“I did my first play when I was about 5 years old. It was a church Christmas play, and I was the star that led the wise men to baby Jesus. I discovered that I was a big ham, and I couldn’t get enough of it. My mom started taking me to do community theater shows. That’s how I ended up getting a scholarship to college and meeting my husband. We were in the same theater department.

“Community theater has always felt like a haven for me. I was a weird kid, and that was where a lot of the other weirdos went. That’s where I always found people like me, who didn’t necessarily fit in but could pretend to be somebody else for a little while.

“Believe it or not, I’m kind of a shy person. So when someone gives me the words to say, I’m like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. You gave me a script. I know what the other person is going to say back. This is fantastic. I wish real life was like that. Because I feel like I rarely say the right thing. Sometimes my mouth just starts running before my brain can catch up.

“I’ve always enjoyed musicals. As an 8-year-old, I wore out our VHS copy of ‘Singin’ in the Rain.’ I loved that movie. I’ve been trying to expose my daughter to musicals, putting them on while she’s in the room and seeing her reaction. The first time I put on ‘Annie’ for her, the minute the orphan starting singing ‘It’s a Hard-Knock Life,’ she jumped up and said, ‘No. No dancing,’ and just ran out of the room. So I was like, OK, I guess mommy’s going to go down this road alone. But she’s not even 3 yet. She still has plenty of time to come around.”

— Rebecca Barker

A former Baytown resident, Rebecca lives in Michigan with her husband and their daughter.

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“When I was young, I would see newspaper ads for places like Walmart, Target and Kmart. And I would tell my mom, ‘I want to model for that. How can I do that?’ She was so busy working that she never had time to look into it. But it always stayed in the back of my mind.

“Fast forward to me being married for over 10 years to a not-very-good guy. When we were going through the divorce, I remember the words that he said to me. I was told that I was never going to be anybody, that I was fat, that I was ugly, and that no other man was ever going to want me with four children.

“So that set the foundation for me wanting to prove him wrong. I told him, ‘I don’t know when and I don’t know how, but God is going to put me on a platform where I’m going to be able to look down on you like you looked down on me for all these years.’”

After working up her courage to attend acting school in Los Angeles, she began building her portfolio with appearances in print ads, TV commercials and short films.

“One of the most special things I’ve done is appear in a series of commercials for Disney. It was a magical experience. It’s something I was proud and excited to do for my girls. I want them to be strong. I want them to see that you can achieve whatever you want if you set your mind to it.

“Mommy was told that she couldn’t do this, she couldn’t do that. But that’s wrong. Mommy was able to leave an abusive relationship. Mommy was able to go do things that she was told she would never be able to do. So you can do that, too. I can already see that my girls are go-getters also. They don’t take no for an answer.”

— Angelica Mercado

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“After doing some acting in high school and then with Baytown Little Theater, I got a chance to work as an extra in an episode of ‘Walker, Texas Ranger.’ From there I got another opportunity and another opportunity, and it kind of snowballed.

“Aside from being an extra, I’ve worked as an actual actor a few times in some film projects and commercials. I’m not as active as I used to be because I’ve been so busy at my real job.

“Like a lot of actors, at one time I had these delusions of grandeur where I was going to head out to L.A. and make it big. But pretty soon you realize it’s probably not going to happen.

“A lot of the acting roles I audition for are more of the geeky type of character, just because of the way I look. I don’t exactly look like Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt. I’ve kind of reached a point where I think, well, that’s OK. People still need the Steve Buscemi type or the geeky type.

“It’s pretty obvious I’m not going to get the romantic lead. At least, not right now. So if I can do the other kinds of roles and create a niche for myself, then that might work out better for me in the long run.”

— Nate Holt, 41

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“My mom always wanted to be on The Price Is Right, so I went out to California with her last year. They ended up picking me as one of the contestants.

“I had to bid on an Xbox One and games. I knew all the prices because I had worked at Best Buy for three years. Then I had to guess the price for a TV and two leather seats. I knew how much the TV cost because I used to sell those, too, and I also won the chairs. I got to spin the big wheel, but I didn’t make it to the final showcase.

“It was a lot of fun. It was my first time on national TV. I’ve also been an extra, someone in the crowd, on a Gatorade commercial. My goal is to be a film actor. One day I want to walk into a movie theater and see my face up there on the big screen. It’s a really tough business to break into, but I plan to keep working at it as long as I can.”

— Robert Richard

Robert hosts his own talk show on YouTube, which features local entertainers.

The post He wants to be an actor on the ‘big screen’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a rock star. Then I got into high school and liked theater, so I decided I wanted to be an actor. It’s pretty cool to pretend to be somebody else. The last play I was in was ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ I was Romeo.”

“And I was in choir since first grade, then every play and musical from seventh grade on. I thought I wanted to pursue it because that was the one thing I stuck with. Before that I was always like, I want to be a vet, I want to be a doctor, I want to be a cop, I want to be this, I want to be that. I went to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City for musical theater. But then I was like, I don’t really like this anymore. I started bartending when I lived in New York. Now I’d like to have my own bar someday.”

So you have acting in common. Are you a couple?
“Sort of.”

“We’re working on it.”

“We’re a new couple. Hoping it might go somewhere.”

— Christopher Ramos and Monique Lauriat

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