Dreams run big at acting workshop

Dreams of television stardom and big-time movie deals took center stage as aspiring child actors and actresses exercised their acting muscles Saturday during the first day of a weekend-long workshop at the Lake City Playhouse.

Twenty kids ages 8 to 19 attended the workshop, hosted by actress Hallie Todd, from Disney’s “Lizzie McGuire,” and her husband, Glenn Withrow. The two run the acting and media company In House Media in Burbank, Calif., and hold workshops for aspiring child actors and actresses. The exercises are aimed at giving kids the skills – and confidence – to ace the movie and TV auditions they’ll need to make it big.

“All these exercises are just exercising muscles – acting muscles,” Todd told the kids.

Many of the kids traveled from around the Inland Northwest for the workshop. Some got into acting because of the encouragement of older siblings and parents, but they’re quick to say that they act because they love it.

“I like acting, like, more than I do watching movies – and you have no idea how I am with movies,” said 8-year-old Katie Schini, a third-grader at Prairie View Elementary School in Post Falls.

Sisters Angela Marie Barry, 19, and Darla Star Ruder, 11, traveled from their home in Moscow, Idaho, for the workshop.

Angela said her parents encouraged her to go into modeling at a young age to boost her self-esteem. She moved on to acting from there and has appeared in a TV commercial as well as playing an extra in the popular movie “Dodgeball.”

“It’s been a life goal,” Barry said of her acting career. “It’s made me more confident.”

Caleb Courtney, a 15-year-old actor also from Moscow, said he hopes to take his skills to Broadway, though he’d go for a TV show or a movie, too. He has starred in a few community plays but has a fall-back plan.

“I’ll probably just be an attorney,” he said.

Caleb represents something that’s becoming rare at these workshops, Todd said – boys and young men with acting aspirations. The girls outnumbered the boys at this workshop 3-to-1. At the workshop in Seattle a while back, Caleb was the only male, Todd said.

Most of the workshops that Todd and Withrow host are longer and more detailed then this one, which cost $250 for the weekend. Most last a few weeks and offer a wider variety of exercises and lessons. This weekend’s workshop is more like a quick boot camp, Todd said.

No parents are allowed to attend, something Todd said allows the kids to act more naturally.

“There’s a whole other dynamic when Mom and Dad are watching,” she said.

Not all the kids at this weekend’s workshop are gung-ho about acting – some are just testing the waters. But whatever their circumstance, Todd said acting skills are useful in all areas of life, not just show business. She hopes the classes show kids that being in movies and on TV isn’t all fun and games. It takes hard work, she said, not just nice hair and a cute smile.

“Most people who sustain long careers are accomplished craftsmen,” Todd said.

In their workshops, Todd and Withrow emphasize the importance of making choices to tailor a character’s lines to fit the actor’s or actress’s own personal style.

Nothing is more boring than watching an actor pretend to laugh or pretend to cry, Todd said. The key is not to pretend. The key is to actually be the character – get “underneath the character” and connect with what makes him or her tick, Withrow said.

“You’re not playing a bully; you’re not playing a geek. You’re playing a character. What in his life made him a bully?” Withrow said.

A few kids would get up on stage at a time and do freelance acting – that is, just carry on a dialogue with each other and see where it goes. Other kids would lip-sync what was being said and try to apply the appropriate hand gestures and actions.

They acted out a family sitting at the breakfast table, drastically switching emotions at the command of Todd or Withrow.

The emphasis was not on what was being said but on how it was being said and how well the conversation was flowing.

“You’ve got to not worry about the lines,” Withrow said. “You’ve got to worry about the action.”

Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy student Ragan Gilmore, 12, said watching the other kids perform teaches her just as much as performing herself does.

“You learn from their mistakes,” she said. “Each step gets you higher.”