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EDUCATION Ashland High student pursues acting dream Aspiring AHS actress takes talents to L.A. each summer Comment By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 Posted Aug. 26, 2016 at 8:57 PM By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 Posted Aug. 26, 2016 at 8:57 PM » Social News McKenzie Baratta does some of her best work in front of strangers whose job, at least in part, is to judge her ability to convey emotion, nail her lines and, for a few minutes at least, become somebody else, often using only her imagination to inspire a performance. It’s the kind of pressure that most teenagers would swerve like Jason Bourne in a high-speed car chase to avoid, but Baratta, a 16-year-old incoming junior at Ashland High School, thrives on it. She loves almost everything about being an actor, from the camaraderie a cast shares during a stage production run to the private lessons away from any audience or cameras through which she sharpens her skills. “I’ve always really had a passion for just sort of performing and making people laugh and entertaining people,” said Baratta, who’s managed by IMD Modeling in Medford. “I’ve always had the personality that always seemed compatible with that kind of hobby or line of work. I was always pretty outgoing and I like to laugh at myself and I like to make people laugh. So, I thought it would be a good idea to start trying some local theater.” That was in 2011, when Baratta first walked through the doors of Ashland Children’s Theatre as an 11-year-old. She and her parents, mom Denise and dad Frank, knew at the time Baratta’s flamboyant personality and unique voice may translate well to the stage or screen, and it didn’t hurt that she had big green eyes and an easy smile. But mostly it was just something to do for fun. Now, five years later, it’s still fun. But it’s also work. Each of the past three summers Baratta has spent no less than four weeks and as many as eight in southern California auditioning for jobs that are scarce, part of a great migration that draws thousands of child actors from across the country to Los Angeles between June and September. There, they spend most of their time sitting in waiting rooms or driving to and from auditions. To pull it off financially, Denise Baratta has had to get creative — she house sits in L.A. McKenzie Baratta has landed a few roles — you may have seen her face on TV in a J.C. Penny commercial, dancing in a Skylar Stecker music video or talking about her life in an anti-drug public service announcement — but that’s not the only reason she does it. If it was, Baratta, who’s learned much in her short time in the industry and can articulate her experiences well, may not be willing to sustain the emotional rigors that are par for the course, occupational hazards. She knows what’s coming, she said, and she can take it. “You need an extremely strong backbone to work in this business,” Baratta said. “You need thick skin because it is so rare to get an audition and even rarer to get a part, and if you just lost 20 parts and you didn’t get any of them you can’t let it get to you, because there are so many reasons you might not get the part. It might not be because you’re bad at it. It might be because you’re too young, you’re too old, you don’t have the right skin color, you remind the director of somebody they don’t like. ... “You can’t let it get to you. You need to be able to take criticism from mean directors, you need to be able to do a performance and have a director look you in the eye and say, ‘That was absolute crap, do it again,’ and not get offended.” Baratta’s first role in a full-length play was as a sassy secretary in Ashland Children’s Theatre’s production of “Shadow of the Cat.” It was her first experience working every day with the same group of actors and she loved it — not just the play itself, but also getting to know her fellow actors. Not long after that Baratta saw an advertisement in the newspaper that caught her attention. A movie was going to be filmed locally and auditions would be held at IMD Modeling. Hundreds of actors showed up, including Baratta. She didn’t get the part she was after, but the folks in charge of casting the movie were impressed with Baratta and encouraged her to sign up for a competition held by the International Model and Talent Association every year in New York. There, hundreds of fashion and talent agents, personal managers, casting directors, network representatives and music producers would be on hand to judge and look for new talent. Baratta, then 13, took the advice and went to New York with her mom, and it turned out to be a pivotal trip. Competing against 400 girls ages 13 to 17, Baratta placed fourth overall and was rated in the top 10 in three categories, including cold reading and “one line,” for which actors pick a line from a list of 10 and read it to the judges. “So you’re in this massive line in this huge room,” she said, “and the person goes up to the microphone and they deliver their line, and then they have the next person. And it’s just thousands of people reading the same 10 lines.” The final day of the IMTA convention is set aside for actors to meet any agents or managers who are interested in signing them. Most actors leave New York still agent-less, but Baratta met Susan Nathe of Susan Nathe & Associates in L.A. and the two hit it off. “I couldn’t be happier with my agent,” Baratta said. “A lot of agents demand you come and live in L.A., so it’s extremely rare for Susan to let me still live in Oregon and try to work down in L.A. Most of the agents I met on that last day were like, ‘OK, so when are you moving to L.A.?’ I’m like, ‘Whoa, we gotta talk this through a little bit. I’m not sure.’ But (Nathe) was like, ‘No, you need to live your life, you need to have your friends, just come down here in the summer and try to work.’” “You have to realize,” Nathe said, “that (child actors) are fragile,” she said. “Most actors are fragile, in a way. And the fact is, she’s getting practical experience before she’s ready to move here. ... The business isn’t going to go anywhere.” Not long after signing with Nathe, Baratta began taking acting lessons from Jimmy Garcia, a working actor who has since moved to Portland. It was from Garcia that Baratta learned how to audition. He also taught her many of the acting “tricks” she still uses today. Baratta doesn’t let the pressure of auditions get to her. “It was exciting,” she said of her first few experiences. “I was always just really gung-ho about every audition. I get to talk to these people and present myself in front of these people, and that’s such a challenge. ... I’m never scared of being judged or anything. I just think it’s exciting to put myself out there and see what they think.” Baratta has appeared in two music videos, three films, done some voice-over work for a radio show and has plenty of local theater experience. This summer, she went to Portland to audition for “My Abandonment,” a feature-length film which will be directed by Debra Granik, who directed Jennifer Lawrence in her “Winter’s Bone” breakout performance. After that, it was off to L.A., where she booked an acting job, landed two auditions and was able to train with one of the top voice-over studios in the country. Baratta’s tentative plan is to go to a community college after high school, after which she hopes to move to L.A. full time. The top voice actors work on the side in order to make it, but that’s fine by Baratta, who knows what her passion is and isn’t afraid of a little hard work. “When I turn on my TV show and hear the really well-known voice actors, I hear them doing commercials, too,” she said. “Like, I’ll be at a store or a theme park and will be like, oh, that guy plays like 20 characters I like. I mean, people gotta do commercials. It’s how they eat.” Joe Zavala is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Reach him at 541-821-0829 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @Joe_Zavala99. By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Follow @@Joe_Zavala99 Posted Aug. 26, 2016 at 8:57 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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