The first to perform is an information systems manager and self-described Christian single who has loved being in front of an audience her entire life.

On this night, she is posing as a wig mannequin before a packed house.

JOHNNY CRAWFORD / jcrawford@ajc.com (ENLARGE)

Angela Davis' performance of a 'Talking Heads' monologue might be what gets her – all of her – noticed.

JOHNNY CRAWFORD / jcrawford@ajc.com (ENLARGE)

Davis puts on lipstick with her eyes closed before her Wednesday night's monologue as a mannequin.

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Men and women from some of the best talent agencies in the industry sit in the front row, pens in hands, thumbing now and again through résumés at Nick Conti's Professional Actor's Studio in Buckhead. What they are looking for, the untrained may not see: stage presence, intuition and versatility — marks of a great thespian.

Angela Davis, performing a comedic monologue from a stage show called "Talking Heads," is hoping they see those things in her.

She scans the audience, moving her head from left to right. She speaks with her eyes, with her head tilted just so, with her red lips, pushing the benefits of a woman's hair.

"I have life, vigor and I can help you spice up your life. ... Bring your la Vida loca!"

The audience laughs.

"Look, hair is essential to a woman's life. The essence of sex, love and ..." she pauses, "sex." ( She winks.)

The audience laughs more. She pauses and just when you think she's done, she admonishes, "Come on ... get your hair on!

"But get the right type. There's the stripper hair — straight, long, good for whipping around poles or your man. There's the seductive office hair. ... You know, long enough to tie into a bun and then whip off when you become the stripper. You look skeptical?"

Applause mixes with laughter. Five minutes and Davis' act is over. A team rushes out to change the set.

For years, talent scouts have been coming to Conti's studio in search of the right actor for their next play, commercial, movie.

The last big name to show up looking for talent was Academy Award winner Denzel Washington, pictured on a back wall with Conti.

Davis is hoping someone will discover her there.

If anyone has a shot, she does, says Conti, a former soap opera star.

He should know. He has been training actors ever since the teaching bug bit him back, oh, 11 years ago.

Teaching, he said, was supposed to be a one-time favor for a friend but he loved it so much, he gave up acting and Hollywood to move to Atlanta, where he opened the studio in his basement.

Angela Davis is just one of a dozen or so of his students who recently earned the right to perform in a studio showcase. That means, Conti said, that "their acting is worthy of being seen by a panel of talent agents, casting directors and producers."

At 32, Davis has landed parts in commercials, voiceover work for Macy's, training videos for Georgia Power and recently a part in "Single in the City, Atlanta," a national reality show that tracked her dating life.

She has wanted to be an actress since she was a little girl fascinated by television.

"It was more than entertainment for me," she said. "It was like another world, and I wanted to be a part of that."

And so if there was ever a part to play, a speech to recite, Davis was the one who rushed in to do it, uninhibited, unafraid.

"I was upset when it was over," she said. "I loved being seen, and it carried into my adult life."

But, as much as she fancied herself an actress, Davis briefly considered law school. It seemed more practical. She scored well on the LSAT but when it came time to apply to law school, she said, "I just couldn't do it. It wasn't in my heart."

In November 2003, a friend told her about Conti's acting studio.

"I felt at home," she said.

And so every Wednesday for nearly five years now, she has come here to hone her trade, to be transported into that world of make believe that captured her as a child.

Every Wednesday, she hopes that maybe someone among the men and women in the front row will see what Conti sees, that she's a talented actress, that they will call her agent up to say: "Angela Davis, send her in."

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