Last day of January. Finally! What a long and hard month it has been. January is a time of grant writing at OSSD, as well as starting a new term and getting to some serious production meetings. There are so many beginnings it is pretty exciting. And as hard as the grant writing is, there is a strong element of reflection that is always healthy. It gives me a chance to remember what we’ve done in the past year and to make some important choices about our direction. The big grant, the City 3-year application, asks us to state our artistic goals and any new initiatives. So it has been exciting to put that all into words.
Some of the big things to look forward to over the next 3-years:
- Refinement of the curriculum
- Development of the TYA touring show
- Development of programming for students on the autistic spectrum and developmentally delayed adults
- Expansion of the adult program to include a summer production
- Expansion of the corporate program
- The Ottawa Theatre School is now a private career college, so we can look forward to begin able to offer OASP funding for our students.
- More new instructors, more new theatre explorations.
But as always, my focus is on the day to day. Long terms plans will happen as we keep on paying attention to the daily excitement.
We’ve started off the semester really well, although still with a decline in the number of young children attending OSSD. Not sure what is going on there, but people tell me it is the same everywhere. Our youth and adult populations have increased, which is gratifying, and I’ve been hearing some great things about the adult courses especially. I’ve been reading people’s blogs about what they are discovering in those classes and it’s great to see them on that journey.
Watched the first year conservatory students doing “Playback Theatre” with Brie Barker last week – really exciting to get to know this group and to see the discipline and focus they are learning. I am fascinated to see how they apply Playback Theatre to working with seniors at Rideau Perley Veteran’s Health Centre and Lynwood Park Lodge. It takes theatre out of the box and makes it very immediate and engaging.
I’m busy getting our February fundraiser going. “If Music be the Food of Love” will star our instructors, alumni, senior students and guests singing and dancing about love. There are going to be some great numbers and I am especially looking forward to Tim Wynne-Jones singing “Finishing the Hat” from “Sunday in the Park with George”, and Maddie Stephens and friends doing “My Junk” from “Spring Awakening”. With Emmanuelle & David’s move to Toronto, we are really lucky to have them back to sing “Getting Married” from Company. What a great night it is going to be!
After Food of Love I’ll start turning my attention to March Break and Summer camps. It will be nice to think about summer in the midst of this cold. I realize that the last blog I wrote was at the end of camp – O.K. so where did the fall go?!
