'I just love performing': South Rockwood teen attended acting program in Los Angeles

SOUTH ROCKWOOD — A South Rockwood teen spent some of the summer learning acting from the pros.

Jacob Smith, 16, a senior at St. Mary Catholic Central High School, spent two weeks in Los Angeles attending the Summer Intensive Program offered by the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the organization that produces the Oscar Awards.

Jacob and just 12 others from across the country were selected based on their essay responses. In his essay, Jacob called acting his outlet. He most enjoys musical theater and contemporary songs.

“I really like theater. I just love performing and making people laugh and smile. When you’re singing on stage, there’s just nothing like it. When you reach the final note, that feeling is just incomparable to anything else you’ve ever felt,” said Jacob, the son of Tim and Tracie Smith.

Jacob, who has been performing for eight years, was one of the youngest in the summer program.

“We did a lot of behind-the-camera work. We were in front of the camera. We filmed other people. It really wasn’t just acting. We got the whole 360 degrees of acting and using equipment and lighting. We focused on screen acting, commercial acting and film,” Jacob said.

One of the teachers was Amir M. Korangy, who played Sayid on “Superstore” from 2015-21.

“I recognized him immediately,” Jacob said. “He is really nice and humble as well.”

Instructors touched on the continuing Writers Guild of America strike.

“We didn’t have any run-in with it. They talked about the strike. It’s a big topic,” Jacob said.

The Summer Intensive Program was Jacob's second summer theater program. In 2021, he went to Michigan’s Interlochen Center for the Arts for a musical theater program.

“It was a very intense program. It started at 7 a.m. and went to 10 at night. We were singing, dancing, acting for hours straight. I loved that we kept going and we wouldn’t stop. We were in the groove of it and were just in it,” he said.

Jacob made his stage debut at age 8, in the musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

“Ever since that first musical, I just fell in love, and I kept doing it. I stepped into it and got more comfortable. It really clicked for me,” Jacob said.

Jacob played Prince Eric in SMCC’s “Little Mermaid” and Captain Georg von Trapp in SMCC’s “The Sound of Music.” He was Michael Banks in Gaylord Community Players’ “Mary Poppins.” He's also performed with the Downriver Actors Guild, Monroe County Community College and Monroe’s former Spotlight Studio.

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Earlier this month he played his favorite role so far, Frank Abagnale Jr. in Downriver Youth Performing Arts Center’s “Catch Me If You Can.”

“That will have a special place in my heart for a while,” Jacob said. “Frank Jr. was a dream role of mine. I just really connected with him. I wasn’t playing a 40-year-old dad or a little boy. He was my age and in some of the same situations that 16-year-olds are in."

Jacob hopes to continue acting after high school. He’s looking at schools in New York and Los Angeles.

“(Acting and singing) are not necessarily something that will take off. I have a back-up plan to be a creative designer on the side, in case acting doesn’t work out,” Jacob said. “Acting is definitely not a linear path. There are roadblocks and different things to jump over. You’re always meeting different people. Sometimes it’s the person you least expect that gives you the best advice.”

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: South Rockwood teen attended summer acting program in Los Angeles