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Parenting Over the Rainbow:
How to Promote & Protect Your Child Actor

Gay Wolff

Reading Room

Reviews:

"Parenting Over the Rainbow" is a clear and thoughtful guide for parents who have a child in show business.  This helpful book shows how a young actor can maintain a healthy childhood and work at the same time.  I recommend it."
~ Gil Cates, Emmy Award Winning Producer

"A must-read for parents looking to try their children in the film industry.  A clear and concise resource that gives parents what they need to protect their child and to prevent them from being lead to pay hundreds of dollars for workshops offering the same information contained in this important guide."
~ Andrea Later, Studio Teacher

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41

Excerpt:

Introduction

Since long before Dorothy craved escape over the rainbow, people have sought a better life.  The original American dream for a fair chance to succeed or fail by one's own hands has mutated on a large scale into a dream for an easy jackpot - a Cinderella-becomes-princess utopia of fame and fortune that we can win or find at the end of the rainbow.  Thus, many people are driven into artistic and theatrical fields in hopes of reaching stardom.  It's been said that film and TV stars are our royalty in America - the princes and princesses of our own dreams.  And why shouldn't they be?  Like the peasants of the past, we stand by and watch the royal media caravan that teases our senses every day, and think, "if only" or "someday."  And even more tantalizing is the latest story of another toad turned prince by the kiss of fame and fortune.

The royal life, though, is quite different from the dream.  We have distinctive before and after images of Princess Di, the blushing princess bride and the burdened princess wife.  Likewise, a closer look at the world of the Hollywood set would reveal something significantly less glamorous than we fantasize.

Of course, the American spirit never let a little risk stand in the way of a dream.  However, when it comes to our kids, we have to be more careful, more prepared to deal with the hazards.  This book is the guide I wish I'd had as a new set parent: designed to give parents of young performers a real-life view of the acting business for children - to prevent the reader from being like Dorothy, dreaming of a better life, only to find Oz to be radically less fulfilling than her fantasy.  It is essential for parents to understand that it is as much your job or hobby as your child's.  You are a team.  It will be the team's agent, the team's audition, the team's job, and the team's achievements or sacrifices.  However, the parent's roles are more akin to a knight, as you are expected to serve and protect but not share the throne.

Many books bait our dreams without telling us what life or the set is really like.  The truth we don't usually hear is that on the other side of the rainbow, it's just another Kansas with a new name.  If we understand its culture and rules, we can get around just fine.  Therefore, in addition to perspective this book provides practical techniques and resources for successfully promoting the talent of your child while protecting his spirit.