Dd (10) wants to be an actress - what should she be doing?

[whojamaflip]

Apologies for the woolly title!

Dd (10) wants to be an actress /performer when she grows up and I'm wondering what we should be doing at this age to give her a chance?

She already does youth theatre (local theatre) once a week for an hour and did last season in panto but now wants to do more. She keeps showing me auditions for London shows etc but we are too far away for that to be logistically possible should she get a part.

She's year 6 at present and desperately wanted to go to stage school for secondary but didn't want to leave home. (And there was no way we could have afforded it!)

Is there anything she could do to help in the future - singing lessons? Another stage school locally? We have Stage Coach and Pauline Quirk within driving distance but don't know if they are worth doing.

I know it's an extremely competitive industry but it's all she's ever wanted to do and she loves performing- I'm also very aware that's she's still very young.

Any tips or advice?

Biscuits it wasn’t Cory that said that it was Grumpy. Cory was disagreeing.

Is your DD interested in straight acting, or a combo of that and musical theatre?

It's a hideously competitive industry with enormous amounts of rejection - and often there isn't even a rejection, you just never hear back and eventually you hear that someone else has been cast. That goes for both children and adults.

You need to be thick-skinned and have huge resilience and the ability to shrug off the disappointments and move onto the next thing with the same enthusiasm.

It's also expensive - headshots, spotlight, equity, training costs, shoes, travel... there is always something.

If your daughter is serious about it, then she ought to be taking a ballet class every week as well as a class in modern or commercial. Singing lessons are also a good idea. Most kids I know looking at drama colleges and professional careers are triple-threats even if they have one discipline that isn't as strong as the others.

Credits on the cv aren't needed for drama schools or to work as an adult - plenty of successful adults who didn't work as children, but the training in the early years is really essential.

Re Stage Coach and PQ - it will depend on the individual franchise as to whether it's worth doing.

I have a 10 year old DD who started out at one of the above but found that most of the other children didn't really want to be there and the parents were basically regarding it as childcare. So much time was wasted with bad behaviour and trying to convince reluctant children to have a go and she was learning nothing.

Apologies @corythatwas, I misunderstood. We are in agreement!

I would suggest you look around your local area, as different areas have different local opportunities. As well as the Bristol ones, there are ones in Birmingham, and I expect most cities and anywhere with a Drama school. Local theatres might have a youth wing too.
Some singing and some dance is often recommended, and audition for anything local (amateur theatre too).

We don't live anywhere with a drama school, but by the time dd started auditioning at 18 she had had ballet lessons (until forced to give up due to disability), had been part of two youth theatres, had taken part in several open-air performances, including one with puppets, taken part in several adult am-dram performances, done some filming for local university students, and been to a couple of short residential courses. She didn't go to a drama college but was able to do a BTec in Acting which she found very helpful, as well as A-level drama.

She is now at drama school and loving it. She knows how tough it's going to be, but quite of a few of her older friends have got at least some work and some have done quite well.

It's what elfontheshelf said about resilience and being prepared for rejection. Which is something you can start practising at a very young age. And what everybody has been saying about reading and seeing as much as possible. But not to think about it as a tick-box exercise where you have to have done x, y and z before you reach a certain age. It's more about having the kind of mindset where you make the most of all chances.

If she's interested in musical theatre then worth looking at places like MX Masterclass and Spirit Young Performers which offer weekend training in London with entry via audition.

My DD attends one of the above and there are children coming in from as far away as Exeter, Birmingham, Cambridge, Peterborough, Bristol and beyond every week and from overseas for the holiday courses. There are also scholarships available.