Vancouver, B.C. is a long way to go to enter into a talent competition, but it is something Barrhead teenager Sophia Demunynck was happy to do in order to pursue her dream of becoming a professional actor.
In early November, Sophia, 13, and her mother, Heidi Wegner, travelled to the B.C. city to participate in the prestigious Faces West 21st annual International Model and Talent Convention.
The main purpose of the convention is to provide a venue where a group of outstanding, pre-screened models and performers can meet together to learn, network, and show off their skills to top industry professionals.
While at the convention, Sophia showcased her numerous performing abilities competing against hundreds of other models and performers from across Canada, finishing in the top 10 in a number of categories.
Sophia said she first became interested in the arts and performing early on in her life after she joined Drama for Children when she was six years old.
Drama for Children is a non-profit society run by Dale Clark, whose purpose is to introduce children to the performing arts.
“I started performing with Mrs. Dale when I was in Grade 2, and I just loved it, and I have continued to perform ever since,” she said.
Her mother, Heidi, remembers the day she introduced her daughter to the world of drama and performing
“I remember walking her into the rehearsal hall at the Catholic church here in Barrhead. I was very nervous and very apprehensive leaving my child who at the time didn’t know her left from her right and had never done anything like this before,” she said.
Her fear was quickly abated after Clark took her hand and told her Sophia would be fine.
And she was correct. It turns out Sophia was a natural performer who just loves to act and sing. Since that first day she has been involved in every production Drama for Children has put on.
“My real love is acting and musical theatre, but I really enjoy every type of performing,” Sophia said, adding she is also a musician who plays both the ukulele and the piano.
Sophia is also learning how to play the clarinet and plays in her school’s (Neerlandia Public Christian School) band and performs regularly for the residents at the W.R. Keir Care Centre.
For a brief time it looked like Sophia would have to put her acting career on hiatus after Dale Clark decided to take a one-year sabbatical from Drama for Children to further her education as a director.
However, Sophia didn’t allow the fact that there wouldn’t be a Drama for Children production to stop her from pursuing her love of acting.
“I knew I would miss acting a lot so I started taking acting classes and joined an acting agency in Edmonton (Chan International Model and Talent Agency),” she said, adding it was through this agency that she and her mother found out about the Faces West convention in Vancouver.
But in order to go to the convention, a performer or model must be first invited.
“It is a select group. It’s not as simple as just paying a registration fee and going to the convention,” Wegner said, adding Sophia first had to audition and place in the top 20 in her age category (five to 12 year-old-girls) in order to be invited to the convention.
The audition process took place in July at Chan International Model and Talent Agency at West Edmonton Mall. Hundreds of models and actors took part in the auditions, of which about 70 were in Sophia’s category.
Charles Stewart, founder and president of Faces West, interviewed Sophia.
As part of the audition process, Stewart had Sophia do a fashion runway type walk. Stewart then asked her a series of questions about her background, experience, training and what areas of the performing arts she was most interested in.
He also asked a number of questions she did not expect.
“Simple questions like, ‘do you have any dogs?’ just so he could see your personality,” Sophia said. “Because in this industry personality really matters. If you have a good personality you can really go far.”
Although the duo don’t know exactly where Sophia placed, by placing in the top 20 she earned the right to go to the convention along with a partial scholarship.
To prepare for the convention, Sophia and her mother travelled to Edmonton and the Chan International Model and Talent agency every Sunday for three months for lessons with her acting teacher, Amy Jean Taylor.
Each session was an hour and a half long and included instruction on how to walk the runway, perform a monologue and write and act in their own commercial. As part of the lessons she also learned how to slate herself.
Basically, it is how a model or an actor introduces himself or herself to a talent scout or casting agency, Sophia said.
“The classes were more than just that,” Wegner added. “It is also learning to how to present yourself properly, articulate, have proper posture. Everything a performer needs to have, but even more importantly to have confidence in yourself.”
And apparently if the results of the convention are any indication, it seems Sophia learned the lessons well.
By the end of the four-day convention Sophia competed against hundreds of other performers in her category in runway and sport modeling, monologue, commercial and cold reading and placed in the top eight in a number of disciplines. Contestants were also judged on how photogenic they were.
“As part of the cold read we were given a movie script and were given 15 minutes to prepare before going into a room and auditioning for a panel of judges,” Sophia said, adding she had to go through the process twice. “The last time I got to cold read with a professional actor, which was really cool.”
In the commercial category, in which the actor had to write and star in his or her own TV commercial, she finished third. In the monologue category, Sophia placed second.
“I also received the Top child Talent (acting) award,” she said.
Wegner said the final day of the convention was devoted to callbacks where talent agencies from all over the world had the opportunity to talk to and possibly sign prospective models and performers to contracts.
Sophia received six callbacks, four with modeling agencies and two with agencies representing actors. The agencies were from all over North America, and even further: Vancouver, Los Angeles, Montreal and New York to Japan.
All of the agencies, including the one from Japan, said if Sophia was willing to move to their location she would have no problem getting work.
“We were told as part of the process to always say yes and then have your agent work out the details,” Wegner said, adding it is something the pair is considering, although maybe not Japan. “My oldest daughter is going to university next year, so it might be the right time to consider such a move.”
However, before they do decide, the pair is going to take some time to let the dust settle.
“The last few months have really been a whirlwind,” Wegner said. “The convention was especially emotionally draining, so we are both going to take some time and let everything sink in before coming to a decision.”
She said in the summer she might take Sophia to Vancouver for an extended stay and investigate their options.
“I’m not sure what I want to do,” Sophia said. “Vancouver is very different from Barrhead and even Edmonton and it is a little bit intimidating, but I do know acting and performing is something I want to continue to do, maybe even as a career.”
