I was fairly certain that Shelly Williams was a con artist even before I met her. When my wife called to tell me how excited my boys were to be recruited by a woman named Shelly Williams and her daughter, Angelica, to participate in a community theater production of "Willy Wonka" scheduled to be performed in mid-December I told her not to sign anything or give Shelly any money. I found it particularly strange that my youngest son was recruited for the lead role (Charlie) without any sort of audition. I was sure that this was a scam, but couldn't find any information about Shelly or her Trading Faces group on the internet. Its too bad I didn't run across the complaint website back then.
The following afternoon we met Shelly in front of a dance studio she rented for rehearsals one day a week. She and her daughter were pleasant and showed us a photo album of kids of various ages in costumes that looked to be from a few different productions, so it looked like this might be legitimate operation. When I was told that the cost was only a $50 per child nonrefundable fee for "costumes" that they would get to keep after the production, I decided that if this was a scam, we wouldn't be out much money. Shelly also persuaded my youngest son to sign up for "Romeo and Juliet, " with a $100 fee since the costumes would be more elaborate. There was also a third play: "Some Kind of Wonderful" with teenaged participants, but my boys weren't involved in that one.
So we gave her a total of $200, and I hoped for the best. The boys were so excited, but I still felt uneasy about the situation, especially the pressure to get sponsors at various levels ranging from $50 to $5000. As Shelly and her daughter drove off, I was reminded of Ryan and Tatum Neil as the father/daughter con team in the film "Paper Moon."
I was very relieved to learn that the rehearsals actually occurred as promised that Sunday, and the boys had the time of their lives. They spent nearly every Sunday afternoon at rehearsals for the two plays all summer long. Shelly worked well with the kids, and I started to think I had misjudged her. However, we did notice that the adult actor who had supposedly been committed for months to play Willy Wonka never appeared and each week, some experienced participants and their families did not show up while new participants kept arriving. This meant that rehearsals were constantly starting over again from scratch. Each week there was pressure to raise more money (checks were to be made out to Shelly Williams). Either she was about to miss a stage deposit deadline, or construction workers were going to stop work on building the elaborate sets/props, or she was about to be evicted from her home or lose her car, etc.
Then, I received a phone call from a lady who had worked with Shelly to produce a more informative and professional style of sponsorship flier for Trading Faces activities. She and many of the other families had suddenly become extremely concerned about the legitimacy of the entire operation. Shelly had sent an email message to the teenage actors in "Some Kind of Wonderful" that, despite all of their rehearsals, the play was being postponed indefinitely. This lady was concerned that donated funds (she had by now given Shelly $425) might not be going towards the plays as promised or for any of the purported purposes related to actually putting on a play. That was the week that we were informed by telephone that rehearsal for that Sunday was canceled. The following week, we received a phone call from Shelly saying that rehearsals were suddenly being moved to the home of one of the actors because she couldn't pay the weekly rent for the rehearsal space. It seems likely that Shelly wanted to move to a new location to keep a large number of recently disgruntled participants and their parents from showing up at the next rehearsal and possibly connecting with other parents who were none the wiser.
One of the many elaborate props Shelly frequently mentioned was the "Wonkatania" boat that was costing thousands of dollars for the "Willy Wonka" production. The kids rehearsed the scene where they would be in the boat over and over. Then, Shelly told everyone that unless $800 additional funds were donated by that Thursday, she was going to be forced to abandon that entire prop and have the entire boat (that was presumably almost finished) torn apart. She never provided anyone with her address, but if you called her, she would arrange to meet you in town to get the money. The next week we were told that it had been "too late, the boat was gone" and she would have to write that scene completely out of the play. However, she recently told at least one actor that she sold the Wonkatania on google.com to a theater group in Canada, while telling my wife the other day that she sold the boat on amazon.com to a theater group in Yonkers.
She also made many exaggerated claims. For instance, she claimed that there would be "60 extras" in the dance scene in "Romeo and Juliet", when only six kids were showing up on a regular basis over a period of 4 1/2 hours of rehearsals involving two plays. If she couldn't even get the principal players to show up and she couldn't afford to complete construction of props that she supposedly invested thousands of dollars in, how could she hope to have all the costumed "extras" she indicated would be part of the play? Her solution is to lean on struggling families to get the next batch of funds.in addition to pursuing sponsorships, she tried to get everyone to give her money to put on a carnival to raise money. It probably costs as much to put on a carnival as a play, so I'm, not sure how this was supposed to help, but it never materialized anyway.
She also told us that there would be instruction at a fencing studio for the kids in 'Romeo and Juliet' to learn how to sword fight correctly. All we ever saw was one pretend fencing exercise at someone's house with make believe swords. Moreover, she claimed to have produced "Grease" last year, but there is no record of it ever being performed that we could find, and the proceeds that allegedly went to the Dell Children's Hospital never made it there. At least, nobody associated with the hospital had ever heard of her or Trading Faces.
My wife and I decided that my youngest son was having so much fun, and was getting a lot of personal attention and training because he had the principal role, that we would just keep showing up and treat this like acting lessons, even if no play would ever be produced. I just made sure we didn't give her any additional money. However, I did begin to wonder just how many other struggling parents may have given Shelly Williams an additional $100 here or $300 there in response to her frequent dire predictions that she was about to lose her house or her car or her health or her phone or the next stage deposit or the next elaborate prop which no one had ever seen.
The day after reading the complaint from 2006 about Shelly Williams/Trading Faces on the internet, my wife called and left a message on Shelly's cell phone. Since there had been a mass pullout of actors and their families involved with each play, my wife wanted assurance that the productions would actually take place, noting that she would be in a stronger position to help raise funds for the production if Shelly would provide her with some basic good non-profit business practices information. My wife asked Shelly to bring to the next rehearsal any or all of the following for review:
Even one receipt from any charity organization confirming that they had indeed ever received the proceeds from ticket sales of plays actually performed by the Trading Faces group
any substantial prop constructed so far for any of the productions (such as the real brass swords that had supposedly recently been adjusted by a welder to substitute fake tips for use in "Romeo and Juliet")
contact information for 5 families that had participated in any Trading Faces play that was performed in front of any audience in 2006
playbills for 2006 shows indicating dates and locations of the performances
a very basic funds record for the "Willy Wonka" and "Romeo and Juliet" plays reflecting funds coming in and how money was actually being spent on costumes/sets/props
any photos of the very expensive "Wonkatania" boat that was supposedly built and almost finished and then suddenly dismantled because kids and their families hadn't come up with sufficient extra money that week.
Within five minutes, Shelly called back and unloaded on my wife, ranting and raving for almost 45 minutes about how she wasn't about to provide a single piece of any of the requested information. She said she didn't have to prove anything to anyone, noting how terrible the parents were who had withdrawn their children and/or themselves (yes, sometimes the parents are recruited for another nonrefundable fee to play some of the roles) from her organization. She screamed, "Who do you think you are, the freakin' FBI?" At first Shelly complained that the costume for my oldest son (who had already quit a few weeks ago) was nearly done and that it wouldn't fit another kid. Later she said that none of the costumes had been produced because she learned long ago that kids drop out and others grow, so she never has them made until just before the production. She also claimed that the lady who gave her $425 never paid her a cent and that the lady's children had called Shelly up at 10 pm crying because their mother had pulled them out. Both of these statements are outright lies, according to both the lady and her children who were victimized.
Since we had her on speaker phone, my boys got to listen to the conversation and witness her true colors. They decided she was a criminal and that they wanted no part in the play. At first she indicated that she would return all of our money (likely in hopes that that statement would temporary keep us quiet), but then (surprise!) she called back two hours later to say that she would NOT return any of our money and that my son, who had been rehearsing all summer for the roles of Charlie Bucket and Peter the Page, was no longer welcome to attend rehearsals. She said she'd already called all the other parents and told them about my wife's questions and that every single other family was 150% behind her and 100% against my wife for asking any of these questions (more confirmed lies: we know of at least six participating families, and none were contacted by her).
I'm proud of my son who was cast as Charlie. He is a natural actor and loved working on the play. She had told him he was the most talented kid she had ever worked with and they got along very well. He told me that he wanted to quit immediately (before she called back to tell us not to come back) because he didn't want to be part of a crime and he was afraid other people might give her money if they saw him having fun at rehearsal. Now that he's out of the play, he can go back to playing baseball. At least we know that for a set amount of money, paid up front, one time only, there will actually be costumes (uniforms) and performances (games) in addition to the practices.
The fact that Shelly is kicking out the lead character from "Willy Wonka" just because his mother 'dared' to ask a couple of basic common sense questions tells me she has no intention of putting on a show. She consistently claims that she has '50 kids in the wings' ready to step in and handle any parts that need to be filled, but she has nobody now who can play the role of Charlie (the majority of actors, including many of the lead characters in both the "Willy Wonka" and "Romeo and Juliet" plays, dropped out in the past two weeks because they smelled a rat).
Since that time, my wife has discussed Trading Faces with at least five participating families, each of which confirmed that they had donated $250-$450 for their child to participate, even though they also had suspicions about the legitimacy of the operation. It turns out that most of us quietly had faith that the 'show would go on' due to the fact that the other families who showed up were wonderful and our children seemed to be having fun. We tended to look the other way when things didn't seem quite right and just hoped for the best. Ultimately, my wife and I lost $300 (a while back Shelly conned my wife out of another $100 because she 'was about to lose her house.')
Shelly appears to have a working knowledge of the Texas Penal Code in that she usually asks for amounts below $500, which keeps each individual offense down to a Class B misdemeanor. She could be prosecuted for a felony if the cumulative amount of money she has bilked from numerous people came to light, but she minimizes that risk by keeping people from communicating with each other. Most organizations hand out a list of names, phone numbers, and email addresses so the parents can get together to carpool or share information. Shelly goes to great lengths to keep everyone in the dark and all communication comes from her or her daughter, only when she wants to call you. It is really taking some effort to track down her victims, but we're making progress.
We know that she frequents theaters showing children's films, which affords an opportunity to recruit kids. She recruited my kids at the IMAX at the Bob Bullock History Museum. She has told us that she visits hospitals and special community events, often 'helping out' by painting children's faces. We strongly suspect that she uses her face painting 'volunteer work' as a handy avenue to recruit more unsuspecting and hopeful families into making a financial commitment.
That is why I say that Shelly Williams is an outright fraud! She is a thief and a liar who preys on children. The kids may have fun at first, but everyone is likely to be disappointed when the production never really happens and the money is gone. If she doesn't like this characterization, I invite her to hire an attorney and sue me. At least if this goes to court, she'll have to produce the documentation that we asked to see (which, I'm sure, never existed).
I am taking the time to post this report in hopes of saving other families from being taken in. It's a shame that Shelly's considerable talent as an inspiring director is overshadowed by her complete lack of a conscience.
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