How My Acting Saved A Life
Actors often have no idea how much their performances can mean to other people.
Case in point: A year after I landed my first major role replacing Donna Mills on Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, I went to a publicity event CBS had staged for some of the stars on their daytime dramas. We actors stood up and spoke to a crowd for a little bit and answered questions from the fans. Then after an hour, it broke up so we could sign autographs.
I had signed most of mine when I noticed a pretty young woman standing back near the entrance watching me. When all my autographs were completed and I was alone, she approached me shyly and smiled.
“You saved my life,” she said. “I was ready to kill myself after I lost my baby. I was going to slit my wrists when something prompted me to turn on the television, and there you were, sobbing your heart out because you had just lost your baby, too.”
My character, Laura Elliott, had just had an agonizing miscarriage, and this young woman had seen another woman suffer as she had, and it changed her.
“I cried with you, and I decided not to kill myself. Suddenly I realized how doing so could destroy my husband and my parents.”
I held her hands and thanked her for telling me her story. It made me realize the power of acting and how lucky I was to have been able to save her life with my acting that day.
You can do the same. Even if you think it may be too late to become an actor… if you wonder if you are too old or don’t have enough talent… I can assure you it’s not too late. You have not missed your chance to make a difference in your own life or the lives of others.
Even if you have tried it and it didn’t work out before, it was not your fault that you haven’t succeeded yet. You just didn’t know the next right thing to do to get your career going, and you’re going to know that thing by the time you finish training with The Actors Alliance, whether you need to take one class or one hundred classes.
You don’t have to struggle or suffer to get going as an actor. It’s not part of the journey. Come join The Actors Alliance in our next semester because this is your chance to make up for lost time.
If you ever wondered if there were some secrets to getting work as an actor, well, there are. There are secrets to packaging and marketing yourself, and these secrets are just information that you don’t have yet. Until now.
Best of all, after training with The Actors Alliance, you will be able to show all those skeptics in your life that you DO have the talent to make it in show business. You know who I mean… the ones who laughed at you for wanting to be an actor. You are finally going to prove to them that you are right and they are wrong.
The current class starts April 11, 2016 and you are most welcome to join the class. It’s going to be fun! You’re going to learn fantastic skills and techniques that all professional actors know, and your studies will culminate by being in a murder mystery play for our showcase!
★ COURSE ★
A six-week course in auditioning for and putting on a Murder Mystery Play that you can add to your résumé.
Actors will audition for the roles of Detective, Suspects, Butler, and French Maid.
★ CLASS VENUES ★
• Metairie — Mondays — 6 p.m. to 9, starting April 11
• Denham Springs — Thursdays — 6 p.m. to 9, starting April 14
SPECIAL OFFER for New Orleans LOCAL SAG-AFTRA and AEA ACTORS and PERFORMERS
20% off for card-holding members — Cost $280 and $250 if paid by April 3rd
★ TUITION ★
• $300 for Regular Registration with $100 deposit by April 9
• $350 at the door
Tuition must be paid in full by first night of class.
For more details on course or payment: TheActorsAlliance@gmail.com
The price for the course is all inclusive. There are no refunds for missed sessions. All deposits and tuition are non-refundable.
Once registered, students are expected to attend all classes or make them up before or after their class or in other venues within the same semester.
Actors age 14 and up with some level of experience may enroll and audition for play.
Directions to location sent after enrollment.
★ FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW YOU CAN QUALIFY… ★
E-mail TheActorsAlliance@gmail.com, or call or text 504–812–3379
★ ACCOLADES ★
“I have learned so much from Veleka in her class, and the demo reels speak for themselves!!”
~ Keith Moore, Marrero
“Casting directors know the difference and can tell you have been to class. They saw the difference in me and asked where I’ve been. I said, ‘Veleka’s class,’ and they replied, ‘It sure shows!’”
~ Susie Labry, Baton Rouge
“I’ve learned so much about acting from you in this past year and a half, and it has helped me in other areas of my life too.
~ George Sprague, Metairie
“I loved our first class and am thrilled that the universe put me in your path smile emoticon”
~ Virginia Barkley, New Orleans
“NO ONE should doubt Veleka’s advice. Who ya gonna trust if not an experienced pro who cares?”
~ John Joly, Baton Rouge
“Veleka Gray is phenomenal. PERIOD! !!”
~ Kenya Galespie Jefferson, Byram, MS
“Thank you, Veleka, for continued commitment, and such a caring coach with a Gifted Vision. I am truly grateful.”
~ Conrad Adams, Paradis
“I always learn something new from you.”
~ Shirley Tregre, Denham Springs
“You can’t put a price on Veleka’s expert coaching. She’s the best.”
~ Chuck Rooney, Madisonville
“These classes have changed my life. I’m a Star in Process….”
~ Denise Thompson, Slidell
“By far the best acting coach.”
~ Daurice Cummings, Destrehan
Join us! E-mail Veleka Gray at TheActorsAlliance@gmail.com now for how you can register for this advanced course and train with the top acting coach in the South.
You’ll be glad you did!
★ FOR MORE INFORMATION… ★
E-mail TheActorsAlliance@gmail.com, or call or text 504–812–3379
★ INSTRUCTOR / PRODUCER ★
Veleka Gray has been a finalist judge for the national Emmy Awards since 1972.
She is a member of Women in Film and Television and of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is an award-winning producer, screenwriter, director, actress, and acting coach.
As an actress, Miss Gray shared the stage or screen with scores of luminaries, including Sigourney Weaver, Keir Dullea, Ted Danson, Dana Delany, Elliot Gould, Jack Cassidy, Madeline Kahn, Fred Gwynne, and JoBeth Williams.
In the fifteen years she reigned as one of the brightest stars on daytime television, she had more contract roles than any other actor in history on such shows as The Young & The Restless and As the World Turns.
Miss Gray has been coaching actors for the past twenty years in New York, San Francisco, at the College of DuPage in Chicago, and, since 2000, all over Louisiana. In addition to the classes she teaches weekly in Metairie and Denham Springs, she offers workshops in Lafayette, Shreveport, Monroe, and Alexandria, Louisiana, and in Hattiesburg and Jackson, Mississippi.
She is currently in post-production for her sixth and seventh films, both SAG New Media features and titled Blood Relatives and Connections respectively. Her SAG pilot titled Making The Grade that she wrote and directed was a favorite on TV Channel WSTY and screened at the Mississippi International Film Festival.
She is a member of MENSA, is vested by more than ten years of credits in both Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA, and was inducted into the Louisiana Hall of Fame in 2004.
E-mail TheActorsAlliance@gmail.com, or call or text 504–812–3379 for information on how you can get started today.
