So where to start? I still had a full time job that I certainly wasn't ready to leave. I was 67, not an 18-25 year old who would have gladly slept on someone's couch and eaten Ramen noodles 3 times a day in order to survive. Actually I think that I was doing something similar to that through my early 40's off and on. But, back to this story. I lived in Raleigh, NC and had absolutely no idea where to start, nor anyone in my friendship circle who had a clue. When you think acting you immediately think Los Angeles, and I was definitely not ready to move to California (nice state, but no). I was also quite surprised at the weird looks and opinions when I even mentioned wanting to do this. So I did what almost anyone would do. I just stopped telling them and began looking around for a place to start locally. I found, actually, that I had been passing by a starting point for many years. I just hadn't been really looking. Buried among 4 or 5 other business names on a sign was Barbizon. My daughter is a graduate of Barbizon (Albany, NY), so I was very familiar with the name. I had had a good experience there as the parent of a student, so I called. One of my first statements was to tell the receptionist my age and the fact that I did have a full time job, but that I wanted to check out acting, and that perhaps learning modeling would be a good start. I really thought that what I would get was a statement that they handled young men and women only. But I also thought that perhaps they might have a reference to another place for me to start. What I got was the information that they had classes for all ages and that they did not focus just on modeling, but also included acting in their curriculum. I also got an appointment for an interview. WOOT!!!
When I arrived the evening of my interview, the office was in a bit of a turmoil since the owner (with whom I was to have the interview) had just had emergency open heart surgery so I interviewed with a very young woman. So as not to disappoint readers looking for interview tips here I'll simply say that I had dressed professionally, easy to do since I was in a white collar job, traveled and met clients a lot and therefore had the wardrobe. I also had talked both on the phone and in person with clients as part of my day job, so I was very familiar with the ins and outs of a professional discussion. Think of it as a discussion, people. That's all an interview is. They learn about you. You learn about them. In this discussion I learned that a class for older women was starting in July once a week in the evenings and that it included an introduction to acting and modeling both. Awesome, perfect fit for me, but..... Hmmmm! I was leaving for Scotland in July and would miss the first class. Not a problem. I would just need to make it up with a class following mine before I would actually be given my certificate of completion. Alrighty then! Signed, sealed, delivered, EXCITED!!!!! I was 67, leaving for 10 days on my own in Scotland and when I came back I would be getting my feet wet in a possible new career. Yeah, excited is probably an understatement for how I felt. ;)
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