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My child is 11 years old. he has been always an active confident and amazing at Performing. He is at year7 now and he has already been taken into account to perform and read a story in representation of all year7 students. apart from that we have taken him into an auddition at Celebrity Talent Academy where he has been choosen from 200 children but the lack of money we could not go further. So if you know any way that I can help my child please give me a hand.
Thank you

drama lessons/drama club/dancing lessons- whatever there is locally that you can afford

is there a drama club at school? or a local drama school where he can do after school classes? can he do drama GCSE?

If he has talent, imo you should aim at him learning solid performance skills rather than being picked for celebrity as such an early age.

and I believe there have been scam warnings re CTA, though could be wrong, don't quote me on that

to give you an idea, the kind of child who is aiming at that kind of career round here would typically attend drama lessons several hours a week, take part in drama school performances several times a year, often take dancing and singing lessons, be doing drama GCSE and drama A-level

and even so, most of them know they will never be doing this professionally- but it's a good skill to take with you into life

Thanks Cory, for all the ideas you have given me.
He has been in drama courses he usually takes part in all performances that are going on at the school
I've heard that there are some charities that help young children with talent to get into profesinal academys have u heard about it? actually a friend told me that.

There may be- but they must be very overstretched.

But then again, why is it so important to get into a professional academy this young? The majority of actors and other performers attend ordinary schools until they have done their A-levels (ballet dancers of course are different).

Yes, thats righ but there is also many talented children as they said they need children for films, tv programs, adverts and much more so how can a kid with a lot of enthisasthic personality be leaving out.

There are thousands of children with enthusiastic personalities round the country, not everybody is going to get a part in a film. You seem very focused on him getting spotted right now- where is the hurry?

Wouldn't it be better for him to get a solid grounding through drama clubs etc, at the same time as concentrating on his GCSEs, just in case the acting doesn't work out for him.

I think you should ask yourself why this is so important to you. If it is about his fulfilling his own acting dreams, then there are loads of different ways of doing that, most of which involve mainstream school and lots of extra-curricular activities.

I know this is an old topic, but just in case anyone comes across it via Google, as I did:

First of all, to introduce myself, I'm an actor and director with two children - one of whom is a professional (adult) actor.

I would recommend steering well clear of Celebrity Talent Academy. They charge huge sums of money and give very misleading advice. The way they try to recruit people is - to put it bluntly - dishonest. I'd be more than happy to debate with someone from the academy about my doubts and opinions!

If you are looking for good training for your son, steer well clear of anything that has the words "celebrity" or "fame" in its literature. It is NOT necessary to pay for expensive "training" to give your son opportunities. Please don't be misled by the information you get from Celebrity Talent Academy. If your son wants to pursue professional work while he is young, then the best possible support you can give him is to equip yourself with knowledge about how the industry works. No-one in the industry will be remotely impressed by someone attending CTA so he is not losing out by not attending! I'd be happy to give specific information if you think it would be useful. To get professional work you really need an agent - you DON'T need CTA.

If your son enjoys performing he will, almost certainly, get far more opportunties to do this as an amateur in local opportunities (youth groups and amateur dramatic societies) than he would as a "professional". It will also be much less costly and disruptive. I can expand on that if it's useful.

My son attended a state school in a small town, he went to a local Saturday drama club, set up his own theatre company with his mates in his teens, did GCSE's and A levels, went to drama school at 18 and is now making his way as an actor. He's with the RSC at the moment which is wonderful - but he was pulling pints at a local pub for several months last year! The only certain thing about a career as a performer is that it's an uncertain one...no matter how talented you are.

I just wanted to add: there are also lots of scams around involving agencies! Don't pay an agent anything up front for representation if you decide to go down this route. An agent should make money from commission on work the actor gets whilst represented by that agent.

Hi,

I have to agree with pgpg and would recommend that you steer well clear of CTA. I have had a personal experience with them and it was not good. They encourage 100's of children to audition at a weekend and when they say your child has been picked out of hundred's, it is simply not true. I believe they call everyone back the next day but spread the appointments over the day so that when you arrive, it seems like a much quieter and personal experience. The fee's are ridiculously expensive. Cannot emphasise enough how bad an experience this was.