...have I told you that yet?
As a child, if you were to ask me "Kerrin, what do you want to be when you grow up?" I would always reply with "I want to be an actress!"
Throughout my life I have been in love with the craft! After high school I was going to move out to New York and pursue this impossible career.
I'm not sure what happened along the way.
I think a strong dose of reality sets in and you start to lose hope or even the drive to do the things you love. At least, that's what I've noticed.
I remember my first play. I was in 7th grade. My middle school was putting on Kilroy Was Here. I remember being heart broken because I didn't get a lead role. Even in 7th grade I was a perfectionist with my work, so when I didn't get a lead role I beat myself up about it. As I am sitting here remembering, it was a terrible audition. Haha I had no idea what I was doing, I just said the lines the way I would have said them! Forget character breakdown and reading the other lines before & after mine so that I would have some sort of context. Haha oh too funny!!! I was cast as The Western Union Messenger. No name, just The Western Union Messenger. I think I had 3 lines in the whole play. At that age, knowing very little about the world of acting, I didn't realize that just getting a speaking role in a performance was a good thing. I could have been cast just as some background dancer and singer but NO. I, Kerrin Chance was given a speaking role for my very first performance of my career. Wow what an accomplishment! In the words of the great Barbra Streisand, "Where's all the suffering
before you click? And the hard knocks, the setbacks you're supposed to learn from? This is too quick. I
haven't suffered enough yet."
[insert dramatic back of the hand to the forehead gesture]
...OK!...I'm back.
So needless to say, after that show I was hooked! Freshman year of high school I took Drama 1-2. The 3rd week into the year, our theater teacher fell off some bleachers and broke her back. We had a substitute teacher for the rest of the year who was awful! Sophomore year they still hadn't found a new theater teacher. It wasn't until Junior year that they hired Dennis Bush to take over the drama department. Mr. Bush was an amazing theater teacher! He approached me after one performance in our Drama 3-4 class and told me he was putting together an ensemble of actors that would be "the elite eleven" and they would perform original material throughout the year. He was calling it North Canyon Theatre Ensemble. He wanted me to audition! So I did, and I made it. He wrote our ensemble four original shows that we performed throughout that year. I learned so much in that group. In that year, Mr. Bush also took Theatre Ensemble to New York. In the four days we were in NY we saw three shows (1. Wicked Original Broadway Cast - yes, Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth & Joel Grey were right in front of me. 2. A Raisen In The Sun - starring: Sean *P.Diddy* Combs, Phylicia Rashad & Sanaa Lathan. After the show, I noticed Taye Diggs and Indina Menzel sitting in our row as well. 3. Wonderful Town starring Donna Murphy), a Shakespeare workshop with Lester Thomas Shane, and a visit of Ground Zero & The Statue of Liberty (I got sick on those days so no Ground Zero or statue for Kerrin). That trip was amazing.
Senior year I wasn't sure if I wanted to act anymore so I didn't continue with Theatre Ensemble. I know, what was I thinking?!? Mr. Bush took Theatre Ensemble to London that year! Knife to the heart!
From senior year til about last year I was in this funk with acting. I wasn't sure if it was the direction the Lord would have me go in. He was starting to talk to me about other areas in my life, like ministry.
I was nervous to pursue acting. I didn't want to be in that world constantly. I was afraid it would change me & not for the better. Hollywood is satan's playground. Everything about it is the opposite of truth. I didn't trust myself to not compromise if I were to pursue it.
My outdated head shot
So here I am... it's stirring up in me more & more.
Last year I took a dramatic acting class at The Dearing Acting Studio out here in Phoenix and I loved it. I loved being with all my fellow weirdos...I mean actors. The Chief Operating Officer of the studio and friend of mine Brian, asked me what my plans were for acting. I told him I wasn't really sure and then asked him his opinion of me. He told me that I need to get signed with an agency out here. I said I was interested in doing that and he told me about an agency prep class the studio offered. He said that every quarter the studio hosts a showcase of the students that are ready to be signed with an agency. The reputable agencies in Phoenix come to the studio and watch the students in the showcase. If any of the agencies want you then they offer you a contract. It's a much easier way to be seen by all the agencies rather than mailing them your head shot and resume and pray they call you in for an interview.
My first session for agency prep is Monday the 25th. Super excited!
What dreams are you pursuing lately?
