Question for theatre veterans

Hi there. I am sixteen and live in a very small country town. I was unable to complete my school certificate (after 2 years of attempts) due to chronic illness. My illness is now being controlled and I am ready to get back to the real world. I am desperate to learn the art and discipline of acting. I am very serious about this, and all my life performing has been my passion. To learn to perform in theatre would be a dream come true, and this dream I am adamant I must pursue. However, the small town that I live in does not offer a theatre group, or acting classes. I would move to a larger town, but would face major financial problems, as being so young and without qualification, it could be highly difficult for me to earn a living. My question is, do you have any advice on where to begin? Please advise me of what steps I can take to make this dream a reality. Thankyou.

Truffles, I'm sorry to hear there's no local group you could join. Arts in rural areas is often hard to come by. My first piece of advice is to contact Arts Training NSW, which is a government-run organisation that helps people find appropriate training in the arts. You can find their website here: http://www.artstrainingnsw.com.au. Then you could find out what kind of programs are available through the Arts NSW branch - there should be some sort of branch for rural and country areas - for people in non-metro areas. Their web site is: http://www.arts.nsw.gov.au/ (I had a look at your profile to figure out where you are located, since you didn't mention it in your post) Secondly, you don't have to have a local theatre group to be involved. Though you didn't finish school, you could still make contact with the drama/english teacher there, and see if any students are interested in creating a youth drama group. If there is, you could ask the school if they would allow meetings/rehearsals on their premises. If not, you can still see if any friends or family members are willing to participate in your very own drama group. Thirdly, you can find out if there are any programs which involve bringing local actors and teachers to your home town. Outside of this, the only other advice I can offer is to suggest that you think about returning to school again, if you feel up to it. I hope that helps; unfortunately your situation makes it difficult to provide anything more specific. Good luck! Sticky Apple Legs www.freewebs.com/stickyapplelegs Puppets in Melbourne www.thepromptcopy.com/pip