Dear Toni,

My name is Adelaide Crockett. I’m 10 and the great-great-great-great-great niece of Davy Crockett.
            I have been acting since I was 6 years old, and have been in Music Man, Li’l Abner and many other shows in the Antelope Valley where I live. I really love auditioning and planning for them and learning the lines, working with other actors and meeting the people and then learning a lot as I do the auditions. They bring my family together, too, talking about what I did and how well I did the show and or acting or what mistakes I made.  It really brings the family together.
            My hobbies include vaulting (gymnastics on horseback) with my Gold Medal champion coach who is also my uncle. I love to go horseback riding (bareback or with saddle, either way). Once I got on a horse bareback and it started to buck (I stayed on until I realized what he was doing). I didn’t get hurt or even bruised.
            I also like to hang around with my 3 dogs, 7 cats, my miniature horse, my gecko, my bunny and numerous fish.
            I live with my grandparents. My grandparents rescued me from being in Foster- Care and part of their wonderful gift to me was to enroll me in the world of acting and I just love acting as well as my grandparents for giving me this great gift. My grandpa was a shark diver and racecar driver, and he wrote books about the great white shark and about scuba diving. He was also the publisher and co-owner of GPI Publications that did “Guitar Player,” “Keyboard,” “Bass Player,” and “Drums & Drumming” magazines. He is a jazz/blues/rock/swing/country drummer who has jammed with B.B.King, Jerry Garcia, Country Joe and others. He just finished a true screenplay about the world’s first all-women jazz band in the 1920s.
            My grandma was a flight attendant and traveled everywhere. She also shark dived and drove racecars. She drives me to all the auditions and to my 3 acting coaches. They both are the ones who earn the money for my lessons, headshots, and audition clothes. They say I am a terrific actor and so do my coaches and photographer. People say I am an “old soul in a little girl’s body.”
            Now, about my question: I have done many auditions for commercials and theatricals. How many auditions does it usually take to actually get a part?

Adelaide Crockett

Dear Adelaide:

Do you sometimes walk around the house singing “Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier” Just Kidding!  Sure sounds like you have the strength of lots of Mountain Men in you. How wonderful for you that you have magic grandparents who rescued you from the foster system and have given you a life filled with miniature horses and acting lessons.  Always remember to appreciate the gifts they have given you.  I bet you are a wonderful little actress because you have gone through so much and with acting you can access all the emotional turmoil you have gone through and then use those recall memories in your acting. Okay, the question was how many auditions does it usually take to get a part.  Sounds like a setup to a joke.  The answer is simple…as many as it takes!  I know that sounds weird to you but please do not get impatient at ten years old and think that there is a formula: like you go to a hundred commercials and then you get the job.  It is very different for each person and you just must be very patient and feel very lucky every time you are called to audition because you probably beat out a lot of other people who were not even called at all.  So have fun at ten years old, don’t stress and just know that you are a special little girl.

Thank you for taking the time to write.
Toni Attell

Toni Attell is a hypnotherapist and acting coach. For people interested in her acting classes please call (818) 787-8685. For hypnotherapy go to www.hypnosis4you.net.