A Jump-Start to Stardom?

The house lights at West Hollywood’s Tiffany Theater dim and the audience sits attentively, some with pens poised over note pads. A spotlight shines on 9-year-old Charity Sanoy as she bounces on stage, belting out “Ease on Down” in a big voice that belies her tiny frame.

In a frenzied minute, the young actress has breathlessly demonstrated her singing, dancing, acting and gymnastics skills as the audience of agents and casting directors scrutinize her. She ends her performance with a cartwheel and a split, grinning from one side of her bobbed haircut to the other as the stage lights dim.

Within seconds, the next pair of children take the stage for their two minutes in the spotlight, performing a brief dialogue.

The format may resemble a school talent show, but in Hollywood’s increasingly competitive child acting industry, these performances are serious business. All of the 40 actors--who range in age from 6 to mid-20s (older actors often play teenagers)--performing are students of Studio City-based acting coaches David Wells and Sally Piper.

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The partners have been putting on youth showcases for six years. Many of the showcases occur in February and early March, when casting for television’s pilot season is at its height.

Acting showcases for adult would-be stars have long been a staple of the Hollywood television, movie and commercial industries. But in the past couple of years, youth variety shows put on especially for agents, casting directors and producers have become more popular.

Talent manager Donnajeanne Goheen of the Burbank-based Young Performers held a 17-actor showcase early in February just for youths who have relocated from the Pacific Northwest to pursue acting. TJ Stein, president of Academy Kids Management, just put on his fourth showcase in two years, with 42 young actors participating.

“It’s a $20,000 show, because we want to promote the business of the children, and because it reflects on our reputation as well,” Stein says. “We want to make sure the kids become recognizable to studio heads and casting directors. We’re hoping to put together some pilot deals.”

Lynne Marks serves as director for Stein’s showcase, a job that takes six to eight weeks of preparation from writing the skits to the final dress rehearsal. Marks said the key is writing material for the children that “best shows off their individual abilities and is entertaining for the audience and for them.”

Showcase scenes try to reflect the kinds of roles kids are most likely to get cast in, so many of them are reminiscent of family sitcoms or movies about children. If a kid has special talents such as martial arts, singing or gymnastics, directors often try to work those in.

The plot lines are fairly simple. “Party of Five”-inspired dramatic dialogues between siblings comforting each other about the death of a parent are favorites. Comedic skits about childhood mischief or young love are also popular.

At Wells and Piper’s recent showcase, 12-year-old Craig Hauer’s “Tom Sawyer” skit about a preteen boy nervously courting his first girlfriend was a big hit. He received several calls afterward, and is reading for a movie role this week in North Carolina as a result of the showcase.

Hauer, who is a registered stunt boy in two states and has played roles in “Baywatch” as well as a Hulk Hogan movie, said he hopes the showcase convinced people of skills he normally doesn’t get to display.

“I hope this will show that I can do different kinds of parts,” he says. “It’s harder because you can’t just say ‘cut’ when you mess up, so it’s all up to whether you can do it right.”

For 5-year-old Brooke Kidner, who has appeared on “Days of Our Lives” and “Moesha,” the Academy Kids allowed her to do something she has never done on television before--speak.

“We’d love for her to be able to talk in a role for once,” her mother, Denise, says. “Hopefully, someone will see how well she does it.”

Results can be varied, showcase organizers say. Piper says the goal is exposure, but she and Wells warn the kids not to have unrealistic expectations about the showcases.

“We’ve had everything from a gal who did a 60-second scene and was called in for five auditions the very next day to somebody who had no response at all until two years later, when an agent who still remembered them gave them a call.”

Mike Reiss, a writer-producer from Walt Disney Television, was at the Academy Kids showcase scouting out the talent for an upcoming pilot. “I wouldn’t give anyone a part off of this, but I’m hoping to find people to bring in and audition,” he says.

Talent agent Loch Powell of the North Hollywood-based Coast to Coast said he can tell within the first 30 seconds of a child’s performance whether he or she has potential. “You can see right away if they’re focused and expressive, if they have the ability to extend a character. If you find a really young kid who’s doing that, you’ve got a gold mine.”

For child actors, show business is always a family affair.

“Everything in show business happens very suddenly, so you can’t make any plans if you want your kid to get work,” says Yolie Hernandez, mother of 10-year-old Anthony, who had a role in the movie “Matilda” and several commercials.

Pointing to a date book filled with penned-in appointments, she says her full-time job is shuttling her son back and forth to auditions and sets. It’s a huge investment, she says. “I think sometimes I take it harder than Anthony does when he doesn’t get a role or things don’t go right.”

For parents, the sacrifices are often great. Charity Sanoy and her mother spend part of the year living in a tiny studio apartment in Burbank, away from Dad and their home near Seattle.

Pat and Kathleen Johnson gave up a new house in San Diego to move to Cerritos so that their 14-year-old daughter Katrina would be closer to classes and auditions. Jeremiah and Rocio Foley of Encinitas quit their jobs to dedicate their lives full time to their 14-year-old son Jeremy’s acting career.

“It was a risky thing to do, but our kids are the most important thing in our lives,” Jeremiah said. “And I didn’t want to go to my grave thinking I didn’t give him a chance to pursue something he wanted.”

For a lucky handful, there are rewards. Charity has landed choice national commercial spots for Barbie and McDonald’s, and will be singing on Disney’s “Lion King” video sequel. Katrina stars as a cast member of Nickelodeon’s comedy series “All That,” sort of a “Saturday Night Live” for kids. Jeremy just starred in “Dante’s Peak,” a job that his father says earned Jeremy enough money to pay for his college education.

But show business does not pay off for most young hopefuls and their families. Goheen, who specializes in helping Seattle-area families relocate temporarily to try their hands at Hollywood, said the majority of them quit and move home after a couple months of unsuccessful auditions.

Even for those who find work, show business is profitable only for a successful few. Many parents say they just about break even after paying for the expenses: transportation, classes, head shots, Screen Actors Guild membership fees and the 10% to 15% cut that agents and managers take off of earnings.

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After the showcases are done, the lobby of the theater turns into a Hollywood networking free-for-all, as the kids and their parents mill around with the producers, agents and casting directors.

Munching on finger sandwiches and cheese cubes, the actors and their parents wait hopefully to be approached.

After the Academy Kids Showcase, independent filmmaker Craig Lew of Bright Penny Productions is beaming as he glances at a folder full of head shots and looks around at the crowd. He is trying to cast a film about a young teenager who gives advice over the Internet.

“I think I found a couple of good ones,” he said, waving toward one of his candidates in the crowd.