MOUNT VERNON — Well, they’ve made it there.
If the old song about New York, New York holds true, the sky is the limit for sisters Liz and Gracie Vining, who placed impressively on Saturday at the International Modeling and Talent Association conference in New York City.
Held in the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel, the IMTA conferences are gathering grounds for over 400 agents and casting directors who vote on the competitors and meet with them, sometimes making job and management offers. The conferences have launched the careers of stars such as Elijah Wood, Ashton Kutcher, Eva Longoria, Brandon Routh and Ohio native Katie Holmes, who attributes her Hollywood career to IMTA.
The Vinings’ adventures began at the Dan Emmett Music & Arts Festival. It was there, slightly less than one year ago, that a talent scout from Pro-Model and Talent Agency in Akron spotted Gracie Vining, then 13, performing on one of the stages. The scout requested Gracie to contact the head of the agency, Mary Sklamba, who has a strong reputation in the business for finding fresh talent. When the audition was arranged, Gracie’s older sister, Liz, auditioned as well. Both were taken on board by Sklamba, whose agency represents clients within a 300-mile radius of Akron.
Sklamba, a world-renowned expert, has been grooming the young performers as part of her latest crop of talent, and took them as part of a group of 70 contestants to the IMTA conference, where a total of about 2,000 youths were competing. The conference is split into two spheres, concentrating on modeling in one, acting in the other. Both Vinings are taking the route of acting, following in the footsteps of their father, John Vining, who gained New York stage experience before coming to Knox County to raise his family. John Vining now teaches at St. Vincent de Paul School.
Liz, who turns 19 this week, placed in every category she actively participated in, particularly acting and singing. Some of the contests were industry-oriented, such as filming sample commercials, doing cold readings from an unfamiliar script and working with a TelePrompTer. As the final contestants for the category Young Adult Actress Age 18 to 20 were winnowed down, she knew she was a top-three finalist when the judges asked three competitors to redo their sample commercials for the final selection.
“There were three of us, then two, then I was standing there by myself,” Liz said. “Everyone from my school started to scream.”
Liz won first place, and was bombarded with a dozen requests for meetings with agents, which took the entire following day, especially when she added in a 13th meeting she had already agreed to before the finals. One casting associate had her go ahead and do a screen test for an independent film going into production soon.
Fourteen-year old Gracie competed in acting areas, including dance, placing as a finalist in four of the preliminaries. Not having any warning that she might place in the finals for Junior Miss Actor of the Year Age 13 to 15, she was politely applauding the photographs of winners being flashed up on the screen.
“I was thinking, ‘Oh, she did well,’ and then,” Gracie said, breaking off suddenly to gasp, wide-eyed, re-enacting how she suddenly realized she was looking at her own picture. She was awarded a sixth-place Honorable Mention in her division, and received 11 requests for meetings with booking and casting agents. The average number of meeting requests for finalists is four or five.
According to John Vining, Sklamba inspected her troops every morning, sending those whose outfits didn’t look professional enough back to their hotel rooms to try again. Another prominent figure who has been mentoring the sisters is talent agent Al Onorato. Onorato used to be head casting director for CBS, but later started the Casting Society of America, represented by the CSA so often seen in Hollywood film credits after the casting director’s name. These days, Onorato is running a talent agency of his own, Unified Management, working closely with Sklamba’s agency to steer the Vinings toward successful professional careers.
The sisters’ immediate plan is to sit down with Sklamba and review management offers. Liz plans on relocating to Los Angeles within six months; Gracie hopes to remain Ohio-based for the time being, with a goal of working on Broadway in New York. They would like to select an agency that could represent both of them.
“I’m terribly proud of them,” said John Vining.
“There must be something in the water here,” he added with a smile.
