Expert: Kenneth D. Plonkey - 11/7/2007

Question
Hey! I’m a junior in high school (home schooled by the way), and I absolutely love acting, it’s the only thing that makes me really happy. Anyway, I live in Idaho, and I’ve been looking for some community theaters near me. And I don't have a school that I can go to, to join the drama club. Since I can’t do that, I thought the next best thing would be to go and audition for a play; but there is only one problem with that. All the plays call for singing, and well, lets just say I don't have the best singing voice. So every time I audition, I get turned down, because of that. And in a lot of the answers to questions I’ve read, they would say, ‘well, audition for school plays or your community theater’. So, I’m kinda stuck.  …Any suggestions?

  …and one more question, I really want to take acting classes so I could get better. And I’ve been doing a lot of research on just about every aspect of acting online, learning as much as possible. But I cant seem to find any actual classes here in Idaho; and home schooling if you take a drama class, it’s basically just reading out of a book, which I’m already doing that as well. So, any advice you could give me will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you so much!  : )  

Answer
Hello Heidi,  Yep, you are kinda stuck. How do you know you love acting?  What plays have you been in? Or do you just love the idea of acting?  Some musicals have non-singing roles, always ask if there are any of those you can tryout for.  You may have to wait until you are 18 and move to somewhere that you can take acting lessons and audition for plays.  There are no acting lessons on line. Be careful the internet is full of acting scams.  You only learn acting by acting.  Are you thinking of college?  There are theatre programs at the Idaho schools. Reading the wrong books is worse than not reading books.  Read Acting without Agony by Don Richardson and Acting for the Camera by Tony Barr. Get used copies for almost nothing at bookfinder.com.  If you have other questons, write to me at kencosp@aol.com.  Best Wishes, Doc