Acting is something you need zero physical materials to do. It is the simplest form of art to me. Well, I suppose improvisation would be truly zero materials, which is one of the most exciting and freeing forms of theatre in my opinion. You never know what might happen, and it’s all up to you!
I found my love for acting and the whole idea of it at a very young age when I would play all different versions of “make-believe” with my sister. It began with “The College Kids,” a concept based on a group of teens-young adults finding their way through life and exploring what they want to do and be. This was performed around the ages of 6 to 8 years old. The concept shifted when these college kids grew up and we switched to a new series called “The Nine-Year-Olds.” This was our longest performance which went from when I was 8 and my sister was 10 (we had to compromise on the title and go right down the middle with 9 years old) til we were headed off to move to the city at the age of about 12 years old. We went as far as creating charts of all the names of the characters spanning over at least 6 different families along with an age chart checking off the years of their many birthdays. This nine year olds aged much quicker and we grew with them through their teens and adulthood. By the time we tapered off on the nine year olds, they were no longer nine, but more towards the age of fourty-three.
I didn’t even put together at the time that this is what acting and creating is. This was a time when I thought movies and tv shows were captured lives somehow recorded perfectly in time to show someone’s story. You can imagine my terror when I walked in to the living room when Assault on Precinct 13 was on and I saw the following scene:
I couldn’t have been older than four years old and seeing this scene terrified me more than I can ever begin to explain.
On the sunnier side of my memory of films and tv, my mother always reminds me that when my sister and I were young, we though that movies were only in black and white since we were brought up on classic films from the 1930’s! One of the greatest inspirations in my fascination for acting, theatre, and film, was watching the That Girl series.
Her undying positivity and quirky outlook on life made me adore the culture and an actor’s persistence even more. I still watch Ann Marie marching through her life across my television screen to this day. I would highly recommend for any aspiring actresses to watch this show. It never fails to bring a smile to my face.
Sophia Canfield 