My introduction to acting!

  

 

 

Hey there!

 

I wanted to talk about my journey with acting before and during my start of voice over. One of the biggest things about voice acting is the presence of acting. Acting skills can only help you more and more through your voice over / voice acting journey.

 

To begin, I was acting for as long as I can remember. When I was a child, I would recreate scenes with my dad, who has an acting background. We would do these scenes for fun, but I learned a lot about performance from it. One distinct memory was when we were recreating Uncle Ben’s death from the movie “Spider-Man” (directed by Sam Raimi). We’ve done the scene countless times, but for some reason, I cried seeing my dad lie on the floor of our small apartment. When he sat up, ready to ‘parent the situation’, he asked me what was wrong. I responded with many sniffles and tears that “I’m not ready to be Spider-Man.” That memory continues to sit with me when I revisit my beginnings with acting.

 

To continue, I started doing productions, whether school or community, since I was about four to six years old. I continued my journey through theatre by entering a community theatre group titled “WINGS Performing Arts”. The show I remember the most would have to be Beauty and the Beast, where I played the titular character “Beast”. Learning the scenes and music for the show was an incredibly fun experience. Each time I would get to practice the beast’s song “If I can’t love her”, I felt that I was growing as a performer.  As a baritone, it felt great to finally sing a song that was actually within my range and held such an emotional message. However, the fun didn’t stop there. I had the incredible experience of working with Chuck Wagner, a performer who portrayed popular characters on Broadway such as “Beast” from Beauty and the Beast, “Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde” from Jekyll and Hyde, “Javert” in Les Misérables and many more! During this masterclass, I was able to learn more of the depth of the character for my own portrayal. Learning from such an influential person that has worked in the industry felt exhilarating. I was able to watch him perform during the masterclass, which only added more icing to the cake. Overall, my time with WINGS Performing Arts has been an amazing one.

 

I wanted to bring up another experience that I had during my time as a high school student. I attended Ocean Springs High School and had the pleasure of being a part of their competition theatre program under Chris Permenter. To begin, Chris Permenter was and continues to be an absolute blessing for his students. He guided me, a very skittish and nervous aspiring actor, into learning to understand my character properly. I couldn’t thank him enough for his help during such formative years for me, especially during such a tough time in my life. With his help, I am incredibly proud and thankful to say that I have been awarded “All Star Cast” from SETC (Southeastern Theatre Conference). Being able to say that I have that honor is humbling and I can’t thank my time at Ocean Springs High School theatre department enough.

 

Overall, the biggest thing that I’ve learned and continue to learn is that you can learn so much from people if you just take the time to listen!

 

Thanks for reading, and Happy Voicing!