It would be cool if you were able to come to Chicago some day! It's a great city!

There are plenty of villains in Prince Caspian, so you've got that going for you! There's also Father Christmas in LWW. I'm curious, what dialect do you speak with? I studied the RP dialect 6 years ago, and it's made me curious about other dialects.

Question for you guys:

Is there any particular role you have dreamed of playing?

I've always thought it'd be such fun to play one of the March sisters in an adaptation of Little Women. I'd also love to be able to play a character who is blind. I think that would be such a fun challenge!

I have always wanted to play King Tirian in The Last Battle.

I'm currently studying acting in Chicago (the Meisner Method). I plan to make acting my profession, and I've done over 20 plays, 5 college student films, and one independent Christian film that will be released in June next year. I also teach acting during the school year, so that's a lot of fun.

My natural dialect is a fairly mild Northern English (short vowels, such as "bath" sounding more like an American would say it, rather than "barth" as they say down South - or should I say, darn Sarf). But I can do RP pretty well, having done roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas for thirty years. Even though my father was from London, I can't do a London accent to save my life. And as for my attempt at Brooklyn, NY...

Interesting! I've worked on both the RP dialect and the Yorkshire dialect. Very different from each other to say the least. I never do a dialect for a film unless I have it down pat, which is why I've been working on the RP dialect for the past 6 years. It has to be perfect to be both believable, and not get in the way of the performance. If you have to think about how the words should be pronounced, it's taking you out of contact with your scene partner and into your head, which is a bad thing for an actor. What town in England are you from?

Manchester, though I live a few miles to the south of the city in one of the "posh" areas, so my accent is rather dilute. People from the north side of Manchester accuse me of being a Londoner!

Happy to breath some new life into this thread (hopefully)!

I just joined the forum a few days ago and I'm an actor myself so I'm super excited there's a thread here for it so I have full freedom to geek out over it!

I have more theatre experience than film/television experience, even though film/television acting is my focus (this is what happens when you live in a small town - you're relegated to school/community theatre and local indie short films). My dad was in the military for the greater part of my childhood, and we frequently got stationed to obscure places, one of which being in the middle of Alaska. Go figure, I figured out that I really wanted to act about a year prior to moving to AK. The caveat was I didn't have any friends/relatives in the industry, and I had no idea I could research how to get started in it all via the computer. I was 9 years old then, and I was actually living by Tacoma, WA. I could've gotten an agent, but I didn't know I could. I thought you had to be famous before getting an agent (see what I mean? I had no idea how the industry worked, so I had no idea how to get started [aside from the typical school/community theatre route]).

Then I moved to Alaska, and I didn't do any theatre until about 2 years in. I did 2 shows with Missoula Children's Theatre in the summers between 7th and 8th grade (and anyone who's ever done shows with them knows that they work FAST! Auditions could be on a Sunday and your one and only performance is that Saturday). The first one was 'The Wizard of Oz' where I was one of the munchkins. The second one was 'The Princess and the Pea'. I think I played one of the leprechauns? Coincidentally, in 8th grade, my school did 'The Wizard of Oz', and for that one I played a munchkin, a braggart (or was it the 'braggart munchkin'? I don't know You start getting mixed up when you play multiple roles in a show), a winkie and a winter sprite. Small little roles but still quite a bit of fun (especially since back then, it really was all about fun for me and not at all about getting a big role to put on my actors' resume [not that I even knew what an actors' resume was then]). 9th grade is when we got sent to South Dakota. I was involved in sports for most of my childhood, and in South Dakota, doing the sport I was doing while also giving the school's theatre program a go just wasn't an option due to conflicting schedules. After having quite the revelation that I really wanted to get back into acting, make it something of a career and try my hand at film acting the summer before senior year started, I quit the sport I was doing in between seasons to audition for a couple of school theatre shows. I made the spring show, 'Grease', as a chorus member. Still a small role, but still relatively fun.

The next show I did was where I had my first big role. I graduated high school a couple years ago and after a while of self-doubt and a slight reluctance to do theatre to get more acting experience while I wait for film acting jobs to come around, I finally auditioned for my local community theatre's production of 'The Lion in Winter', a historical drama set in the 12th century pertaining to the twisted political relationship between King Henry II and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. I played Alais Capet, the French princess (though all of us did the show with RP accents) who's quite used and abused as a political pawn. She's the older sister of King Philip II as well as being King Henry's mistress. There's 7 characters in the show and each of them is vital to the storyline. Google it if you'd like - I'd exhaust myself if I wrote everything I could about it here. The audition process is so fun to look back on because I'd never done community theatre before, just a couple school plays and a couple children's theatre plays. Aside from me, there were 4 other girls who auditioned for the same role. 2 of those girls came to callbacks. One of those girls was very active in the local theatre community and I'm sure had (and still has) a much more impressive theatre resume than I do. The other girl had done at least one or two other shows with this theatre in addition to working the box office (which, as some know, may give you an 'in' for future shows). I'd never done a show (or auditioned for a show, for that matter) with this theatre before, nor did I know the director, assistant director or anyone who auditioned prior to auditions. I didn't know anyone and was a total newbie to community theatre and I got the role. Now, I was only auditioning for this role against 4 other girls, which is nothing like the hundreds of others actors you audition against for network TV/Hollywood movies, but it's still something, and it was my first time 'beating people out' for a role (though I feel awkward using that phrase because most of the time, it's simply about who's more right for the role, not necessarily who's a better actor).

A couple weeks after that show wrapped, I auditioned for another show at a different theatre that was still local. I missed initial auditions but the director was gracious enough to still let me audition one-on-one after one of the actors had to drop the show due to scheduling conflicts. I came in, auditioned (it was a cold read; I was in and out within 15-20 minutes), thought I did awful, and got the role. It's 'Takin' Over the Asylum', a heartwrenching play set in a mental institution in modern day Scotland. My Scottish accent wasn't that great (and I might even say it's worse now than it was when I auditioned ) which was the driving force behind why I thought I gave a bad audition. But the director told me I did great and out of all the people he had in mind for the role, I would've done better than any of them. It was a small role (I played Aileen), but I had the creative freedom to create a backstory for my character and from that, add elements to her personality that weren't written in the script. It was so wonderful. The script called for her to be a very angry, irate person, and I played that out in the first act of the show. Then the second act rolls around and I get to be incredibly vulnerable and I got to cry 2 or 3 times and it was so liberating. Funny, she was a small role but I got to make her bigger and it ended up giving such an impact on the show. For anyone that's interested in reading the review that was written after opening night, here it is: http://infernalblogofbrewer.blogspot.co ... ogged.html

I wrapped that show a couple weeks ago and don't have any immediate plans. I know the lineup for the next season of shows at the community theatre I did 'Lion in Winter' at, and I'm excited but nervous to audition for them (but again, excited). I did this short docu-film for the National Park Service a few weeks after I graduated high school. I didn't have any lines (though to be fair, nobody did) but it was my first experience working on a film set so it was really neat. I was only working for 2 days ("working" ) but it was a paid project and we filmed in one of the Minuteman Missile Launch sites from WW2, which was super neat because normally, they'd have ropes blocking everything off except the main hallway/walkway for people doing tours, but since we were filming, they took all the ropes away. We were told not to touch anything though, and we were only allowed to sit on the [rather hard] floor (since the couches and everything there were authentic, historical pieces). I'm also a bit of a history geek, so it made it that much cooler for me. I don't regret anything, it was such a neat experience (even if it was something I couldn't put on my actors' resume since the role was so small). Late last year, I did a scene for this local guy's zombie short film. I was one of the zombies (there was only one other zombie that day and we filmed our shots separately), and even though I didn't have any lines and it was pretty much the equivalent of an extra role, I got made up to be a zombie with special effects makeup and a bunch of fake blood. It was so much fun! You can watch the teaser trailer here if you're interested (I'm the zombie that peers from behind the tree trunk, and then stumbles toward the other characters in a different shot, and dies in another shot):

It's nice to know that even though the 2 film shoots I've done haven't given me anything substantial to put on my resume, they're still fun experiences to look back on and I'm glad I was involved with them.

I'm moving back to my hometown of Portland, OR next summer with my family and I'm so excited to get an agent there and finally be able to really make my focus film and television acting. I've already narrowed down a list of agencies I'm wanting to sign with and I've started looking into headshot photographers there... And I'm still a bit over a year out! I'm too excited.

I don't think I really have any dream roles for theatre but as far as film/TV goes, I'm really into the fantasy genre. Computer animation and special effects have come so far just within the last decade. It's so exciting to think about. I'd love to do a movie with mermaids and fairies, that'd be so much fun. Anything that contains a strong element of family-friendly fantasy (which, you know, could include playing adult Lucy in the HHB film - I've got the youthful appearance and the long light brown hair for it! ). And I'm also really into history, so anything set in different periods of time would be a dream (or just combine fantasy with history and do something like 'The Water Horse' [one of my favorite movies, honestly.]). I'd especially love to do a movie based on the song 'Galway Bay', documenting the most brutal of the British Invasions against Ireland. How special would that be to do something like that, where this incredibly headstrong Irish girl refuses to abandon her language and her culture to appease the British. She sticks to her guns and in the end, ends up leading the Irish Rebellion? And there'd definitely be some Gaeilge spoken in the film, too. I'm such a dreamer with this stuff. Maybe a psychological drama/horror like 'Carrie'? I'm not really into horror movies because I get scared easily and I don't do gore and gross things, but horror movies that are more like intense psychological dramas with a real, substantial message... That I could do.

Hopefully y'all found some form of entertainment in this incredibly long novel-post.

I didn't realize this thread existed! I am actually quite into the local theater scene here in Rochester, NY. Acting was a dream of mine, but was unfortunately forbidden by my parents. I didn't start acting till I was 28. Now in 3-4 productions a year, including musicals, straight plays, and opera! I even met my partner while doing separate shows at the same theater.

Hey everyone!

It's been over two years since I've been on here and a lot has transpired! I'm so glad to see this thread still continuing on and I hope we can get some good discussions going regarding acting.

I just want to give a quick update since it's been so long. I finished studying Meisner back in March 2017, and have been blessed to find work here and there. I've gotten two different agents in Chicago who have been able to send me out on auditions for some NBC shows (Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med) in addition to some commercials though I didn't book any of those.

However, I was in an independent feature film called The Over-Mountain Men: The Price of Freedom, which is a historical drama about events right before the Revolutionary War. More recently I've appeared in 3 short films and the pilot for a brand new TV series which should be airing sometime this year. The Lord has also blessed me with several film auditions so far this year and I look forward to seeing what other opportunities He has for me.

The most recent short film I worked on will be released in the spring and has a very important message about fathers being there for their children, so I highly encourage you to follow it and watch it when it comes out.

I have provided links to the films that are available in case you want to check them out. Again, I hope we all can have some discussions about acting and film and sharpen one another.

Happy Together (Short film - comedy)

Wink At Me (short film)

The Over-Mountain Men: The Price of Freedom (trailer)

Knight's End (TV series - IMDb page) Knight's End
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5971586/

There (short film - Facebook page) -

Hi everyone, this naughty thread has been distracting me half the morning, in between job hunting (searching for jobs to apply for, and then sending in the applications, all online).

What a ton of talent and energy are in the 16 pages of this thread!

I last commented in 2015, when I was rehearsing for Richard III. That was a really fine production, with strong leads and a big supporting cast, some of whom are still friends. I played several small roles, mostly messengers. I was given an extra small role in the last act, a [boy] servant in Richard's tent on the battlefield (they needed an extra person to carry props on and off, so they gave me a couple of lines as well). My final line was to run on and tell Richard that one of the supporting lords was NOT bringing his soldiers - which was a crucial factor in Richard losing the battle, his kingdom and his life.

The following year the same theatre group put on King Lear, with the same director and many of the same cast. I was "supporting cast" which meant I had to change between 3 costumes depending on whose servant I was at the time. Although I had few lines, I did have a small scene with one other person, and was a servant in a very violent scene, and had to weep over the body of a fellow servant!

Last year I did no theatre at all. Gasp! But my job of 9 years ended in March, allowing me to try film/TV Extras work for a few months in a different city. Not financially lucrative, but good experience and quite a bit of fun.
In August I moved to England for about a year, to try my chances for work in film/stage, due to being very short (I count as a Little Person, 4'7") - I have registered with two agencies who specifically list Little People - Warwick Davis's one "Willow Management" and "Oh So Small Productions". My photo isn't on either site yet, but there is a photo shoot in just over a week for the latter.
I did get to fill in for one of the seven dwarfs at a public event, in a small town near where I am living. That, so far, is my only acting work here, but it was paid. [Snow White is a popular Christmas show, and I hoped I might have been cast in a production, but it didn't happen]
Now I am waiting for a possible bit of filming in a big movie that is being made near London. It would be a good step forward for me!
I miss the fun of being in local theatre, and when I go home later this year, I will get back into my groups.

One of our local theatre groups is holding auditions in a couple of weeks for a production of the Disney Broadway adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I love the cast recording of this show, and would love to be a part of a production, but I don't really have any vocal training apart from harmonizing well in a choir. I'd love to be able to play Quasimodo since I like his songs best, but some of his notes go a bit higher than I can usually reach comfortably. I think my range (somewhere in the 2s to the upper 3s or low 4s? As I said, I'm not trained; I look at notes and say "That's a higher note" or "That's a lower note", but if Ramin Karimloo can play the Phantom that way, why not me?) is closer to that of Clopin or Phoebus, either of which would also be fun to play.

Anyway, I'm toying with the idea of auditioning, which means figuring out what 1-minute monologue to memorize and what Broadway-style song "in the style of but not from the show" to acquire sheet music for (not to mention practicing well enough to perform essentially cold in an audition setting). I'm leaning toward "Proud of Your Boy" from Disney's Aladdin for the latter. If I do this. I'd rather not make a fool of myself if there are going to be a lot of professional, practiced theatre folk auditioning. Though I suppose the absolute worst thing that could happen is I don't get called back.

One of our local theatre groups is holding auditions in a couple of weeks for a production of the Disney Broadway adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I love the cast recording of this show, and would love to be a part of a production, but I don't really have any vocal training apart from harmonizing well in a choir. I'd love to be able to play Quasimodo since I like his songs best, but some of his notes go a bit higher than I can usually reach comfortably. I think my range (somewhere in the 2s to the upper 3s or low 4s? As I said, I'm not trained; I look at notes and say "That's a higher note" or "That's a lower note", but if Ramin Karimloo can play the Phantom that way, why not me?) is closer to that of Clopin or Phoebus, either of which would also be fun to play.

Anyway, I'm toying with the idea of auditioning, which means figuring out what 1-minute monologue to memorize and what Broadway-style song "in the style of but not from the show" to acquire sheet music for (not to mention practicing well enough to perform essentially cold in an audition setting). I'm leaning toward "Proud of Your Boy" from Disney's Aladdin for the latter. If I do this. I'd rather not make a fool of myself if there are going to be a lot of professional, practiced theatre folk auditioning. Though I suppose the absolute worst thing that could happen is I don't get called back.

shastastwin – Did you end up auditioning for The Hunchback of Notre Dame?

I had a wonderful time performing in the same production in May 2018 in Cleveland, Ohio. Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame was released when I was seven years old – it has been my favorite Disney film ever since. I had an incredible time playing the role of Quasimodo. His songs and his character arc are so challenging and rewarding to perform!

In the last 12 months I have been listed with a good agent in UK, where I am currently living. It looks after people under 4'10, and also very tall people (think of the size doubles used in Lord of the Rings, for instance). Our work can involve full body costumes for creatures, standing in for child actors (setting up shots etc), and other fantasy work, for film/TV. I'm 4'6 1/2, listed as 4'6.
Last year I was put forward for work on a couple of fantasy films, and also sent in an audition video for an actual TV role for a small woman. Didn't get these.
With two weeks' notice I got a job as a child stand-in, near where I was working. It was not difficult, was well paid, and introduced me to film studio stand-in work. That was for a children's online animated programme.

Straight after that I went into a stage show, a style known in UK as 'panto' = English pantomime. Usually staged around Christmas, based on fairy tales with a lot of singing and dancing, a comedian or two, and modern/local references. Ours was Snow White, and I was one of the dwarfs, "Grumbly"(same characters as the Disney ones, but not using the names). It was lots of fun, some hard work, and a good bit of learning about how this style of show is done here;I'd been in some pantos back home in NZ amateur theatre.
I'm now living in London, closer to the big studios, and hoping to get more opportunities here. In the meantime I'll find some normal 'bread-and-butter' work to keep me going.

Hey everyone! It's been a long time since I've posted on here, but that's because I've been so busy.

I'm back with a lot of news, but the biggest (for this forum) is that I will be playing the centaur in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage! In addition to that, I will also be the fight choreographer (another thing I love in the performing arts besides acting) so I have a full plate on this production! I've always wanted to take part in the world of Narnia, and this is the first step into it! I personally don't care for this particular adaptation, but after having watched the movie, it's hard to top that.

In other news, God has blessed me this year with several film opportunities. I worked on a short film in Tennessee called Duel (YT link:

), another short film in Michigan's Upper Peninsula called The Red Herring, and another short film that was shot in Alabama just a week ago entitled Bad Things Happen.

In the theater world I haven't been too active this year, but I played Peter van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank, which has been one of my top 5 favorite theater roles to do. I was also in a commercial this summer as well, which I'm excited to see soon!

I also performed as a scare actor for Fright Fest at Six Flags Great America in Illinois this fall, and that was a lot of fun!

Lastly, I wrote, directed and acted in a promo for the new series Knight's End, which shoots in 2020, and is set in the middle ages, so it has a similar feel to Narnia and LOTR, which I love! I'll post the promo once it's released, which will be on Christmas Eve!

I've made the leap of faith and am pursuing acting full-time now. I've been a professional actor for the last couple of years, but not doing it full-time and now I've made the decision to go into it like I've wanted to for a while.

Let me know what you all have been up to! It's so exciting to hear what all you've had the opportunity to perform in!

Welcome back!
Well done for taking that leap of faith. I wish you all success in your career.

I didn't even see this thread until today but good luck on your career Son of Narnia.

It has been awhile since I have been in a play but I hope to get back into it when I have time.