Aspiring actress begins new chapter in her creative career
Ever since she was a young, red-haired and green-eyed, fast-moving little girl, Vanessa Stoll knew she wanted to pursue acting.
Inventing roles in her bedroom and playing dress-up in the backyard, Stoll loved to create and entertain. “I always knew that becoming an actress was exactly what I wanted to do in my life,” Stoll said.
But the zig-zag ladder that one must climb to become an actress is not the easiest to scale. Countless hours spent late in the evening refining roles and perfecting words, along with criticism and rejection, Stoll found the road towards a career in acting is challenging.
Stoll’s first step up the ladder towards an acting career was attending Schauspiel Schule in Siegburg, Germany. “When you start drama school, you go in thinking, I can do everything,” Stoll said. “You’re so confident when you go to drama school. You’re almost over ambitious.”
The stage was hers for the next four years. “Then you get to acting school and there is your teacher, who teaches you in singing, in speaking, in moving and dancing different types of dances,” Stoll said.
Then came the first missing step on her climb up the ladder. “The first day I was like OK, I can’t do anything. You do everything over and over, and then after a while you ask yourself why are you here? What gives me the opportunity or the right to be here because I’m such a mess?” Stoll said.
Over the next four years, Stoll said she soaked in knowledge and perfected her unique craft. Late evenings spent twirling in her apartment room, singing and repeating lines were a regular for her routine.
One of Stoll’s teachers at the acting school, Tobias Walter, coached Stoll throughout her four-year program. Walter said he was always impressed by Stoll’s drive and determination.
“Vanessa [Stoll] was always pushing herself, and it showed every day that we rehearsed and performed,” Walter said.
Walter has been acting since the late 1990’s, primarily stage performing while traveling around Germany. “I have met hundreds of actors throughout the years, but Vanessa was definitely one of the most memorable,” Walter said.
Walter taught at Schauspiel Schule Siegburg from 2016 through 2019. His position at the school was working as an acting instructor. “I loved being around the new drama students and seeing them grow from, in some cases, knowing nothing, and coming out the other side as quality performers,” Walter said.
Of all of her teachers and coaches, Stoll said that Tobias was her biggest influence and supporter. “On those days when I felt like I couldn’t do anything, or when I had really hard parts I had to do, he always told me I was good enough and that he knew I could do it,” Stoll said.
Upon graduating from Schauspiel Schule Siegburg, Stoll was a determined, job-seeking freelance actress. “Then I went to Cologne to some different agencies, just looking for what possibilities were out there that I could go for,” Stoll said.
Another roadblock emerged for Vanessa. “The hardest part for me was, everyone I have met so far that isn’t related to me or a friend, are always like you’re amazing, I love your voice, I love your attitude, but they are never in a position where they were able to help me find work to start earning money as an actress,” Stoll said.
She felt lost in a field full of other aspiring actors and actresses. “I thought, I’m capable of doing something great, but I don’t know how to find someone who can really give me a job or a chance,” Stoll said.
Eventually, after filming short clips and emailing them to different agencies throughout Germany, Stoll secured an acting role.
“I applied for a role in the Rocky Mountain Picture Show in Aachen, and at first they didn’t accept me for that role, but they asked if they could hang on to my application,” Stoll said. “And I thought, yeah that’s what people say to be polite when they want to send you away.”
Stoll’s initial thought was wrong. “They called me back like a month later out of nowhere, and they offered me a role in a new play that the company was doing,” she said.
The Rocky Mountain Picture Show job was a six-month arrangement that allowed her to travel around Germany, performing along the way, and a first success that she could add to her acting resume.
Two years later, the determined Stoll’s resume included hosting a children’s show on television, appearing in multiple German films and television series and voice acting. She said that she finally felt like she was getting going in her new career.
Then the latest, and one of the most trying challenges arose for the freelancing Stoll. The emergence of the coronavirus changed the landscape for how work around the globe would be completed. This specifically effected Stoll. “For a freelance actor or actress, we have to have auditions. We have to go in and meet with people and interact with other people auditioning.”
Instead of being able to complete face to face meetings or interviews, Stoll was left without many possibilities. “Now because of Corona, and just the way it is, there’s no jobs for actors,” Stoll said. “It just came out of nowhere and really shook up our ability to do things and get jobs.”
The determined Stoll would not give up to something that was out of her control.
“I told myself, even though there is no real stage right now, I still have the feeling that I have to do something creative, and to give something to other people,” Stoll said. “If I do something and there are at least four or five people that say I touched their hearts, for me, it is, of course I cannot buy anything from it, but to me I’m doing the right thing.”
The latest creative venture Stoll has pursued is the creation of a YouTube channel in which she hand illustrates and narrates children’s fairytales, particularly those written by the Grimm Brothers.
Stoll launched her new channel, called Der Geschichten Fuchs, around three weeks ago. Since then she has illustrated and voice acted three classic German fairytales, most recently Der Froschkönig. English viewers would recognize this story as “The Princess and the Frog.”
“I wanted to show people that I wanted to be an artist even through these hard times,” Stoll said. “I don’t want to sit in front of a computer and work just because I have no other choice. I asked myself what could I do? The thought popped into my head immediately.”
Walter was not surprised that the young performer adapted to her current situation. “She is always striving to do her best and to do good things,” he said. “Whatever challenge comes at her; she finds a way to get over it. I am really excited to see what she can do going forward.”
Stoll plans to continue this new venture through the current COVID-19 situation and beyond. She said that before everything with COVID-19 began, she didn’t have time to think about starting something like this. Now she wants to make this newest project a priority.
“This is the very first thing, this feels like this is really me. Because, it feels so personal,” Stoll said. “I love the fairytales that I grew up with, I love working with my voice. When I do this and they are done, I am so proud because I know I did that by myself.”
