KEY POINTS:
ON STAGE
What: Please Don't Feed the Models
Where and when: Basement Theatre, May 28-30; bookings ph 021 165 6770
Last year was an ugly time for model-turned-actress Sara Standring. Standring, 28, was to perform her solo show at the Edinburgh Festival but copyright issues initially prevented her from staging Please Don't Feed the Models, a comedy based on her six years on the international modelling circuit.
She travelled to Edinburgh to perform in two children's plays and, dressed as an otter, was poised to go on stage when her father phoned her with the news he was terminally ill. Standring completed the show and flew home to nurse her dying dad, Phil, who passed away on Christmas Day. She says the experience has made her "want to grab life by the balls".
"When you go through something like this, it makes you want to get out and make the most of life. You certainly learn not to sweat the small stuff so I was thinking, 'What have I got to lose?' "
Standring performs Please Don't Feed the Models for three nights in Auckland next week to fundraise for a trip back to the Edinburgh Festival in August where the show will finally go on.
There is talk the Edinburgh gig will be followed by a tour as English producers, who saw the sell-out play at the 2006 Wellington Fringe Festival, believe it has international appeal. Centred on a young New Zealand model entering the cut-throat world of international modelling -where success is quite literally measured in inches - Standring plays six characters.
These include an Irish model with the face of an angel and a mouth like a sewer, a hard-nosed Japanese agent, a gay American make-up artist, a stereotypical "dumb" model and a junkie model with a heart of gold.
Standring admits they are all based "with a great deal of creative licence" on people she encountered during her years on the catwalk.
Born and raised in Papakura, she entered the Miss Counties Manukau pageant when she was 14. Within two years, Standring found herself celebrating her 16th birthday on assignment in Tokyo.
She spent six years travelling the world, gracing covers on magazines such as Vogue and Marie Claire and advertising super-brands such as American clothing label Abercrombie and Fitch, Levi jeans, Organic Hair Products and cosmetic giant Clarins.
At one stage, her face looked down from a giant billboard on New York's Times Square.
Standring dated Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha and generally enjoyed fame and fortune.
But as time rolled on and she reached her early 20s - retirement age for an international hair and beauty model - she started to hanker for an acting career.
"I know I sound like a walking cliché - and I do worry about that - but I was starting to do more TV work and acting-style jobs and it was what I really wanted to do."
She returned home, successfully auditioned for NZ Drama School Toi Whakaari and settled down to a life less glamorous. Standring admits she still finds it difficult to reconcile the little she gets paid compared with her modelling days.
"It makes me more determined. I realise as an actor you can't sit around waiting for it to come to you. You have to be proactive about devising your own work and constantly finding your own opportunities."
Please Don't Feed the Models was originally devised as Standring's graduation piece after fellow students urged her to use her modelling days as inspiration for the required 20-minute solo performance.
"I think people are fascinated by the modelling world because it is so bizarre and mysterious. At all times, you are judged on how you look and the comments made to you can be brutal. It is often a lonely life because you are constantly competing with your peers."
