Baysider is bitten by acting bug

Bayside beauty Christy Cannon began acting and dancing at the age of 10 when she performed in the chorus line of a community theater show at St. Andrew Avellino Church in Flushing.
“It was then she got the bug,” her mom Camille Cannon gushed. From there, the slight 5’5” teen, now 17, took dance, singing, and acting classes - she has been schooled in theater arts, on stage acting, stage direction, monologues, cold readings, on camera acting, soap opera acting, and improvisation to improve her acting skills alone.
“This is the only thing I want to do. I will not be happy doing anything else. I can’t be a nurse, or a doctor, or a lawyer,” the ambitious, young actress said.
Her family - mother and grandmother - had an idea of the girl’s passion when the budding child actress forced them to watch plays that she made up and performed in their living room. Over the years, however, the girl’s drive grew.
“In person, she seems very shy but when she’s on stage, she’s a different person,” her mother said.
While attending St. Kevin Elementary School in Flushing and then Talent Unlimited High School in Manhattan, Christy Cannon took jazz, tap, hip-hop, ballet, Pointe, theater-tap, and Acro - a combo of dance and acrobatics – classes.
She worked up her Southern and British accents, and in her free time, she brushed up on several skills often needed in TV shows and movies - cheerleading, baton twirling, swimming, basic piano, guitar, and wiggling her nose.
The brown-haired, brown-eyed teenager’s efforts landed her lead roles in “Bye Bye Birdie,” “The Sound of Music,” “Annie,” and “Antigone,” with several community theater groups. She also played several very different parts in four independent films produced by college students - “Party Boys,” “Hostage,” “Speak,” and “If You See Something Say Something.” Through each of these roles, Christy Cannon demonstrated her range, portraying a wayward college student.
While shooting the movies, Christy Cannon said she watched the other performers, most of whom were college students several years her senior, and studied their techniques.
“At first it was hard. I thought, ‘Why am I here?’ But they were very professional, and I learned a lot,” she said.
The hardest part for Christy Cannon - now a junior at the High School for Professional Performing Arts High School - comes when she has to take criticism and work with it to improve her acting, she said.
“With acting, you are very vulnerable. You are the product. You are selling yourself,” she said, “To make it, you really have to be confident with yourself.”
In April 2006, she won the lead role in Gypsy with the Andrean Players, NYC, the Flushing-based community theater at St. Andrew Avellino Church. It was during her role - as a burlesque dancer - that Christy Cannon was spotted by talent scout, who introduced her to a national cold-reading competition in Los Angeles earlier this year. After the weeklong contest at the International Modeling and Talent Association Convention, Christy Cannon was declared the winner in the Junior Female division - girls ages 15 to 17.
Now, with one year left before she turns 18, the Cannon family is trying to figure out whether Christy Cannon should stay in New York or go to California to see if she can find her big break. The teen has already come to understand that for many actresses and actors, their 15 minutes never comes. However, she is not at all fazed.
“In L.A., I saw how many people want this. However, not everybody delivers the monologue the same way. You can’t compare yourself to other people,” she said.