Articulate drama school and casting agency in Bradford, set up by Stacey Burrows, provided 150 child extras for Netflix hit Adolescence, which swept this year's Emmy Awards.
Here Burrows tells RT how she helps to nurture young talent.
CHANGING CAREER In 2013, I was working as a barrister in county courts and magistrates’ courts across the North working on low-level cases, but I was doing a lot of public speaking in courtrooms. I was looking to give back, so I set up a public speaking school for kids one night a week and created a website for parents to track their children’s progress. CBeebies came across it and asked me to do a bit of vocal coaching on a series and I agreed as long as I could get some of the kids in as extras. Then they just kept calling me back asking for more children. I dropped the legal stuff and the agency really took off in 2015.
WORKING WITH CASTING DIRECTORS We’ve got all the regulars on Waterloo Road and Emmerdale and a lot of people come to us for the gritty Northern dramas. A casting director sends us a detailed brief of all the different characters they’re looking for, including age range, maybe a particular accent or specific physical attributes if the parents have already been cast. We then suggest any actors we think might be suitable and send off their CVs, and the casting director tells us who they would like to audition.
RECEIVING A CALL BACK When we feel like we've got a perfect tape, we will send it off to the casting director. They will shortlist those tapes and show them to the directors and producers. They decide who will come in for a recall – either on Zoom or in person. It's a chance to go through the scenes, and for the director to give a bit of direction to see how the actor takes that direction. After that recall, sometimes we get an offer straight away. Other times, it might be a chemistry read or a second recall.
SPOTTING A STAR A child has to have resilience, commitment and determination, because you get a lot of knockbacks. They also need a level of maturity, a good memory for lines and emotional intelligence. We celebrate their successes. I often even go to school plays! Then a week later I could be flying to LA to watch a movie premiere.
NEGOTIATING THE CONTRACTS In certain deals, we organise extra flights so family members can go out and visit. We might organise Zooms with the school so the child can catch up with their friends or teachers. When you’re in a big global franchise, you lose a bit of your normal life, so we try to keep our children grounded and make sure they’re enjoying it, because if they’re not, they shouldn’t be doing it.
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