Any wannabe actors actresses here.

V

Victor

Senior Member
Location
midwest USA
If you wanted it many years ago when you were able. Best to start when young because roles decrease as you get old especially women. And you need to be in a theatre city or LA. Hard work low pay usually. I took classes but was too old by then and tired easily
After that I never looked at acting the same way. It changed the way I saw films
And get over stage fright
 

I’ve had major roles in high school plays, and minor roles in college plays. The amount of effort and time required for even a minor role in a dramatic production goes largely unrecognized by the general public, and only the leads or stars generally get what recognition and opportunities for advancement are given. That and a perception that actors and actresses can be a rather exclusive and closed group with prima donna attitudes deterred me from pursuing acting further, plus I’m a realist who had to pay the bills…

“And all the stars…that never were…are parking cars, and pumping gas.” - - Do You Know the Way to San Jose?
 
Last edited:
I did a fair amount of community theater in my middle years. I’m not star material, so I was always happy just to have a supporting role. The process was the thing that brought me the most joy.

You start as an awkward group of people, most of whom you don’t really know. After the first couple of rehearsals, you all shake your heads and say, “This will never come together.” But then, over a relatively short period, through blood, sweat, tears (and a director), you create this beautiful living, breathing work of art and put it on stage in front of an audience. You thrill at seeing it all happen from within. (You have time to do that when you're not a lead!)

You witness amazing recoveries as someone drops a line (or a whole speech!), and someone else does just the right thing to save the scene. You experience sheer panic as your moment approaches, and you draw a blank on your line. Yet, when your cue arrives, the right thing comes out even though you’re not sure how.

Then, at least in the case of community theater, after a few short weekends, it’s over and, like a vapor, this amazing thing you’ve created as group vanishes. After hugs and tears, you return to “the real world” - at least until next time.

Some of my roles:
The Fantasticks (Bellomy, the girl's father)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Rev. Crisparkle)
The Music Man (part of the quartet of course)
Second Samuel (June, the undertaker)
Pump Boys and Dinettes (LM)
1776 (Lewis Morris, New York)
 
Consider it one of the great missed opportunities of my life. In retrospect, given the chance for a do-over in my Class of 1961 high school years, my focus would be the arts instead of the sciences.
 
Jekyll
You describe it very positively for good theatre. For that I am envious. Yet many theatre productions,
professional and community did not work for me, nor were memorable at all. At the end of
the play, they still seemed like a bunch of amateur characters on a plain stage,. Like they needed
rehearsal, much more! The costumes help a lot. (I never had one). the director makes all the difference
and some are bare beginners.
I live in a big theatre city that runs from very best to worst.
You have to want to be an actor very much to handle inevitable rejections. My problem was memorizing
the lines.
 


Back
Top