Expert: Peter Messaline - 7/26/2011

Question
My name is Ashley i'm 14 years old and starting high school in September. I would love to become an actress, I have taken lessons and have been in a couple performances. I have taken singing and dance but would like to stick to acting. I am very passionate about acting. All I need is a chance to become what i've always wanted to be. If you could possibly send me websites to find acting auditions in the London Ontario area.

Thank you very much.

Answer
Dear Ashley: I'm going to be boring and say that you are a couple of steps away from getting professional acting work. There are things to do now, which will feed your acting bug, and which will make it more likely that you'll be ready for the next stages, but right now you'd be wasting your time.
Anyone who gives you a chance to improve your experience, by hiring you or accepting you as a student, or as a volunteer, is giving you some of their reputation. When you put their name on your résumé, you are saying 'see, they liked me'.
You need to show that you are serious and unusually knowledgeable, and not a flakey teenager with a dream of being A Star. Especially, you need to show that you know about the people you are approaching for help. If you can talk to people about the shows they do, about what has just happened to them, and about the things they discuss on their website, then they will think you know enough to be useful.
When you contact anyone, you need to show how you can be useful to them, not how useful they will be to you.
Here are some local sites with useful information:

londonfringe.ca
theatreinlondon.ca
tinyurl.com/43kymg3

Stick with it. Enjoy the next years, and pick up the skills and the tools that will build your career's foundations.