Fiona Short is a 13-year-old London, Ont., vocalist and student at Lester B. Pearson School for the Arts, but already has a full slate of performances ahead of her as she prepares to star for ‘Phone: The Musical Series’, a series shot vertically and entirely on an iPhone 15.
She got her inspiration for musical performances from her Nana and Papa at 5 years old.
“My nana and papa used to babysit me, and I would start singing around the house, and they were like, Fiona, you should really get into singing lessons,” said Short.
Balancing schoolwork with performing in musicals can be rewarding, but it also brings challenges.
“Organization and making sure you communicate with your teachers is key, if I know I won’t be there for a certain amount of time, I’ll contact them and be like ‘can I have the work that we’ll be doing that time?” said Short.
Short has a key piece of advice for teenagers who are looking to make it into the musical scene.
“Just be kind. Be a good person, because you can be so talented, but a director wants to work with someone that is a good person that they like working with.”
Young actors aren’t the only ones busy at this time, parents can be very busy as well.
“Time management is the biggest challenge as a parent. Especially with me working full-time, we’re also on the road every single day except for Mondays right now to Waterloo and sometimes I don’t even get time to sleep,” said Short’s mother Tricia Young.
Young does a lot of mindset work with her daughter, including encouraging her to take risks and being comfortable with failure.
“We want her to go out and fail every single day, that’s because failure is what grows you as a person so growing and building a resilient child that is willing to go out there and try something is something I want to encourage,” said Young.
Picture of the Hyland Cinema (Via XFM News)
The Hyland Cinema is hosting a special screening of the film on Mar, 28. which includes a cast and crew Q&A after the screening.
