Are there any actual professionals here?

What the hell kind of comment is that? So sending out CVs and researching agents is not professional? Learning how to do your taxes is not professional? Doing community theatre so your skills don't fall because you've not landed a pro role yet is not professional? Doing volunteer work with a local pro company so you can get to know the people running it is not professional? If we go by your standards of 'pro' = trained and earning enough money to live on, then every artist in the world is not professional. (I do recall that a lot of great artists, who also earn money from their work, are also not necessarily trained in the areas they are great at. Indeed many great artists in this country come from non-arts training backgrounds) Your source for handmade shadow puppets at Puppets in Melbourne