On Tuesday 24th January, as part of the theme,”Act it Out,” year 8 were invited to a talk by Maya Volava who runs a casting agency in Prague.
Maya spoke passionately about following your dreams. Originally, Maya had aspired to be an actress. Soon afterwards she moved to Czechia and her life took a new turn. Still, she followed her passion, but this time her passion for fashion and she opened Prague’s first ever vintage (as opposed to second hand) clothes shop in Czech Republic.
This brought her into contact with lots of creative, International, Interesting people who did not necessarily have a lot of money. Still interested in the creative arts she started a modelling agency, mainly for commercials. She has since parlayed this into a very successful Casting agency.
She still channels her creative juices into many other activities. She and her daughter Isabel organised a collection of art supplies which were given to Ukrainian children. She also helped some Ukrainian refugees start their own casting agency.
When asked to give advice to budding actors Maya suggested that the students
- get as much acting experience as possible in plays or after school clubs
- take acting classes
- have good quality head shots taken
- watch out for opportunities which are often shared in Park Lane’s Secondary Updates.