Complaint Review: Shelly Williams Trading Faces

I don't know this woman, but what doesn't sit right with me, and doesn't because I was involved in on stage semi-professional theater for 14 years of my life, is the rehearsal schedule.

I do my best no to use expletives on ROR, but if the report is true, going that long without a rehearsal, especially with kids, is absolute BULLSH*T.

Every rehearsal for every production I've ever been in has had a MINIMUM of 3 rehearsals PER WEEK, not one every 3 or 4. That's just preposterous. You especially can't leave KIDS, who have a short attention span as it is, that long without learning their lines, blocking and cues. It just doesn't work and reeks of the utmost in unprofessionalism.

Also of note, and this little factoid is unavoidable, this person had NO BUSINESS altering a vehicle of payment. Period. If she needed another entity to deposit the check, she should have made every reasonable effort to contact those who would be affected and make arrangements to have a replacement check provided, like, oh... a check sent to her via registered mail/FedEx to be signed for AT HER EXPENSE since the check was issued in good faith in her name and her name only. Cost of doing business and all that.

Altering a check IS against the law and shows bad faith on the part of the proprietor of the business. Even if everything else in the original report washes out, she's hung herself by her own petard by that action alone, and I doubt a judge is going to accept the defense of ''illness'' on her part. After all, if she had another agent acting on her behalf, she wouldn't even need to get out of bed to make such arrangements.

We also, as our family says, had our "Shelly" encounter a few years ago. We were "recruited" for her musical class "Grease". She kept adding more & more upcoming classes/plays she planned to perform. We had several rehearsals/classes at the Elgin Public Library's community center. The day the kids were supposed to show up to perform a Christmas Show, she was a complete no show, wouldn't answer her phone, NOTHING. Then, without any explanations for her disappearance nor apologies, we hear, about 2 months after that, that she was resuming Grease at the Manor Public Library, which she had been able to obtain permission for perpetual use of, free of charge, for her "non-profit" program and her providing free classes. Shortly after resuming rehearsals, she was kicked out of Manor after the management got complaints from locals about her "free" classes (come to a class for free, then, if your kid wants to join it's "money, money, money"). She then moved her classes to a different location, but only notified a few select people. Needless to say, she was refused use of the place after they found out that her non-profit classes were anything but that. After that, we heard she had moved her "classes" to somewhere out in Round Rock or Pflugerville (this info was obtained from someone who ran across her, not any of us from Bastrop or Elgin-we were not informed of new location because she didn't want us taking up spaces for her fresh meat nor have to give us refunds for not holding up her end of the agreement. She was constantly telling other parents that she had to throw a kid out of the class because the parents didn't pay the remainder of their class fees. After running into one of these "thrown out" families, I found out that they had been paid in full from the very beginning & they had just stopped coming because they had been rehearsing Grease for more than a year with no results (classes are supposed to run 6 months with the play at the end of it). She did her best to make sure parents didn't get too friendly with each other so they could not compare notes. She'd tell one parent one reason for not being able to "perform" on time, while telling another parent a completely different story.
Shelly's illnesses is one of her excuses as to why she cannot follow through with her shows. One of the times she claimed she didn't show up for a class was due to her having been in the hospital over the weekend of the class. Considering one of the other parents happened to see her driving around Austin during her "hospital stay", happily chatting on her cell phone, kind of gives no credence to her claims.
She uses a pre-paid cell phone and is extremely careful not to let anyone know what her address is (other than class locations), thus making it pretty hard to file any complaints against her. If anyone has a suggestion as to how do go about filing, I know several people in the Bastrop, Elgin & Manor area that would most likely be willing to file such a suit. I'm sure there's a Federal Agency out there that would be willing to help do something, seeing as she has made claims of being a non-profit business. I happen to know the process involved in becoming a non-profit organization and I seriously doubt she'd qualify if she ever bothered to actually file.

We also, as our family says, had our "Shelly" encounter a few years ago. We were "recruited" for her musical class "Grease". She kept adding more & more upcoming classes/plays she planned to perform. We had several rehearsals/classes at the Elgin Public Library's community center. The day the kids were supposed to show up to perform a Christmas Show, she was a complete no show, wouldn't answer her phone, NOTHING. Then, without any explanations for her disappearance nor apologies, we hear, about 2 months after that, that she was resuming Grease at the Manor Public Library, which she had been able to obtain permission for perpetual use of, free of charge, for her "non-profit" program and her providing free classes. Shortly after resuming rehearsals, she was kicked out of Manor after the management got complaints from locals about her "free" classes (come to a class for free, then, if your kid wants to join it's "money, money, money"). She then moved her classes to a different location, but only notified a few select people. Needless to say, she was refused use of the place after they found out that her non-profit classes were anything but that. After that, we heard she had moved her "classes" to somewhere out in Round Rock or Pflugerville (this info was obtained from someone who ran across her, not any of us from Bastrop or Elgin-we were not informed of new location because she didn't want us taking up spaces for her fresh meat nor have to give us refunds for not holding up her end of the agreement. She was constantly telling other parents that she had to throw a kid out of the class because the parents didn't pay the remainder of their class fees. After running into one of these "thrown out" families, I found out that they had been paid in full from the very beginning & they had just stopped coming because they had been rehearsing Grease for more than a year with no results (classes are supposed to run 6 months with the play at the end of it). She did her best to make sure parents didn't get too friendly with each other so they could not compare notes. She'd tell one parent one reason for not being able to "perform" on time, while telling another parent a completely different story.
Shelly's illnesses is one of her excuses as to why she cannot follow through with her shows. One of the times she claimed she didn't show up for a class was due to her having been in the hospital over the weekend of the class. Considering one of the other parents happened to see her driving around Austin during her "hospital stay", happily chatting on her cell phone, kind of gives no credence to her claims.
She uses a pre-paid cell phone and is extremely careful not to let anyone know what her address is (other than class locations), thus making it pretty hard to file any complaints against her. If anyone has a suggestion as to how do go about filing, I know several people in the Bastrop, Elgin & Manor area that would most likely be willing to file such a suit. I'm sure there's a Federal Agency out there that would be willing to help do something, seeing as she has made claims of being a non-profit business. I happen to know the process involved in becoming a non-profit organization and I seriously doubt she'd qualify if she ever bothered to actually file.

We also, as our family says, had our "Shelly" encounter a few years ago. We were "recruited" for her musical class "Grease". She kept adding more & more upcoming classes/plays she planned to perform. We had several rehearsals/classes at the Elgin Public Library's community center. The day the kids were supposed to show up to perform a Christmas Show, she was a complete no show, wouldn't answer her phone, NOTHING. Then, without any explanations for her disappearance nor apologies, we hear, about 2 months after that, that she was resuming Grease at the Manor Public Library, which she had been able to obtain permission for perpetual use of, free of charge, for her "non-profit" program and her providing free classes. Shortly after resuming rehearsals, she was kicked out of Manor after the management got complaints from locals about her "free" classes (come to a class for free, then, if your kid wants to join it's "money, money, money"). She then moved her classes to a different location, but only notified a few select people. Needless to say, she was refused use of the place after they found out that her non-profit classes were anything but that. After that, we heard she had moved her "classes" to somewhere out in Round Rock or Pflugerville (this info was obtained from someone who ran across her, not any of us from Bastrop or Elgin-we were not informed of new location because she didn't want us taking up spaces for her fresh meat nor have to give us refunds for not holding up her end of the agreement. She was constantly telling other parents that she had to throw a kid out of the class because the parents didn't pay the remainder of their class fees. After running into one of these "thrown out" families, I found out that they had been paid in full from the very beginning & they had just stopped coming because they had been rehearsing Grease for more than a year with no results (classes are supposed to run 6 months with the play at the end of it). She did her best to make sure parents didn't get too friendly with each other so they could not compare notes. She'd tell one parent one reason for not being able to "perform" on time, while telling another parent a completely different story.
Shelly's illnesses is one of her excuses as to why she cannot follow through with her shows. One of the times she claimed she didn't show up for a class was due to her having been in the hospital over the weekend of the class. Considering one of the other parents happened to see her driving around Austin during her "hospital stay", happily chatting on her cell phone, kind of gives no credence to her claims.
She uses a pre-paid cell phone and is extremely careful not to let anyone know what her address is (other than class locations), thus making it pretty hard to file any complaints against her. If anyone has a suggestion as to how do go about filing, I know several people in the Bastrop, Elgin & Manor area that would most likely be willing to file such a suit. I'm sure there's a Federal Agency out there that would be willing to help do something, seeing as she has made claims of being a non-profit business. I happen to know the process involved in becoming a non-profit organization and I seriously doubt she'd qualify if she ever bothered to actually file.

We also, as our family says, had our "Shelly" encounter a few years ago. We were "recruited" for her musical class "Grease". She kept adding more & more upcoming classes/plays she planned to perform. We had several rehearsals/classes at the Elgin Public Library's community center. The day the kids were supposed to show up to perform a Christmas Show, she was a complete no show, wouldn't answer her phone, NOTHING. Then, without any explanations for her disappearance nor apologies, we hear, about 2 months after that, that she was resuming Grease at the Manor Public Library, which she had been able to obtain permission for perpetual use of, free of charge, for her "non-profit" program and her providing free classes. Shortly after resuming rehearsals, she was kicked out of Manor after the management got complaints from locals about her "free" classes (come to a class for free, then, if your kid wants to join it's "money, money, money"). She then moved her classes to a different location, but only notified a few select people. Needless to say, she was refused use of the place after they found out that her non-profit classes were anything but that. After that, we heard she had moved her "classes" to somewhere out in Round Rock or Pflugerville (this info was obtained from someone who ran across her, not any of us from Bastrop or Elgin-we were not informed of new location because she didn't want us taking up spaces for her fresh meat nor have to give us refunds for not holding up her end of the agreement. She was constantly telling other parents that she had to throw a kid out of the class because the parents didn't pay the remainder of their class fees. After running into one of these "thrown out" families, I found out that they had been paid in full from the very beginning & they had just stopped coming because they had been rehearsing Grease for more than a year with no results (classes are supposed to run 6 months with the play at the end of it). She did her best to make sure parents didn't get too friendly with each other so they could not compare notes. She'd tell one parent one reason for not being able to "perform" on time, while telling another parent a completely different story.
Shelly's illnesses is one of her excuses as to why she cannot follow through with her shows. One of the times she claimed she didn't show up for a class was due to her having been in the hospital over the weekend of the class. Considering one of the other parents happened to see her driving around Austin during her "hospital stay", happily chatting on her cell phone, kind of gives no credence to her claims.
She uses a pre-paid cell phone and is extremely careful not to let anyone know what her address is (other than class locations), thus making it pretty hard to file any complaints against her. If anyone has a suggestion as to how do go about filing, I know several people in the Bastrop, Elgin & Manor area that would most likely be willing to file such a suit. I'm sure there's a Federal Agency out there that would be willing to help do something, seeing as she has made claims of being a non-profit business. I happen to know the process involved in becoming a non-profit organization and I seriously doubt she'd qualify if she ever bothered to actually file.

Someone needs to file charges and the state should prosecute her for theft by fraud. There are enough cases combined you could put her away for years. Her daughter will probably follow in her foot steps since it appears she defends her in the many complaints filed with rebuttals. I would guess the rebuttals from alleged friends are actually Shelly Williams.

Concerned Citizen!

As long as there are stage mothers.

As long as there are people who want to live out their derams through their kids.

As long as there are people who feel their little darlings will be the next Judy Garland, Shirley Temple or Drew Barrymore...

As long as there are parents who let their kids think that their kids can actually be film stars even though the odds are against them...

I guess there will be people who will take advantage of these high hopes and expectations...

she informed me that the class cost $300.00. I told her that I could not do this since it was so close to summer and my budget is tight. She quickly dropped the price to $165 because she really wanted my daughter to be in the play.

YOUR FIRST CLUE SOMETHING WASN'T RIGHT. WAS SHE GOING TO BE IN A DRAMA CLASS OR IN A PLAY?

IF IN A PLAY, SHE SHOULD NOT HAVE HAD TO PAY FOR ANYTHING!
IF THIS HAD BEEN A DRAMA CLASS,SHE COULD HAVE JUSTIFIED CHARGING TUITION.

SO WHICH WAS IT?

I told her that I would think about it and she proceeded to tell me I needed to pay the registration today because the class was almost full.

The money for registration pays for; rental of stage, costuming, props, and a Pink Ladies jacket that would come with my daughter's name stitched on it. I decided to pay the registration since my daughter wanted to be in the play really bad (she offered to pay with her OWN money!).

So I wrote her a check and we were on our way. The following Sunday there was practiced and all seemed normal. The next three Sundays there were no rehearsals and I had received no calls from Shelly.

Finally I contacted my bank and got the information off my cashed check (as to who cashed it). My check had been altered and was cashed by someone named Monica. After investigating on the Internet I called Monica and she told me that her daughter was in the program and had been for a while. She said that Shelly had lost her driver's license and that is why she had cashed the check for her.

MAYBE SHE CASHED IT BECAUSE SHE WAS LAUNDERING MONEY. MAYBE SHELLY HAS WARRANTS OUT. HAVE YOU CHECKED WITH A CONSTABLE TO SEE IF SHE MIGHT HAVE SOME WARRANTS OUT.

ALTERING A CHECK IS ILLEGAL. I THINK I WOULD CONTACT THE TRAVIS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY ' OFFICE WITH THE ALTERED CHECK. I THINK IT IS CALLED FORGERY.

She had no idea what was going on.
I WOULDN'T ADMIT TO ANYTHING EITHER IF I WAS HER. FORGERY IS AGAINST THE LAW.


The next week I get a call from Angelica (Shelly's daughter) letting me know that practice has moved to Austin Park and Pizza. There was one practice there and then we went another three weeks without a rehearsal.

THIS IS HIGHLY IRREGULAR EITHER FOR A DRAMA CLASS AND ESPECIALLY A REHEARSAL! ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU HAVE KIDS WHO HAVE NEVER ACTED BEFORE AND HAVE NO PRIOR EXPERIENCE! BY THE WAY, GREASE IS A MUSICAL. WHO WA GOING TO PROVIDING THE MUSIC FOR THESE KIDS TO SING TO?

I received a voice message on Mother's Day from one of the other mothers in the group and she advised me that practice has moved yet again to a place in Round Rock (USA Best Karate). We had one practice there (on Mother's Day) and haven't had one since.
YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY, IF IT LOOKS LIKE A DUCK, SOUNDS LIKE A DUCK AND MAKES DUCK-LIKE NOISES...

I got off easy because I paid a lot less then other parents in the group.

It appears the average she got was $300.00 per kid. Shelly had been telling us that the performance would be at Manor High School in their theater on November 4th and that she had made the deposit.

I contacted the school and no such arrangements had been made.

NOVEMBER 4th is LONG GONE AND I THINK YOU HAVE AT LEAST 2 to 5 YEARS TO FILE THAT FORGERY CHARGE.

THIS IS THE WEIRDEST THING I HAVE EVER HEARD!

IF YOU DAUGHTER IS INTERESTED IN DRAMA, SHE SHOULD TAKE CLASSES WITH LEGITIMATE PEOPLE LIKE AT ZACHARY SCOTT THEATRE CENTER AND AT HER HIGH SCHOOL....

I WILL DEFINITELY KEEP MY EYES OUT FOR THIS LADY!

First of all, you were very well contacted, so don't say you left messages and that weren't ever replied to.

Your child, who I will not post the name of because I have the decency not to, (but, of course, you posted mine) is extremely talented and I sincerely hope that she gets to share that talent with the world.

Anyway, we had to move around so much because of people LIKE YOU! People like you called different places and told people that my mom and I were ripping people off, so they wouldn't let us practice there.

Innocent until proven guilty just doesn't exist anymore does it? The word of gossip is the only one that people will listen to.

I've been suicidal over these horrible, disgusting accusations. I've lost friends because nasty rumors have been spread around school about my mother and I. Of course I know that none of this is true, but it still hurts me deeply, considering I MYSELF type scripts and make CD's for these shows.

Manor High School didn't tell you about a deposit because they aren't allowed to give out that kind of information.

The saddest part of all of this is that your daughter is so talented and she didn't get to perform in a show because of people like you.

May God forgive you.

You see her as you want to see her, in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that she loves the brains, the athletes, the basketcases, the princesses, and is anything BUT a criminal.

Sincerely Yours,

I found this and I was bewildered by such an acusation.
My name is Sherry, I have known Shelly since I was about 16. I am sorry to hear that someone has had a bad experience with her services. She has been an artist and educator for as long as I have known her. I have always known her to be an extreemly honest business woman and friend. You may not like what she has to say, but you can be restasured it will be the God's Honest Truth.

I have left you numerous messages. I showed up at America's Best Karate in Round Rock the weekend before Mother's day and no one was there. I had to call around and finally found out that you cancelled due to health reasons. We did have rehersal on Mother's Day the following Sunday but after that you disappeared. You have my phone number that I left on your voicemail and my contact information is on the contract I signed.

I have talked to other Mother's trying to figure out where you went. They have all given up because the police said that we would have to take you to civil court and no one knows how to get in touch with you since you NEVER answer that phone. The IRS was interested in the report though. I see that you are going to do Willy Wonka, good luck with that. I hope you don't break anymore hopeful young hearts. Maybe you should do what you told me you were going to do when you were located at Austin Park and Pizza.

You said that you were going to quit (at the suggestion of the person you were living with), but you told me that you didn't want to leave the kids like that. Well you did, and for that you are a scam artisit. I never dropped out!! We followed you from place to place and you know that we were committed! We made every rehersal plus there was a time that we went 4 straight weeks without a rehersal and no phone call letting us know why. You blamed that on another Mother that was supposed to be calling us. We showed up at the Pflugerville Library and waited an hour each time. If you are so sick and are financially burdened by this program then QUIT!!

Call me back so I can give you my address so you can mail me my daughter's shoes that we purchased for the play. If you need my number you can look it up (I am listed because I have nothing to hide) or ask Margaret's Mom the one that cashes you checks.
Crystal

When she called Manor High School where you supposedly made the deposit, they said NO SUCH ARRANGEMENTS HAD BEEN MADE!

In response to the accusations of "childrens drama class takes money and disappears", I, Shelly Williams, am both appalled and disgusted by the mere thought that anyone would call me any of these things. Trading Faces is a complete non-profit kids' program. Over the years, in order to keep it running, I have lost my home, my automobile, and my health. I do not in any way profit. Each project that I do costs more than any individual has ever given.

The person called Crystal voluntarily dropped out of my show. Her daughter was a spectacular addition to my program before she dropped out.

I did cancel one show because of health issues. Everyone who had signed up for that show was automatically signed up for the next show at no charge. Their only loss was for a costume, which they were able to keep. As a result of that, I was threatened, my own daughter was threatened, and someone tried to run me down in a parking lot. To top it off, now these things are being written about me.

My program is set up for specifically for kids who could otherwise not afford to study performing arts. I currently have eighteen kids in my program who have paid nothing. Any donations given to the program in the form of checks are given directly to costume, stage, and sound people. I take nothing.

I have been face painting for nearly seventeen years. My clients include the Children's Hospital at Brackenridge and the Austin Diabetes Camp, for which I have been paid in hugs.

Thank you for reading my side.