedness on his resume.

Um, he had great test scores and great gpa and he got into the honors program at UF with a scholarship and his friend, who I think even had a higher GPA than him didn't. So I think resumes, I think, well-roundedness really helps with resumes. Um, so. I try to tell that to Autumn, be like maybe some non theater stuff might be good on there.

Um, which she has done just not as much. Um, but I think that definitely helps. I think anything you can put on your resume is always a bonus. Right. Um, the hard part is getting that thing down to like one page to where it looks nice and format it nice. So that whole process of applications. So I knew nothing about when my son, he is like common app mom.

I'm applying to four or five schools and it's all on the common app. You do your essays, you know, you fill out some forms and government forms, which are a pain in the butt, but it's just what you do and you know, you wait, you get your acceptance or you're not and you go from there easy. It wasn't easy at the time, but compared to what we're going through.

Right. Yeah. You can look back on in perspective what about that coming out . So. I'll say the one really, really important thing that we did get out of the summer intensive and this company in New York City, the, the lady that founded this company, it was just amazing. And she held, um, some webinars for the parents.

So Q and as, talking about college, talking about life in the business as a child actor, um, all sorts of stuff. But she gave us, I went to one of the college, um, webinars. She gave us a list of the top musical theater colleges, broken out into categories with like extreme reach schools. Like, these are really hard to get into.

These are kind of hard to get into. These are moderate and these are kind of your, your safety. Mm-hmm. , you know, that helped a ton. But then she had icons and it was like, if it has a money icon next to it, they give good scholarships or if it has little feet. Oh, nice. Like this is very dance heavy school.

So it kind of, it's like this one page I can look at and be like, well, this one sounds feet. I'm like, oh no, we'll go , maybe we'll look at this one. Um, but there was just a lot of good information that we got also out of that, that intensive that she did. Um, and all of it's available online. It's just, you gotta do your own research and there's a ton of it, right.

To have somebody direct you in the right way. Um, but it is harder to get into a musical theater program in college than it is to get into Ivy League. Wow. So that, when I heard that, I was like, okay, . Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I was like, okay, what can we do to kind of help ourselves get, um, kind of get ahead and make sure that this is what you wanna do.

She's putting all her eggs in one back basket. A lot of her friends are, they're applying to a couple of musical theater schools and then some of her friends wanna go off and do, you know, director stuff, or they want to go into. Accounting or they wanna do something else, they something completely different.

So they kind of have, they've diversified it like a backup plan. Mm-hmm. , but yeah. There, there's other things. Um, so she's putting all her eggs on basket. She's like, no, this is, this is what I wanna do. She's, she's mapped out the next 20 years of her life, y'all . Oh my gosh. Oh my God. I love, she's, we all need to be more like automatic.

And she has several backup plans, so it's like, okay, if this doesn't work out, this is the route I'm going. So, but she, she is not, she's applied to all musical theater schools, musical theater programs. So, um, so I'm like, okay, hearing that it's harder to get into than Harvard or, you know, Princeton, the intensive that we were at New York City also told us you have to apply to about 20 to 25 colleges.

Wow. To get really a, you know, an acceptance or two into a musical theater program. So all I'm seeing is dollar signs flashing in my head. Cause that's not free. Yeah, it's scholarship. Pun in time now. Well, that's a whole nother point in the application process. I mean that costs, how much does it cost? I have no idea.

It's been some anywhere. Some of the colleges are zero, some are 25, some are 50, some are a hundred. It just, it ranges. So it was like a shock when we'd go to submit an application, like even through the common app, they take you to the college's website and be like, okay, you're about to submit, pay the fee.

Um, so we kept a little running total of what that costs. And there's fee waivers too. So like, um, I think, um, families that are on like free and reduced lunch and like you can take your SATs and acts for free. You can get fee waivers, um, if you're eligible for those. So that's definitely something to definitely take advantage of, especially if you have to go through this process.

Every little bit you can save. Absolutely. Yes. Um, so, but the. The whole goal around picking these schools is you don't wanna apply to 20 schools in your extreme reach category. You wanna kind of diversify that a little bit. So, um, you know, you take a couple from here, a couple from here, majority are from the kind of the moderate category and then a couple of safety.

So you have a, a, a very wide range, cuz in the end of the day, would you love to go to the top musical theater college where your senior showcase is on Broadway? And of course you would, you know, everybody would. Um, but getting an education, I mean, anywhere you go, you're gonna run into some great people and you're gonna have opportunity wherever you go.

You just kind make your opportunity. And I'm like Florida Autumns cruise ship here you have theme parks. Yes. Goodness. But, um, yes, but her goal is to not be in Florida. So we'll see how that works out. So, um, So we have done the academic process. I think right now we're at 18 schools that we've applied to.

I say we cause I have had to help out. Exactly. Yeah, I'm sure. And she's pretty organized. But even like her senior year is crazy in two musicals at school, you know, taking SATs and Acts, she holds down a job. Um, she's in world choir. It's just crazy. You know, she has AP classes. It's, you know, it's a lot. Um, it's a pretty, it's important point that you kind of have to like stop and go holy shit about, because these kids that get into these art programs, and it's not just musical theater with theater, right?

Like, uh, from the band world. Uh, all of band nerds, we were all kind of the same. We had AP classes. I said band nerd too. I clarinet. . Oh, that's it. That's it. Yeah. Clarinet and sack. Yep. There you go. Uh, I, I knew we were kid in spirits. The, the, the i, her podcast just making, you know, connecting some dots, but, but the arts, you know, when every time you hear about, oh, they wanna cut the arts in this school or that school or whatever, it just pains me a little bit because I'm like, that is the, the smart kids you're trying to take away from the smart kids.

All the ones that are bringing your, you know, school grading stuff up, you know, you're cutting all the stuff that keeps them alive. Really. Yeah. So, you know, hearing that, cuz I, you know, I have a kid in the same finance fine arts school already, and the next one auditioning. Oh my gosh. The time. Um, but you know, she, all her stuff is ap.

Yep. And she's about to go into her senior year next year, and she doesn't, she's all done with her academics. Like, it's literally only just the band stuff now. Um, but you know, these kids, they're so smart. They're so smart and they're, what is the word? Oh my gosh, I totally lost it. Dedicated isn't the word, but they, they're driven.

They, it's very, and you think about the school, you know, the school they're attending, it's an audition school. You have to audition to get in. So it's like you, they want to be there. Yeah. You know, you know, she, she wakes up and she's like, oh, like, I feel like crap. She's like, I'm going to school. You know, because she doesn't wanna miss, like, she's, that's been extremely driven, um, for McKayla too.

And she was like, she was sick. And I was like, well, just stay home, baby. You know, get some rest. She's like, no, I, I have to be there. I need my perfect attendance. Like I'm, she, she was going for some shit this year. . And she'll make it too. I have no doubt. Yeah. Yeah. They are. I think, you know, I attribute a lot of what she's learned so much from just being involved in theater.

You know, there's articles out there about theater and what it teaches you as a, as a child, just your organizational skills, your time management skills. Yeah. Your, just your ability to do multiple things and focus on different things at the same time. Um, it's done. I, I mean, I attribute that to being involved in the theater.

Yeah, totally. Social. Think she's done. Skills, being able to speak in front of people and from a young age, she's had to learn to juggle her time. Yeah. And this is nothing new to her. So, you know, for, I can't imagine somebody going into this process. Into college and like without having a pretty solid background in it and jumping into it and being like, what the heck?

Because you know, you get into a show and your rehearsal, you guys know your rehearsal. And that's where when she started getting into all these shows, I was like, I may as well Volunteerer there. You're there . Right. That's, but you know, rather be helpful than just sitting around, could drive back and forth or, I, like in my car, in the parking lot, read a book.

Mm-hmm. . Yeah. And I, I've done done that too. I know I've done that too. Brought my laptop. I've worked, I've done all sorts of stuff, but getting involved was also fun. And you know, I never was involved in theater. Um, I enjoyed seeing shows, but her being involved in theater and like pulled me into being involved in theater and I love it.

Yeah. And I wish I could do it more. Um, well, it's funny, I felt. , my discovery of theater through Pinky made me find my people. Yes. Do you know what I mean? It is, it gets weird. I do, because I've always counted myself as a band nerd at heart, you know? Yep. But, um, but yeah, even though I don't play hardly at all anymore, like I have guitar, I occasionally pull out, but like, you know, the clarinets and storage at the moment, , I donated mine cause I was like, well I sold my guitar or my uh, my saxophone.

You're gonna have time on your hands next year. You're gonna, you had that clarinet? Well, no, it won't be the clarinet. Like I'm no Squidward. Right. So no, we're not doing that. Coming back to the theater though, that is definitely on list. Cause I enjoyed it so much. Well, I'll be there. And I know it was funny cuz when I talked to your daughter, she's like, you're gonna come see the shows after Autumn's gone.

I'm like, of course I gotta watch the rest of my kids grow up. She's like, oh my gosh. She told me that. And she still, every time she sees you, miss Cat's here. Miss Cat's here. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I go to watch your kids. Yeah. You know, as a stage manager, your kids are the kind of kids that we love to have . Aww.

So, um, well, and you, you become friends with the other moms and dads, but then you become friends with all the children. Like, I love going to see Mary Poppins because I know so many of those kids and you're just so excited for them. I see them, the kids that have graduated come back to see the shows too.

Yes. Like they're, so that's the other thing too, about everybody in the, in the theater community, is they're all supportive of each other. And I don't know if that comes from this place of, you know, the cliques in high school and, you know, the jocks pick on the geeks and, you know, all of that, that happened.

At least that's how it was when I was, I don't know if it's like that at Harrison. I, I don't feel like it is, I don't know that it's like that at Harrison. I think they're, I know that Autumn's class is like, you know, A dysfunctional family. They love each other. They hate each other. They're ridiculously talented.

They are ridiculously. Yeah. That class is phenomenal. They, but they will always be there for each other, right. No matter what their differences are. Yeah. They, they are there to support each other, um, and, you know, hands down, no questions asked. So I think it's just different type of people. Yeah. So, yeah.

Well, and you're all working together toward one common goal, and I really think that bonds you when you're in a show together. Yes, that's very true. I mean, cuz you do a show with people, you just form this bond that's like, unlike any other, I know Autumn's friends, you know, they will always be there for her.

So it's, it's just nice to have that, that genuine friendship. It's not somebody being fake, it's not somebody you know. And these are lifetime friends. These are friends that are gonna be with. Throughout, you know, and they're always gonna have those, the connections she has made working at various community theaters around the area and in school and just meet even just the adults.

Right. Um, she has just made a lot of connections and a lot of special people. So I, she can call one of us if she ever needed something. Right. She's drop every time she Yeah. I say Autumn has a lot of ants. She has a lot of aunties out there that she does. Yes. I saw it with my daughter last night cuz she had auditioned and she had gotten a call back and she didn't get the role.

So of course she was sad, but she was genuinely happy for her other friends that she doesn't know who got the role yet. But two of them got to stay on and, uh, you know, go through the final stages and they can be upset for themselves, but then genuinely happy for the other people. And I think that's a beautiful thing.

And it is hard because Autumn has some friendships. Growing up, they've always like, they're each other's competition. Mm-hmm. , it's really tough to be like, Ugh. You know, like, I didn't get the role, but you know, you wallow in it for a few minutes and then you turn right around and then you're there supporting them.

Yes, absolutely. And all of those feelings are completely natural and completely human as far as you know. Oh, absolutely. You're allowed to be upset about it. Exactly. But then we're gonna turn it up and oops. I know. I've hit it a few times. It's like stages of grief. Let's go through it. Then you get to the other side.

Totally. Stages of grief. Absolutely. So you've done 18 or so applications, how many more do you think? So we've done 18 academic applications. So after the academic application, then there's the artistic application. Oh dear. Oh lordy. So. The artistic application. It depends on the school. Um, but most of them require a pre-screen.

Um, so, and this is where you have to upload specific cuts. Um, standard is, you know, two contrasting 32 bar cuts of, you know, songs one before 1970. What, like, there's all these rules about what you can perform, but they basically wanna see two contrasting songs up tempo and a ballad. Um, one to two monologues also contrasting.

Um, and then they have dance videos. So, um, you know, you can do a published dance, you just have to give credit to the choreographer. You can self choreo, um, choreograph, um, and then there's a wild card video that can be anything. So it can just be, you get to choose what it is. Yeah, you can do anything. It could be a special skill, something completely different comedy.

Like you can just sit there and talk to them. You can show them a clip of, you know, you in a production, anything you want it to be. Um, and kids get really clever. with those. Um, and then there's a bunch of other optional videos that you can do, like 30 seconds of ballet or you know, 30 seconds of tap and then there's additional essays potentially.

Um, so, and all of that has to be uploaded in, you know, through different, different vehicles. I guess. You go online, you either log to your portal because now that you've applied to these 18 schools, every one of them has sent you a link to, oh gosh, their portal. Awesome. And you have to create your own username and, and wow and password.

So then you gotta keep track of all that , so every time you go to log in. But then, um, some of 'em use a platform which is similar to like Common app. Um, they do a common pre-screen, so everything is kind of the same. Um, so that's nice when they do that. Some of the monologues, they want it chest up. Some of the monologues they want from the knee up.

Some of them they want full body. Ah, so you And redo the same one over and over. Yeah. So it's like when you pick your monologue, you have to film it, you know, maybe three different ways because this school might want the full, full body shot. This one might want the closeup. So there's all these different rules about how to film these things.

So it's It's a pain. It's a pain, yeah. Because you're writing it and it's like you think you have it all down and then you go to submit and you're like, oh, this school wanted this one in this format or something. And then you either have to create a YouTube link to put all your videos or you upload them.

They can't be over a certain, the timeframe, like if it's a 32nd you, if you go over by a second, you know, they say that, you know, don't do that because they're just looking for a reason to not have to watch that. If they're getting like 5,000 applications in, they're only taking maybe eight to 12 into their program.

Oh my God. That's just one reason to throw that out the window without even watching it. So it's very important to kind of keep all that in mind. So that's like a full time job right there. It is. I was about to ask, is there a service that does for you, ? No, I might, I'm gonna create one. You should create one for y'all.

That's what I'm gonna do. Please do, please do. Yeah, we'll promote you. Yeah, it's crazy. I can get, like, I have all these spreadsheets and all sorts of stuff. Oh, I keep, I keep hitting the mic too. It's weird cuz you know, it takes a second to get used to having it here and after a while you forget. I, I don't know, like you're talking about the different formats and stuff and since I've done, I've dabbled in video stuff, you know, I'm doing some stuff here.

But, um, it kind of makes me think like you just need to get familiar with editing. Cause you could probably film full body and then just crop it down. Sort of like when you crop a photo. I was just thinking have three different cameras going and each different videos. It's like there's a lot of Autumn's phone and like your son's phone and just put 'em all up.

Yeah, that's not me. I'm glad I have a techy friend. I mean, I do work in tech, but you know, not that part. I deal with software, not No, no. That's different kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah. No, don't ask me how to fix something on the computer at all. . Um, there's a bunch of different ways to do it. Um, the way that we did it was literally like we, we hired somebody to, to film.

Good. Okay. Um, we hired somebody who is, um, just created some great sound quality blended, um, because, you know, do you like go to their studio to record and, okay. I feel like I've seen people share stuff like that before. Yeah. And I mean, anybody could really do it. You get a ring light, you make sure your lighting is good.

You get, you know, filming off an iPhone these days is almost just as good, but Yeah. Um, but the quality of this, of the sound just, I was like, no, we need to have, we need to have 'em done professionally. So how did she pick her song? Like, she sung so many brilliant, amazing pieces. Well, she got, okay, so for college she auditioned her intensive that she did last summer.

She, she auditioned with a trip to the library, which was a song that she had done for her juries. And it wasn't, it wasn't a song like, when I wanna hear my daughter sing, like she's got a belt. Mm-hmm. , she can just blow your face away and like, yeah, that's what I wanna hear. Like, I wanna hear your belt.

This song is not that. It is an acting song. And if one thing that I have learned about this industry is like, great, you can sing. Yeah. Okay, good. You can move. It's the acting, the acting is super, super important. And so they wanna see something different. They don't want you to just, you know, how many belters do they see?

Mm-hmm. , you know, they want something different. Um, they wanna see that you can do something different. So that, that song is more of kind of like a. , um, it's telling a story, like it takes you on a journey. It takes you on a journey. It tells a story. It's funny. Um, and the way that she did it, so when she auditioned for that song, with that song for her intensive, she ended up getting assigned, um, like somebody to work with her before she went to New York.

Um, because then she got some private vocal, um, with the Intensive, and they, she submitted a belting song. She submitted a trip to the library and I think one other one. And they were like, we want you to do this song for, it got extremely good feedback from a lot of people in our studio. Um, we want you to do this song.

So Wow. She was like, really? Because like, there's not, I mean, yeah, she's singing in it. That's, she sounds beautiful, but it's, it's not, you know, it's not the high notes, you know? Mm-hmm. . So I'm like, wait a minute. Like, I don't know what I'm talking about. I don't, you feel very much the same way. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just like,

But, um, so that's one of the ones she went with cuz she actually did that for, um, a couple of casting directors and they, they loved it. So that's what she chose, one of her songs. And the other one is, shows more of the, the higher notes, the belting. So she's just showing the contrast there. So that's important when you're picking, picking your music.

If you have to do two contrasting ones, you really want to do two contrasting ones don't, don't do the same thing in both. So that's important. It's the same with the monologues too. She has a comedy monologue and she has a more of a emotional monologue, so they like to see dynamics. It doesn't matter what they're judging you in, right?

Mm-hmm. . Yeah, I remember that. Millions. Yes. . Yep. Um, now has Autumn always been more of a dancer? More of a singer? Um, Gabby did an intensive over the summer too, and one thing that really kind of. was brought to our attention is that you kind of have two types. You either have like a dancer who can sing, or you have a singer who can move.

So where, where has Autumn kind of fallen into that? She is, in my opinion, um, it's definitely the vocals. Mm-hmm. , um, for her, she is a singer, um, first, but she also, you know, she's taken acting, she's taken dance. Um, so I feel that she is stronger and vocal and usually somebody going in does have, you know, a strength in one of those three areas and then they're maybe good at the other two.

Gotcha. Yeah. So we talked about that triple threat mm-hmm. all the time about how important mm-hmm. That is to be well rounded, you know, and they'll say, oh, you might be really good at one thing. Stick with that, concentrate on that, but then supplement those other two so that they can be brought along as well.

Yeah, I think. Lessons. Cause like I would never have thought to put my child in vocal lessons when she was younger. Um, and you know, she was singing all the time. I videotaped her in the kitchen and we were baking cookies. You know, I post that every year on Facebook and she's like, mom, oh it's my favorite when she's like five years old.

I love that one. She was singing like the Jackson Fives, like, like Santa Claus is coming to town. Um, so yeah, I was like, oh yeah, it's cute. But, you know, but then putting her in vocal lessons was probably one of the best things we did. Um, what age did you start that? I think I was nine. Nine or 10. Um, she did dance when she was like four or five and she was like, eh, it's okay.

You know. So we had her enrolled in dance, but it wasn't something that we stuck with at the time cuz she found soccer and she loves soccer. Um, so we kind of switched over to that. Um, but then, . Once they announced hairspray, she's like, I learn how to dance . So she's like, I need dance lessons. Exactly. So we, yeah.

She's like, so we got dance lessons, so we go. Um, and that was all her driving it. It wasn't me forcing it. And that's the, that's the other thing too. When your kids are little, I, you know, we put our kids in everything just to try, try to find something that would stick. Yeah. Because we wanted them to be involved.

Yes. We wanted them to be, you know, find something that they enjoyed doing. Whether they were good at it or not, it didn't matter. Just something they enjoyed. But it was always our thing. If you start something for a season and you don't like it, you still have to stick, you know, stick it out through the season, finish it.

Yep. . And you don't ever have to do it again if you don't want to. So we've been through TaeKwonDo and gymnastics and dance and swimming, baseball, soccer, like tennis, like all sorts of things that we've gone through. Yeah, theater stuck and it's a financial commitment, but it's so worth it to get that leg up with the private lessons, the voice.

If you think about this, like I have a lot of friends who have kids on travel ball teams. How much are they paying every weekend to go stay outta town and go into these tournaments buying the equipment? It's not cheap. I had, I remember, um, autumn did, um, legally Blonde Junior at, um, another local theater summer camp, and she got cast as L Woods.

And one of the things on the form was, are you willing to dye your hair? And of course, you know, I think she was, I don't know, 13 at the time. 13 or 14. And she's like, yeah, I'll dye my hair, you know, and then told me afterwards, she. Oh, guess what? I got cast as L Woods and I told him I'd dye my hair . So I'm like, okay.

It's a good thing she's blonde anyway, so you're good. She was not blonde. Oh she wasn't? No, she was blonde as a baby. Wait, wait, was this the start after a bondage? Is that a word? It is now. Sage is a word now . She was born, she was born blonde. She's a blondie. Yeah. But as she got older, it turned dark brown.

Same thing happened to my son and he's got hair my color now. Yeah. Pinky darker than it was when she was a baby. Yeah. So she had blon blond hair when she was a baby. Um, so I was like, okay, well, you know, technically you were, you know, you were a blonded. Right. So, um, but this was, you know, e woods blonde. It had to be plaque blonde.

So I called my hairdresser, who's known my kids since she was a baby, where she had like one tiny sprig of hair on top of her head. And I was like, okay, we need it. We need it blonde. Like I need it stripped and died. Yeah. And. She made the appointment, five minutes later she calls me back. She's like, she's like, KA, I don't, I don't know if I can do it.

And I was like, what do you mean? She's like, I, she's like, I'm not trying to say like, I disagree with you, but she's only 13. Like, you don't wanna do this to her hair. And like, she told me all the things about it. And so I was like, okay, um, I understand, but this is something that she wants and this is something that I'm willing to pay for, you know, for her to do.

And, um, she'd already told him that she wasn't. So, um, and then she called me back and she's like, you know what? Cuz her son actually signed on with the Red Sox. Like, he got a contract when he was 10th grade, I think. Oh wow. Um, so he, he did professional, like, and our, our sons had played baseball together.

Um, . Yeah. She's like, you know what, this is no different. She's like, she didn't want take my money cuz she knew it was gonna be a lot of money. And she was young and she's like, you're going blonde, you're gonna have to keep that up. And I'm like, we're not. It's not gonna stay blonde. Yeah. fast forward a has been blonde since it's gorgeous blonde.

She wasn't, whoever's doing her hair is doing a marvelous job. Yeah. Why? Thank you. Nice job, . Yeah. Well, no it's not. I say that, um, she gets it done maybe once a year. Mm-hmm. , um, once every 18 months, um, professionally, but in between it's mom doing room, touchups, touch up mom, you're good. Doing some streaks.

And she's just got natural highlights. No matter, no matter how it is, it comes through. But, um, obviously it works like the better it works. It was beautiful. It was beautiful and she wanted to keep it so she did. Oh, I love that. What a great little story. I had no idea about that. And I love that it came out of theater, you know, but just like any, any parent putting their kid in, Anything that they want to do.

I mean, it's a, it's a time commitment. It's a money commitment. Um, you know, you gotta be there for the ups and the downs, just like any other sport or any other activity that they want to do. So, yeah. Well we definitely feel you on that. Yeah, we do roll the parent, right? Yeah. And do all of that. I mean, all of us have more than one child, so I know it's, it's different because like, I feel like, like, oh, well you play soccer, so you're gonna play soccer cuz I'm already out here.

And that's, and we did that with started , we did that with Swim too. We might have been on the same swim club. Um, what are you for a while? No. Yeah, we were over here. We were here in, in Lakeland at Candy. Yeah. Um, I, I've talked about Gandy in their pool, right? Over hand's. So hot. So it is like stupid. It is the equation.

Very true. Yeah. . But at some point, you know, , you know, we were able to allow them to do their own things. So, um, but it did, it does take a lot of time commitment, um, to do that. So juggling, like I'm facing this week where we've got rehearsals, we've got a showcase, we've got juries, we've got out of the box and I'm like, I literally sat down this morning and I was like, I'm not entirely sure how I'm getting everybody where they need to be on time.

Mm-hmm. , but we're gonna figure this out. Yep. It is. It's a full time job demand. Mm-hmm. , like the logistics of all of that is crazy. And, um, I like, I love doing that kind of stuff and that's probably why I got into stage management is because I like figuring out all that stuff. But it is, it does take a lot of time commitment and, you know, I wanna be home sitting on the couch.

Yeah. Or I need to go walk my dogs, but I gotta be driving my kids in different directions. But they're old now, so I know you only have a few months left. When will she start hearing from these different. Okay, so back to that. She's senior now, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. , yeah. Right at the middle of it. It's, oh, it's, we're right the middle of it.

Um, so we have, there's deadlines for these pre-screens, so we're touching up a couple of her, her videos right now, um, to submit. So then if it's a school that requires a pre-screen, she has to pass it before she can go to the next stage, which is the audition, which is a whole nother ballgame. Um, so if she doesn't pass, then she doesn't want to consider, she's already been academically accepted into several with great scholarships.

Um, but that's great. She doesn't want to go if she's not into the musical theater program. So, um, she has to pass the pre-screen, and if she does for those schools, then she has to go to an audition. So, and those are in person? Yes. I think they have virtual options now just because of Covid. I think they did it for a while.

Everything was virtual, but now they give the kids the option. My daughter does not. Like virtual. Yeah. She likes in person just a different vibe. Sure. Um, energy across really well in person versus, um, over camera. So, um, so yeah, so that was another thing I learned about was a thing called unified or combination audition.

So, um, they, they schedule a co a couple different, I don't even know if it's a group of people that put these on or, or how it's done, but they have, they host them in different cities and the schools come there. So you fly to one place that's nice and you have a bunch of auditions. Okay. Unfortunately, you don't audition once for everybody.

You still have to audition that number of times, um, depending on what schools you're auditioning for, but you're not flying all over the country. Right. That's true. So the big ones are Chicago, New York, and la Um, and I've already booked our. Hotel for Chicago in February. My sister was like, you're gonna need more than a sweatshirt.

It'll be nice and warm, it'll be wonderful. I was like, yeah, but the, but the actual auditions are in the same hotel that we're staying in, so Oh, that's nice. The hotel . Yeah. You might not restaurants depending on the weather. Yeah. Um, for sure. So, but we already have like, I think there's six or seven schools that she's applied to that are there.

Will she audition for all 'em? No, cuz I, she won't, she won't pass all the prescreens. That's just, you have to go in knowing that, um, you're gonna get rejections and it's not because you're not talented. Um, it's, they're just looking for certain things and you know, they may already have a blonde belter mm-hmm.

you know, they might not eaten another one, you know, for another couple years. So, um Oh, true. I didn't think about that. Yeah. So how this freshman is gonna come in and, and like balance out in with what they already got going on. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's, you've gotta have diversity and you've gotta have, you know, people.

You know, with varying vocal styles, varying, you know, dance styles, varying looks mm-hmm. . Um, so yeah, it's, it's just like an audition process. It's just like, yes. Oh my goodness. You can be so talented and not get the role and it's not necessarily because they didn't like you or that you weren't talented enough.

Mm-hmm. , that's much, very much true for colleges as well. A hence why you apply to so many, um, to have that opportunity. So it's not like, I wouldn't have thought of that. No, it's not like going to med school or law school, where if you do, you know, you have this on your LSATs and you do this on your MCATs and you, it's like, oh, you meet the benchmark you're in.

Yeah. It's totally different. You have to are up, up, they're recruiters. So like, oh, that's a good, I had somebody that recruit, like, I didn't go through the typical process for college, so I'm gonna be flying blind to help my kids. I mean, Chris did, but, um, but I did not, I, I had somebody recruit me and then I went to that program, um, for a bit.

It's a whole other story, not for today. Um, so like, yeah. Do they have like, somebody that comes to the schools and, you know, I've never heard of that from a theater perspective. I have, I have seen, and we've, we've gotten calls from certain program that they're like, she's, you know, she's in and you know, we need her, you know, we want her to commit.

And I'm like, you don't even know my kid. Like, yeah. So I think there's certain places that do pursue, um, cuz I've heard of people, you know, committing to colleges well in advance of the normal, like, college application timeframe. You know, national commit day, I think is like May 1st. So, you know, you get basically you're holding your offers, you know, and scholarship wise you're like, you know, okay, this person's giving me this, but I really wanna go here.

So hey school, can you give me, can you match this offer? Or can you increase it? So you kind of like play them against each other if you're. If you're lucky enough to have multiple offers. Um, but I have seen, I'm on a Facebook group, um, like mt. Parents and it's all about this process and parents are on there, kids are freshmen or sophomores just soaking up all the information.

Um, and it can be a lot. You can go down rabbit holes, , but some of the stuff coming across there, if you look, you're like, oh, that's good information to know. Um, so I'm sorry, say that again. Mt parents. Mt parents. Okay. It's on Facebook. It's on Facebook. Okay. It's a resource and it definitely is a good resource for college.

Um, it drives me crazy sometimes, cuz. You know, parents just are posting kids, you know, pictures of their kids at prom. Like I, okay, I don't wanna see that. It's not what this group is for. I don't need that. But where's the moderate mache dress? Yeah, exactly. Where's Ana? Um, but again, it's also too, um, I had this, this list of schools that broke it down into extreme reach, reach, moderate, and safety.

And you know, I was like, somebody was asking like, I don't know, like we just haven't done the research and I wanna know if there's any other schools that maybe aren't hard, as hard to get into, maybe we should apply to. So I said, you know, DM me, I have, you know, I can pass along some information. And I had, I think I had like 15 or 20 Wow.

Other parents, not the person that did the common, didn't even DM me really a lot. It was a bunch of other people. And so we emailed back and forth and they're like, you know, you know, so you get to talk and you get to know the parents too because they're all going through the same thing and it's, you know, you commiserate together about some of this stuff cuz it's, it's a lot of money.

It's a lot of time. Um, Because if you talk, you think about academic applications, the fees, every artistic application has a fee. And if you go through this platform that most schools want you to go through, they also have a processing fee. So it's not only the academic and artistic application fee, it's the processing fee for the prescreen.

Then you some, some of them require an audition fee, let alone having to go to the audition. Mm-hmm. . So it's just that process for that number goes several thousand dollars. Wow. Wow. That's amazing. So knowing that in advance is very helpful to be able to like, you know, save some money and put that away. Um, autumn started working this past year, so she's making her own money, um, to kind of help towards this process too.

So, um, cuz that's important as far as scholarship money goes. , you mentioned academics. Is there also scholarship money through the theater piece of it, or is it just, or academics where you get your money? So I think academics, most schools have, most schools have a, a limit. It's kind of like, almost like Bright Futures.

If you hit this mark, you know, you get the test score and you get the gpa, you get this money towards tuition. Mm-hmm. , um, I think a lot of colleges have something similar to that. But the good thing is, is, and sorry honey, I'm gonna talk about your test scores. Um, Autumn does not qualify for Bright Futures because of the test scores.

Um, she has opportunity to take it again and, and boost it. And she's actually really close. She did very well in the last one, but still she's not there. So, out of 18 schools that we've applied to only two required test scores, most of the arts programs do not require test scores. Oh, that's interesting. So, and it was really funny because her, her brother, who is.

Like, he got like 1490 on his SATs at like a 4.6. I don't know, you know, captain of this captain that founded the math honor society, you know, all over the place. Um, he got the top scholarship from Florida Southern. Um, and they ended up not having the program that he wanted to go into. So he, he went to another school, but he got the top scholarship.

So she gets a packet from Florida Southern and she opens it and she's like, what? She's like, okay, I've been accepted and look at the, look at the amount of this, like, you know, and I'm thinking she doesn't know how much it costs to go to Florida Southern, but it was a, it was the same, it was the same amount that my son got.

Oh my God, that's awesome. She was very, she was like, ah, , I didn't even have to submit my test scores. And because of her academic record, she has a high gpa, she's. Yeah. She's got I think almost 2000 like service hours. Yeah. Yeah. That's another thing. Volunteering, right? Yeah. Well, it's kind of funny to think about, like, I had Michaela start volunteering and doing stuff with the shows and just one show she'll rack up over a hundred hours.

Yes. It's crazy. But it's, I mean, I mean, they're always needing tech help too. Oh yeah. And it's fun. And even the techs, the techs love it because they get in and they find their people too. And they learn a lot of stuff and Yeah. They rack up as many shows and then she's gotten gigs singing National Anthem.

Yeah. Um, for all sorts of events. Nice. Um, yeah. But she does Out of the Box, which is her favorite program. Um, yeah. And she does a couple of other things with like Catholic charities. You know, some non theater stuff. Throw some of that stuff in there. That'd be well rounded. Yeah. She like times at the swim meets, you know.

Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Does this mean she's not gonna go to Florida Southern because she's not interested or she didn't wanna go to Florida? She wants to get out of Florida. I know that's, and it's really funny to watch her thinking a lot of times cuz you know, when you get excited about something then it's all about, it's all about that.

And she, you know, I hate New York City. Like, I love to visit. I do not love, uh, I don't love it. I was born in New York, like, uh, that's not the place for me. She loves it. We eventually did get to go over spring break and we've been back since. Um, and she just loves all the hustle and bustle and the walking and just, just that whole vibe.

So that's where she sees herself. She sees herself in a bigger city. You know, she wants the four year college experience, cuz that's the other option is does she need to, as an artist, , you know, how long is she gonna be, you know, is she gonna be able to perform and make money off of performing? That's all she wants.

Right. She doesn't care where it is. She doesn't care. It doesn't have to be Broadway. Right. She wants to perform, she loves it and she's good at it, but she, you know, she's gotta make money off of it. Mm-hmm. , you know, she's getting into adulthood. Um, so you don't have to have college, right? No. You can just go audition maybe.

And she's never, she's never like gone and just auditioned, like outside of the local, her little bubble. Right. So that's totally an option. She might do that over the summer. Just go and just hit some professional audition. Yeah. You never know. I mean, at least she'd learn even more stuff about it, even if she didn't get gas.

Right. Yeah. She's got nothing to loses gracious. Yeah, exactly. So it just gives you, it's almost like you're, you're rehearsing for, you know, Constantly going on and you learn, every time you audition for something, you learn something different. You work with different people, they ask you different questions.

Um, so that's something, you know, she's like, oh, well if I don't get into a program I will just, you know, I'll just hit the streets and go looking for that. She's comfortable. She's like, I'll just go to Polk State and, you know, music education, music therapy or some other things that she, something with music.

Um, definitely something that she, but she's like, that's what I wanna do in 10 or 15 years when I've performed and I'm done. Right. And I wanna kind of settle down down Right. And kind of slow down a Yeah. She's got, I told you she's got it all. She does have Oh, I love it. She's such a smart girl. So while she's, you know, while she says this is where she wants to be, I think as you know, I think the hard part is gonna be when those rejections start rolling in, cuz they will and they do for everybody.

Yeah. And she knows that. But it's still, you know, anytime you get a rejection, it's kind of hit your ego a little bit and you wonder, is this really. This is really what I'm supposed to be doing. You know, you start second guessing yourself a little bit. Yeah. So it's really gonna depend on where she gets in, who gives her the most money.

Mm-hmm. and you know, whether we can make it work for the next four years. Um, and that might be in Florida, you never know. Yeah. It wouldn't that be a shame. Yeah. Oh, for just a little bit longer. . I know. I'm like, you know, Saturday morning farmer's market we walk to, it's like, you're gonna miss that. She's like, we'll get that when I come home.

I'm like, okay, . But she's, you know, she's very, she's very independent, so she, you know, she, that's what she wants. So we're gonna make it happen one way or another. That's, yeah. I have no doubt. Be somewhere she'll, yeah. I have no doubt. So what are those deadlines looking like? So those pre-screens, you'll start hearing about them soon.

Um, I think most of the pre-screen deadlines are, Around December 1st. Some of them are later. Okay. Um, but yeah, we'll be submitting those in the next week or two. Okay. Um, and then a couple schools don't require you to pass the pre-screen or they don't require a pre-screen at all, and so she's already got auditions set up.

Okay. So let me tell you what the audition schedule looks like. This will be a fun one. That's a good thing to hear. So she's got six auditions right now scheduled for the Florida combined auditions, which are at the STRs score. Nice. I can 45 minute drive. I can actually drive, I don't have to get a hotel room or a plane ticket.

I can just drive. So she has one on a Thursday with a dance call, one on a Friday with a dance call four on Saturday with a dance call. So that's kind of like a whole weekend in mid-January timeframe of just dance? Oh no, it's everything. Oh, okay. You're saying in addition like singing and a dance. Oh, okay.

Gotcha. Mm-hmm. . So she'll have like the Thursday, she'll have her singing and acting interview, whatever they do in that, in that timeframe. But then she has a dance call for the school that afternoon. Okay, gotcha. So she's got six scheduled right now for that middle of January and then I think it was February 4th.

Um, she has an audition at Belmont who they don't require pre-screens. They also don't attend any kind of unified they want you there. So where's that school flying to? Nashville, . Oh, that'll be fun. Yeah, my sister lives in Knoxville, so that's gonna be a little bit of girls. We'll have a night there, a night or two.

So that might be, you know, I love Nashville. Not gonna be too bad. No, I can. I can handle Nashville. So we fly to Nashville. So we'll fly on a Friday to Nashville. She'll audition on a Saturday, Sunday, we fly to Chicago. Oh wow. So then Chicago Unified are Monday through Thursday. I think, or Monday through Friday.

So it's a whole week of auditions, and I think there's seven schools there that she's, that she applied to, whether she passes pre-screens and gets an audition. Um, and then we'll fly out Friday into New York City and then she'll audition for Marymount Manhattan on Saturday. Goodness. Um, that's another school.

And so, and there's still several schools that I'm not sure if they go to Unified's or not. So we might have to, we might have to do some virtually. We might have to do some, um, flying around. I like, my mind is just going to Oh, keep her, well, keep her well, . I know, because you got these big things coming. We actually had that conversation last night.

I was like, you are wearing a mask from Christmas. And like through forever. Yeah. This, yeah. And she's, she has like a whole regimen anyway that she does, like every day. I remember her telling me about this when we were doing l We've done it all, girl, let me tell you, I do this, this, and I have a steamer.

And well, Jovie gave her, um, she let her try this throat, like it's like a cough, like throat stuff. And I was like, and it helped her during L so I was like, where, what? She's like, Amazon, here's the link. So not that it's a, it's, it's not from the, this country. So I don't know what's in it. So it's probably, probably should advertise it then.

I don't know what it's called. I honestly don't, but it looks like molasses, and it really co, it really coats the throat. So it's, it's something that I don't know. Um, we've tried it. You heard it here first? Yes. I dunno. Got bush in it. Whatever it is. It works. It works. We're not asking questions. We've got all sorts.

Um, the Grether pastels. Like the, like hard candies. She's, she does gummies a lot cuz it gets that saliva flowing. Um, I bought her a handheld personal steamer for Christmas last year. Nice. Um, and actually she's like, I'm like, do you have your steamer, use your steamer? Like my throat's a little dry, like use your steamer.

Didn't use it all about the steamer day. And I was like, like use the steamer uhhuh. So she uses a steamer, she nasal rinses now because she's been having some issues too. Like a netty pot rinse or not a Netty pot. It's just a sinus rinse. We have one, it's like a squeeze bottle. Yeah. It's got bottle and a little soft.

It's disgusting. But man, it works. It does. It feels so good after came outta here. I know. It's pretty nasty. And now that she does it, it's like she has to do it every day. Yeah. Like it, it feels better. It just cleans her out right here. So interesting. Um, we've done the head over the boiling pot of water with some tea tree oil.

Um, we've done, um, Thieves Oil, and we've done thieves cough drops. So there's all sorts of tips and tricks. Um, do you know about the medicine ball at Starbucks? I do. Okay. I've got, we've gotten that several times. There you go. And so, yep. A couple. I just learned about that. Oh, yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, she's done that, that she, she had that for Frozen.

Oh, that's perfect. Oh my gosh. Remember that? Balls that show. Oh, poor thing. We were all sick on that one. We were all like, what a great show. Right. We need steroids. Who's got the Sure. We tested positive for Covid after that one. Was that the first, that was the first That was Oh, it was, yeah. Both of our families were like, yeah, I believe it was the first post covid show.

It's just emotion. That was such an emotional show though. That was, was, it was such an emotional show. Um, it was beautiful. It was, except for the time when I called it, and there was a fire in the building. The fog machine, um, had leaked and gotten next to the, the fog machine, right next to the fire sprinkler.

And everybody on stage is like, do we? And we're like, I'm like, what do we do? And I'm like, Laura, what do I do? You don't hear as well up in the spot booth. And she was like, I don't know what's happening. She's like texting me. I'm not there. There's fighters here. I was like, and I didn't have the God mic.

The God mic was backstage. Oh yeah. And so, and it was a, it was a daytime, it's daytime performance. Mm-hmm. and, you know, it was Covid time, so it was, we only had like, yeah, it was like 30% capacity at the time or something very spaced out. Mm-hmm. , um, camp shows. And I was like, uh, Laura, what do I do? ? And then you hear, you hear like, everybody plays exit, you know?

So my daughter just was like, okay, just walks right off stage. Yeah. So Elsa had to exit. She did. Yeah. It was, uh, yeah, we have fog. Good times in Rudolph. Oh geez. Be love a shit to of fog and change it. Bang, bang. Cause the car has gotta fly through the clouds . Great. Are you stage ready to do that one? I have not been asked yet.

I'm kind of like, I think I kind of wanna do that one, but like that's, we'll see how it goes. It's gonna be a fun one. Mm-hmm. very fun. Um, they're all fun. What am I saying? Well, exactly, so I don't know why, I don't know why, but I feel like very Matilda vibes for Chitty Chitty. Cause it's all the kids slot slot though, the same time slot, but, and it's a mix between kids and adults.

They're supposed to be a lot of kids. Um, talking to us at one point about it and he was telling us that there was like the, the, there's like a kid I haven't seen the. I haven't either. So I don't know. He was telling me there's like a, a kid, a guy that like kid naps the kids or whatever. There is the kid Steeler guy anyway.

And . So you have to have a lot of kids for them to steal. Kid stealer guy, kid Steeler guy, like as best title on. So sometimes your brain gives you words and sometimes I know all about that. Um, at my age it's more not right. Surprisingly like where do they go? I know, I know them. The scary thing is when we talk like that, we all know what we mean Of course.

So especially if you put something, hand gestures in there. Yeah. We're in good company. A lot more animated. This is restricting my hand gesture movement. Normally I'm, I know we need you to move and you're like, shit, I hit the thing again. Yeah, yeah. It's difficult and I can't see Angela. It's just, I'm so sorry.

I know, I know. And I had the blinds, like the light is shift. So I've been watching the, the lighting in here change. I'm like, I have no idea what this is gonna look like on the podcast. It's all good. It's all good. Y'all are stripy. Stripy. Yeah. It's okay. Cathy. How stripes . That's okay. It's all good. We look good.

Gosh, wait. I know. I feel like we're, we've been talking. Wow. We have been talking a while. We have so much information. Like Thank you so much. This is Absolutely. I think we have to bring you back on just to keep finishing conversation. I'd love too. We need to, it's only a two minute walk. Yeah. Especially after you do all these Yes.

Auditions. There's definitely the next, after like when you hit March, April timeframe, that's when I think stuff starts rolling in. And you know, the bad part is like, you can get wait listed, but you have to make a decision. Yeah. If you commit to a school and then the wait list opens up. So there's gonna be a lot of different things, but we'll see how it goes.

I'm like hoping for the best and expecting the worst kind of a thing, cuz I really don't know. What to expect, but right now we just have to make sure we hit our deadlines. Mm-hmm. . So that's the important part. So once you commit, it's really probably bad for, to be like, you know what I thought about it.

And that's, I think people understand, especially here, like, because people drop, people wait until the last minute. So if you're a kid and you have 15 schools that you have offers from, you can only go to one. So the, the courteous thing to do is to contact the schools, you know, you don't wanna go to. So that opens up a spot for somebody else to get that, that acceptance.

That makes sense. Um, and start that process because if you hold all of your acceptances till the deadline, then once that deadline hits, those other kids either didn't come in anywhere, didn't get in anywhere, parents, somebody else. Right. So it's kind of good, good form to, if you know for sure that you're not now, if you're going between a couple different schools, yes.

You know, until you, you might wanna take a campus visit or talk with them because a lot of schools and Autumn's drawn to the schools that are really. pushing the health of the students these days because that's an important part. I mean, you do theater, that's your body, that's your instrument. You've gotta take good care of it.

Mm-hmm. . Um, so the programs that, um, there's a couple schools on there that she was like, yeah, in order to go to this program, you might have to lose weight. And she's like, yeah, that's not the program for me. . Um, that's a whole nother topic. Wow. Yeah. You want schools that are gonna main, like, they're looking out for you too, and they want you to be healthy and they want, um, so they have like mental health visits, they have nutritionist.

Wow. Wow. That's just to help them. Yeah. That's awesome. Be who they are and not force them to all look like stick figures. Mm-hmm. . So we definitely wanna have you back after you've been through all that. You can give us more advice and this has been wonderful. Well also, you know, obviously we're investing.

Yeah. We gotta know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got a lot of good stuff, so, yeah. Yeah. If you guys ever have any questions, you know where to find me. Oh, we, we know now. Can we talk about what she's got coming up more recently? What she's going to be in? Sure. She will be, um, performing as marmy and little women.

Nice. Um, yes. It's her first lead role, um, at, um, Harrison. I'll just say it because everybody be there anyway. Sunday night. Yeah. Um, yes. We already had to. So she very excited. She's been, she was, we saw her in Mary Poppins. Mm-hmm. . She was goosebump. She was so good. Oh my gosh. Yes. Mary Poppins vanquishing her away.

Oh my gosh. That whole scene. I was just on the edge of my seat. Yeah. The whole time. Those women together were like, oh yes. But yeah, she's been given some great roles. Um, So she's excited for this one too. So good. Well, we're excited to come see her. Yeah. Can't wait. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yep. Well, thank you.

We really appreciate your time and your Absolutely. All of your information. I a lot of fun. There's more in there. I know. Yeah.

You don't have to run your own board. I just do it because I'm a control freak and if I say lights and the lights don't go, I'm gonna be like reaching over and smacking somebody's hand. I hit the lights. Yeah. So I get that. Seems to be a theme. Control Freaks and sticks. Stage manager. Yeah. We're anagram pretty anal about that one.

Engram The anagram. Engram. Idio. , not idiot. Enneagram. E n N E A G R A m. Oh, the E one. The E one. Have you done those where your number. Like you take a test and then it, I've taken lots of different, I'm a two or I'm a whatever. I'm an eight. I am taken. You're a what before. Think you're one. I'm a one. Yeah.

Yeah. Cuz you're the control freak. That's what one is. I'm guest section is Yes, yes, yes. I'm like the charge leader, but, and sweet and quiet. I don't think that's an option. I, that's not an option when it comes to what my supposed to do. . So you have to take that and tell us what you are. I will, you'll have somebody has to send that to me.

It's like I've taken the bird test and I know I'm an eagle. I'm the one that I've about a bird test. So like Dove is like the sweet, quiet maker, right? Not, yeah. The pacemaker. Mm-hmm. , um, people pleaser. Role. The owl is like organized, very methodical, takes a long time to think through things before making a decision.

the peacock is the social butterfly. Excuse me. What was that itch in my eye?

Peacock is social, um, you know, just . And then the eagle is kind of the, like the one that likes to lead. Um, oh, and all right, so we got a peacock and we got an eagle and weers, what did we say? What am I, an owl? Are you an owl? An owl, yes. An yes. There we go. Okay, there we go. And what were you And all of that makes I am right on the border of an eagle.

Peacock. Okay. So I'm social. Gotcha. Um, but I also, Um, quick and to the point. Blunt. Yeah. You don't take around the bush. Mm-hmm. Yeah. No, you're so an eagle. Yeah, so an eagle. Another reason why we were probably like, oh, different spirits.