Expert: Peter Messaline - 12/29/2009

Question
QUESTION: I'm a highschool student and for as long as i can remember i have always wanted to be an actress. I have never wanted something as much as i want this. I'm from Indiana, which isn't a big help in taking a step forward to try to pursue this. I live in a little town that doesn't have much to offer. My school is a little judgmental of the people who they allow to partake in school plays and musicals. They tend to pick show-choir students, because they know they can deliver a good performance. I know i have talent and a ton of potentially. I just don't know what to do. My heart tells me this is what i was meant to do, but i just don't know how to start and get myself out there. I have tried websites where you can post information about yourself to get auditions sent to you, i have tried sending resumes and headshots to companies, but i am always left out of luck.

ANSWER: My sympathies about Indiana and the casting policy!
However, there are forty actresses who give Indiana as their home state,
and you will have to accept that people do get cast because they can do the job.
In this case, though, I think that the teachers who do the casting could be more welcoming to students who want to extend their interests, rather than concentrating on those who are already interested in the area. It's human nature for the teachers to be aiming at the best end product, rather than valuing the process.
You are not in a good position to look for professional work, even for a very humble employer. I'm afraid the casting websites are really about collecting information and getting advertising income. Realistically, if I wanted a young actress, no experience necessary, I'd start by looking around my family and my friends' relatives, then at a local high school .. I certainly wouldn't spend time looking at strangers who live miles away.

The majority of actresses start with a college course. The competition for work is so huge that engagers can demand some evidence of skill and experience, even if it's only at an undergrad level. As well as scheming to get the attention you want at school (can you join a club? Get on the right side of an English teacher? Show anything that will convince those casting school productions that you are worth taking a chance on?), you should be planning your rise through high school to college. Here is a page from the University of Indiana Fort Wayne:
http://tinyurl.com/yk9377r
Find out about courses elsewhere, and see what they say they are looking for. Then set about getting good grades in subjects they favour.
Google "<your city name> actress acting training" and see what comes up. Don't be too ready to pay for classes, they're not likely to be great, but try to find small theatre companies and city-run drama clubs and camps. Look for anything that you can put on your résumé to show you are taking being an actress seriously. Read all you can about being an actor -- your librarian will help -- Dewey Decimal 790 is where you want to look. Ignore the star biographies, they are written by publicists, and try to find career advice. Acting is just a career choice, and it deserves the same research and background knowledge.
Find your own contacts in the acting business, but try Bonnie Gillespie and the Indiana Rep.
Look at http://tinyurl.com/ydy4epg

Enjoy the journey -- keep your eyes on the prize, but enjoy the unexpected things you find to like along the way.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for all of the information. Everything is starting to make more sense about the casting websites. I am confused about what to do with the website you gave me. Would a college even think to allow a sophomore in highschool in participate in a play? I have done plays and musicals in middle school and elementary, but so far nothing in my highschool career. And I know that if your interested in acting highschool is the place to get noticed because thats what colleges look for. I do plan to go to college. During my freshman year, I did do some acting with a small acting group called Stages Theatre Company. We preformed plays in downtown Fort Wayne. That was probably the most fun i have ever had. I really enjoy community theatre, but all of a sudden they just happened to stop doing plays. I'm pretty sure they stopped doing productions because there were just simply not enough people. I have taken acting classes at the Civic theatre. I am on a mailing list for upcoming plays that they do, but they do a lot of musicals and I'm just not really comfortable singing in front of people when i have never taken singing lessons or anything. And i don't really want to take lessons either. At the Civic they also prefer you to sing something Broadway and honestly that scares the hell out of me. So you don't suggest for me to send resumes and head shots to casting directors in California or places that I probably won't be able to get to and be there in person? It makes sense not to do that, but I just really want to put myself out there. And I don't do sports in school or participate in a club, so yes its probably going to take some giving on my part if thats what it takes to get started.

ANSWER: Use the college site, and any more you can find, to find out all you can about the sorts of things they teach in their courses and what they are looking for in their new undergrads.

You're right to push at getting high-school credits, because they do look good. Not so much what you've played as your level of continuing interest.

Follow up on your Stages Theatre contacts! If you can keep those contacts alive, you'll have useful sources of information about what else is going on.

Your Civic Theatre activity is good, and you could usefully write to the artistic director to praise him and his work, and look forward to seeing more. Share your dreams, but DO NOT ask him (or her) for anything. Do get in touch with the Rep as well -- they are more likely to be useful to a would-be professional.

Not singing will be a major disadvantage in your career. Of course you are scared about doing it -- you can't do it! You feel more confident about your acting because you can easily tell that your singing sucks. Both require some natural ability and a good deal of hard work. Be bold about improving that side of your skills. If you look at any program information about the actors, you'll see they nearly all have many different performance skills.

There's no point in sending stuff to California -- think about it -- I am a producer wanting to cast a young girl character in my next piece. Am I going to fly an unknown in from Fort Wayne on the off-chance? No, I'm going to ask around, talk to casting directors, think of girls I have seen working, or at least met and talked to.

Doing sports is an important way of showing that you are physically able to stand still for ninety minutes, or dance while saying lines, or hobble and limp believably through a play... There are plenty of reasons why young actors need to be very fit. Get fit and collect evidence that you are fit. Prizes are good, competing in competitions ain't bad.

You really do have a lot of scut work to do before you'll get what others see as success. You'll learn that getting an audition is a success, learning the lines or a dance step are successes to be celebrated. If you think of the job of acting as being like that of a classical musician or a ballet dancer, you'll see that you need training and contacts, a wide knowledge of your specialty and the world, and an understanding of the way the business works. And lots of luck.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I am planning on going to college, even though I tolerate school everyday. I just feel like I wasn't never cut out for it. Anyways I told myself if i never make it big in the acting industry that at least it could be a side job. And my other job would be criminal investigations. I have taken classes more towards acting but I think overall at the end of my highschool career there will be more classes going towards criminal investigating. Is that even a good idea? I mean I don't want to get side tracked with two jobs, but I think acting is my passion and criminal investigating is what pulls me in to learn more about it. I mean I can sing just I'm afraid what people would say about it. So right now I am on winter break and I go back on the fourth of January. I was planning on trying out for the spring play and give it all i have because its the last production of the year of course. But i also really wanted to try disc-golf. I have never played disc-golf, but its a club and I think its one of those things were everybodys on the team no matter how bad you are. But now I don't know what to do. Sports/activities look good on a transcript, but if I don't make the play then I'm screwed. Because after that I only have two more years left. So what should I do? I have tried about every sport when I was younger, but nobody cares about what I did in middle school and elementary school. I was even in band for 4 years. But it doesn't even matter, right? I did send a message to my director from STAGES on myspace so I'm waiting to hear back from him. So would it even be worth it, say if I happened to go to California during spring break and found a couple auditions and auditioned? Would it be pointless, or would it be just kind of like lets see what people think of me and if they like it they could give it to me? Thank you for everything!

Answer
End of advice:

You need to find out for yourself about the details of an acting career -- how to get trained and what you will need.

You should do the same about investigation, if that's an alternative.

Understand that you are VERY unlikely to be able to run an acting career without having a job running parallel.
You will not get work by going to Los Angeles. What would you do there that you can't do from Indiana?
You'd still be standing out in the street with no idea where the agents are, and saying "Hi. you don't know me and I have no training and no experience and no photograph, but why don't you give me a try".
You and ten thousand girls just like you.

And this really is the most help I can be for you.
It's in your hands now. Find out about how others have managed their career, what the realities are in the business now, where the college courses are. I've given you the contacts -- now put your dreams on one side and start on the business work you need to do to get there.

Peter M