Expert: Peter Messaline - 7/25/2006

Question
I'm !8 and I just got out of high school Don't have alot of acting expierience except for participating in a few plays and entertainment events at are school So i'm enthusiastic(I hope I spelled that right)and Have alot of character and Creativity so thats why people feel I should start Acting. but what led me to want to pursue acting is the oppurtunity to see life from different people or
In different places and to Simply Entertain Do you think I'm pursueing this for the right reasons? and What Step should I take from here?

Answer
First off, there are no good or bad reasons for becoming a professional actor.

Exactly what you do next depends on where you live. You need to do A LOT of research, but how you get the information varies.

If you are in a city of any size in North America, there will be college and university theatre and film courses, actors union offices, Amateur community theatre, and arts support departments at state/province and city levels.
Check out the internet -- Google "actor [your area] forum" and see what comes up. Search SAG in the States, ACTRA in Canada. Check out these places:
# www.Canadianactor.com
# WILDOGRE INDUSTRY TALK
# CANADIAN ACTORS ONLINE
# VANCOUVER ACTORS GUIDE
# ONTARIO KIDZ IN BIZ  (ONT)
# CHILD ACTOR'S WEBSITE  (US)
# HOLLYWOOD NORTH REPORT
# BACKSTAGE
# WOLFESDEN
# SHOWFAX
# DVD WOLF
# ACTORS NORTHWEST
# PROACTORS
# VANCOUVER ACTOR'S GUIDE
# WESTERN NEW YORK MODELS
# INDIE TALK
# ACTORPOINT
# I DO TV ADS

Smaller cities will at least have a public library and that will bring you any book you want. But you will not likely be able to do much useful there past the community theatre and the research. Almost all the professional work is done from the main centres: LA, NYC, Seattle, Chicago, Toronto, Halifax, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver.

Most successful actors have trained in colleges or universities, and many continue training privately.
Being an actor is a hard, hard job, well past seeing different people and entertaining. Being a professional actor means that you will have to rely on another job for your bread and butter. The average acting income of actors is ridiculously low.  In the States, there are actors actively looking for work and taking classes who haven't worked for years.

Take my advice. Think about where you were planning to be after high school if the acting thing hadn't happened. Go ahead and follow that track and at the same time do the necessary research and general reading that will be necessary to have a chance to get into an acting course. Competition in the business is high, and it's high to get into courses as well.

You may find that simply moving into the adult world will keep you plenty challenged and stretched, with plenty of opportunity to become your own person. You may be loading yourself with an ambition that is desperately hard to achieve, and will be quite different from your expectations if you do succeed.

All luck, and all congratulations on having put together your feelings so clearly and so carefully.
(One trick you can use is to compose your online messages in Word, or Wordperfect, and use the spellcheck to cut down the errors in unfamiliar words.)

Follow up by all means

Peter M