Adult Summer Courses
August 10 to 17, 2008
Workshops For People Who Love Theatre
Share the Theatre Ontario workshop experience with theatre people from all over Ontario at Brock University in St. Catharines. For over thirty years, our successful workshops have earned praise from drama teachers, theatre schools, community theatre and professional theatre people, agents, and actors getting started in the business.
For 2008, we are pleased to announce the following courses:
The deadline for registration and payment is June 30, 2008.
NOTE: The application deadline has been extended. Applications for some courses are still being accepted.
Click here to download a PDF course application form. |
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Instructor: Glenys McQueen-Fuentes and Terry Tweed
Course Description:
Want to act? Improve your skills? Try new approaches? Expand your horizons? Fill the stage? Live the text? Work better with other actors and directors, or as a director? Then this team-taught approach is just for you! Instructors Terry Tweed (text and voice) and Glenys McQueen-Fuentes (movement and image) will work simultaneously with participants to explore acting, the steps from page to stage, and even the teaching process itself in this "made for Theatre Ontario" course.
Application Requirements:
Application form and payment. |
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Glenys McQueen-Fuentes graduated from McGill University and the Jacques Lecoq School of Physical Theatre (Paris, France). After a year in New Zealand, as a founding member of Theatre Action, she moved to Mexico City, where for eleven years, she taught, acted and directed in professional theatre, founded UNAM's University Theatre Centre movement program, and taught for CONASUPO's Brigadas de Teatro Campesino. In Canada, she taught for two years at the University of Alberta, and then, Brock University, where she continues. Her research includes: experimental theatre practice; with Soundtrack Performance Group, developing creative teaching practices using music and movement across the curriculum.
Terry Tweed has worked in Canada as a professional actor, director and teacher for over 35 years. She has appeared on television, film, and radio, but her first love is the theatre. During the course of her career, Terry has worked in most of the theatres across the country, either as an actor or as a director. She has also taught at the University of Ottawa in both English and French, at University of Toronto (Erindale), and Sheridan College. She is now happily ensconced at Humber College, where she is pursuing her passion for language with the first and second year students in both the Theatre and the Film and Television program.
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Instructor: Peter L. Feldman
Course Description:
A practical course for new directors in community theatre as well as those who'd like to refresh their skills in core aspects of directing, offering valuable guidance on problems directors face. For much of the time, you'll work in sub-groups on selected scripts. We'll begin with an overview of the director's process and then focus on "breaking down" (analyzing) a script to creatively communicate your ideas in acting terms to your actors in rehearsal. Then we’ll put the script on its feet (blocking). Along the way, we'll look at issues such as auditions, communications with designers and technicians, etc. A director from the Shaw Festival will participate in a group discussion with the class.
Application Requirements:
Application form and payment. |
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Peter L. Feldman's most recent productions: A Lie of the Mind, Waterdown; Back to Beckett, St. Catharines; Salt-Water Moon, Hamilton Players Guild. A former Co-Director of the award winning Open Theatre of New York, he has directed over sixty productions and taught Acting and Directing in the US, Netherlands, UK, and Canada (Toronto and Vancouver), including twenty years at Brock University in St. Catharines (three of them as Chair of Dramatic Arts). He has been a guest leader of actors' and directors' workshops at many universities and community theatres including: Whitby Courthouse Theatre, Wallaceburg Community Players, London Community Players, and Burlington Little Theatre.
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Instructor: Teodoro Dragonieri
Course Description:
Masks are experiencing a revival in western civilization, because no other theatrical property or inanimate object is so universally successful in releasing transformational power, stimulating the imagination and demanding attention. Participants will build and paint their own masks from a matrix; explore diverse performance practices and character exploration. Focus will be placed on physicality and the power of silence/stillness on stage.
Application Requirements:
Application form and payment. |
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Teodoro Dragonieri is a multi-disciplinary artist and educator who has initiated, developed and coordinated many popular and critically acclaimed arts programs for museums, arts organizations, inner-city youth, and developmentally challenged individuals. He has presented lectures and exhibitions extensively across North America and Europe. He is co-founder and artistic director of Zanni Arte, a company dedicated to promoting the use of masks in theatre and education. Teodoro works for the Soulpepper Theatre Company's Mentorship and Youth Outreach programs, Prologue to the Performing Arts, Sears Ontario Drama Festival and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
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Instructor: Brenda Kamino
Course Description:
This course is for those who wish to approach their acting by learning, rehearsing and performing exciting short scenes from the repertoire of Canadian and World theatre. Class time will be devoted to script and character analysis, acting technique, scene breakdown, and aided by appropriate theatre exercises to enable the participants to make new discoveries in their approach to their acting. This course will be an intense, creative and exciting week as scenes assigned and class time will alternate with rehearsal time through out the day and evening. Scenes will be presented, critiqued, worked and presented again. Former students of this course are encouraged to return for more challenging work to build on skills previously acquired.
Acceptance based on résumé.
Application Requirements:
Application form and payment.
Résumé. |
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Brenda Kamino, a veteran performer of the Shaw Festival, has been seen on stage at Theatre Passe Muraille, Factory Theatre, Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People, the Prairie Theatre Exchange in Winnipeg, the National Arts Centre and the Citadel in Edmonton. Her twenty-year teaching career has included full-time acting instructor at the Centre For Indigenous Theatre, running an intensive theatre training program at LKTYP and leading the young company at Tarragon's Spring Arts Fair.
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Instructor: David Vivian
Course Description:
This course will give you an opportunity to develop a scenographic approach to a selected text that is popular in community theatre. Through an intensive project and discussion we will review the basic pinciples of the organization of stage space in response to the needs of the script and the application of materials and techniques in order to realize the design. Working with both scale and real-sized elements we will determine some design strategies. With an emphasis on the shared responsibilities in conceiving and realising set design, there will also be an introduction to some set design drawing, finishing techniques such as scenic painting, and also properties. These elements will also be reviewed in relation to the play we will be attending at the Shaw Festival. Students will also be expected to come prepared with some initial ideas about the design for the assigned text.
Application Requirements:
Application form and payment. |
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David Vivian is a scenographer and professor at Brock University. He has also taught scenography at Concordia University and CEGEP St. Hyacinthe. His designs have been seen on stages from Montreal to Vancouver. He is a graduate of the National Theatre School and the University of British Columbia.
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Instructor: Allan Stratton
Course Description:
The Master Playwriting class is a perfect opportunity for writers who want a week away from their daily routine, in which to wander, reflect and write, tailoring the program to fit their own specific writing needs. It is designed for community theatre or professional playwrights looking for a week's retreat in which to complete, revise or polish a new play. It is also of benefit for those who have a play chosen for production in an upcoming season, or for those wishing an expert assessment and play-doctoring prior to submission of a play to competition. Internationally awarded, published and produced playwright/facilitator Allan Stratton will be leading one-on-one and group counseling sessions.
Acceptance based on résumé.
Application Requirements:
Application form and payment.
Résumé. |
Allan Stratton is an award winning, internationally published and produced playwright. Allan is also a professional actor who began his career acting with the Stratford Festival. His plays, which include Nurse Jane Goes to Hawaii (over 300 productions worldwide), Rexy!, Papers, and Bag Babies, have won him the Dora Mavor Moore Award, the Canadian Authors Association Award and the Chalmers Award, and have been nominated for the Governor General's Award and the Toronto Book Award. His first novel, The Phoenix Lottery, was shortlisted for The Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and The TORGI Award , while his first young adult novel, Leslie's Journal, has received numerous citations, including the American Library Association's "Best Books" list. His new novel Chanda's Secrets is being published in Canada, the United States and France, with other countries pending. An M.A. graduate from the Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama, University of Toronto, he is the past head of Drama at the Etobicoke School of the Arts, and a former member of New York's Actors' Studio. He has conducted, acting, directing and playwrighting workshops across the country, and has frequently served as a play polisher and adjudicator for Theatre Ontario and the Sears Ontario Drama Festival. For more information, please visit his website at www.allanstratton.com.
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Summer Theatre Intensive Package Includes:
- Interactive course taught by theatre professionals;
- Three buffet-style meals daily (including vegetarian fare)
- Single accommodation in residence at Brock University;
- Planned social gatherings;
- Selected performance at the Shaw Festival;
- An opportunity to share your enthusiasm and dedication to theatre with other talented people.
All courses begin the evening of Sunday, August 10 with at least six hours of instruction each day.
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Course Fees
Adult Course package $975 includes GST, ticket and transportation to the Shaw Festival and all course material costs.) If not already a member of Theatre Ontario, please include a membership fee of $55 in addition to the course fee. Current members must be in good standing through September 2008.
We accept payment by VISA, MasterCard, American Express, debit or cheque. Course fee must accompany application.
Please Note: Participation in these courses is limited to those 19 years of age and older. Theatre Ontario reserves the right to withdraw any course with a full refund on application. Enrolment is limited.
Registration and Check-In
Your week is jam-packed with activity. Check in anytime between 2pm - 5pm on Sunday, August 10. Join us for dinner at 5:30pm. Classes and assignments throughout the week will follow your instructor's schedule. Classes are finished by 5pm on Saturday, August 16. Check-out is Sunday, August 17 at 10am.
Extras
- Sunday evening keynote speaker
- Reading by Allan Stratton
- Planned social activities
- Class trip to a performance at the Shaw Festival
Allan Stratton appears with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Playwrights Guild of Canada.
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A Travel Subsidy Fund has been established to assist with the travel costs for participants attending the Summer Theatre Intensive. The amount of the subsidy depends upon the number of applications that are received. To be eligible for the Travel Subsidy Grant, the applicant must:
- Be a paid-up Individual or Family member of Theatre Ontario;
- Be a resident of Ontario;
- Live beyond 500 km (one-way) from the location of the Summer Theatre Intensive.
The deadline for receipt of Travel Subsidy applications is June 2, 2008. Incomplete or late applications will not be considered. Recipients of the subsidy in past years are now eligible to apply again for the subsidy.
Final selection of travel subsidy grant recipients will be made by June 20, 2008. No receipts are required. All information included in submitted applications will be kept confidential. Travel subsidy recipients must pay the remainder of the Summer Theatre Intensive fee by June 30, 2008 or the subsidy may be cancelled.
Applicants are required to fill out an application and provide answers to each of the following questions in a letter:
- Why do you want to take this specific workshop and how will you apply what you learn after taking this course with Theatre Ontario?
- Why is this travel subsidy important to you?
- What theatre experience have you had and what theatre companies are you involved with?
Download a Travel Subsidy Application Form. |
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Cancellation Policy
Payments are non-refundable after June 30, 2008. Any cancellation must be in writing. Theatre Ontario assumes no responsibility for personal injury, however incurred, nor for the loss of personal effects during attendance at the courses. Please inform Theatre Ontario of any medical conditions which may affect your participation and of which your instructor should be aware. Theatre Ontario reserves the right to withdraw any course with full refund.
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