To our Members:
THEATRE ALBERTA STAFF UPDATES
Theatre Alberta is pleased to welcome several new staff members to our team this summer.
Clarice Eckford started at the beginning of May as our new Office & Membership Coordinator. Clarice was taking over this position from Morgan Norwich, who has moved into a new position as Theatre Alberta's Operations & Partnerships Coordinator.
Sadly, we will already have to say goodbye Clarice later this month as she was offered a position with MLA Derron Bilous' constituency office. It has been a short but sweet experience working with Clarice, and we wish her the very best.
We are also pleased to welcome our two summer students!
Jake Tkaczyk, who also started at the beginning of May, is our Artstrek 2015 Program Assistant. Jake is currently a student in the BFA Acting program at the University of Alberta. He grew up on a farm near Holden where he helped co-found the Beaverhill Players Society. Jake is both a former Artstrek student and Artstrek supervisor, so he is very familiar with the program!
Jordan Sabo is our Library Assistant this summer, and he just started this week! Jordan is also enrolled in the Bachelor of Fine Arts Acting program at the University of Alberta heading into his final year of study this fall. |
 Clarice
 Jake
 Jordan |
Welcome to all of our new staff members!
“Farce is tragedy played at a thousand revolutions per minute.”
~Sir John Mortimer
What's New at Theatre Alberta
Click the headline for more information.
ARTSTREK 2015 UPDATE
Theatre Alberta is pleased to announce that Artstrek 2015 registration has surpassed last year's total number of students! And, there's still more than a month before Artstrek begins...
There is still plenty of room at Artstrek! After expanding the program in 2013, we have the capacity to accept many more students. Help Theatre Alberta make Artstrek 2015 truly the #bestmidsummernightever - refer or sponsor a teen today!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the organizations that help us produce Artstrek every summer: Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Red Deer College, Cenovus Energy, Edmonton Arts Council and the City of Edmonton, Calgary Arts Development and the City of Calgary, and Alberta Milk and Saputo.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank organizations and individuals that have sponsored or pledged sponsorship to send students to Artstrek thus far:
- Musical Theatre Parent’s Association
- Windmill
Theatre Players
- North Peace Performing Arts Festival Association
- Kevin McKendrick
- Storybook Theatre Society
- Horizon Theatre Advisory Board
- Horizon Stagelighter Society
- Louise Mallory
- Lac Cardinal Regional Performing Arts Society
- Theatre 75
- Julie Sinclair
- Morpheus Theatre
- Swan River First Nation
- River Valley Players
- Ben Sauve Artstrek Bursary
- Karen Cork
- Alberta High School Drama Festival Association
We look forward to making new partnerships with more organizations and individuals over the next month, and sharing the full list of Artstrek sponsors and supporters once the program is completed!
Artstrek 2015 will be held at Red Deer College as follows:
- Exploration I (for ages 12-14): July 5 – 10, 2015
- Exploration II (for ages 15-16): July 12 – 17, 2015
- Exploration III (for ages 17-18): July 19 – 25, 2015
Click here to register for Artstrek 2015 online.
Not sure if you're ready to apply? Try our Artstrek Practice Application Form to be sure!
Click here to watch our Memories from Artstrek 2014 video, featuring teachers, supers and students from last summer's program.
Click here for the full Artstrek 2015 website menu.
LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER FOR THE SPONSORSHIP TUTORIAL SERIES
Theatre Alberta has recently partnered with Business for the Arts, Canada’s only national charitable organization of business members who support the arts, to provide its unique Sponsorship Tutorial Series to small-to-mid-sized arts organizations.
The process of finding and asking for sponsorship dollars can be daunting. The Sponsorship Tutorial Series aims to help arts organizations develop sponsorship strategies through easy-to-follow, step-by-step online tutorials. The tutorials will take you through each stage of the sponsorship process to give you the tools and confidence to go after the sponsorship your organization deserves.
The Series is reasonably priced, with a variety of packages to choose from depending on your organization’s current needs and capacity.
Staff at Theatre Alberta has had the opportunity to review some of the Series, and we found it to be a great overview with some very useful information and tips. We will be incorporating strategies described into our own sponsorship efforts.
The deadline to register is TOMORROW - Thursday June 4.
Intrigued? Click here to find out more and to register. If you have questions or would like more information, please call Morgan Norwich, Operations and Partnerships Coordinator, at 780-422-8162 (in Edmonton) or 1-888-422-8160 (toll-free in Alberta), or email her at morgan@theatrealberta.com.
THEATRE ALBERTA PLAYBILL CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
On Friday, June 5th, we will request production information from our member organizations to be included in the Theatre Alberta Playbill service for the 2015/2016 theatre season. We will also be requesting information for our Young Playbill: Theatre Opportunities for Youth.
The Theatre Alberta Playbill service is the most comprehensive resource in Alberta providing information on professional, community, and post-secondary theatre productions and festivals during the theatre season. The Young Playbill was introduced in 2014, and is the only resource in Alberta that provides a comprehensive list of Albertan theatre programs for children and teens (18 years and under).
With a minimum print run of 3,500 copies, the Playbill & Young Playbill poster is distributed througout the province to theatres, arts organizations, schools, libraries, entertainment reporters and Theatre Alberta members. We have upgraded our online Playbill with some cool new features this year, allowing users to search for productions by individual dates and see detailed production information on every listing. In 2014/2015, the online Playbill was viewed nearly 2,000 times every month.
Theatre Alberta members may include their theatre productions on our Playbill free-of-charge, and can also purchase display ads on the Young Playbill at substantially reduced prices compared to non-members. (Last year we had a waiting list of companies looking to advertise on the Young Playbill poster; we've redesigned our advertising space to accommodate more ads.) The Young Playbill display advertising spec sheet and pricing will be available on June 5th.
If you operate an independent collective or are part of a theatre company that is not a Theatre Alberta group member, please email aaron@theatrealberta.com if you would like to receive the call for submissions on June 5th.
The deadline to submit theatre information to the Theatre Alberta Playbill will be June 30th.
ADFA 2015 PROVINCIAL ONE ACT FESTIVAL WRAP-UP
Congratulations to The Tighty Whities of Calgary! Their production of Smee’s Secret was awarded Outstanding Production at The Alberta Drama Festival Association (ADFA) Provincial One-Act Theatre Festival, which took place May 22 - 23 at the Welikoklad Event Centre at Red Deer College's downtown campus. The festival adjudicator was Gail Whiteford.
The Tighty Whities will receive a one-day Workshop by Request as their prize. The full list of award recipients included:
- Award for Technical Merit:
Cartoon in a Cartoon Graveyard by Gerald Osborn, Edmonton region
- Outstanding Actress:
Pattie Dwyer, The Mountaintop by Pattie Dwyer, North region
- Outstanding Actor:
Jim Zalick, Cartoon in a Cartoon Graveyard by Gerald Osborn, Edmonton region
- Outstanding New Play (Sponsored by Alberta Playwrights’ Network):
The Mountaintop by Pattie Dwyer, North region
- Outstanding Director:
Florence Maione, A Poster of the Cosmos by Lanford Wilson, Foothills region
- Outstanding Production:
Smee’s Secret, by Emma Sinclair, Kathryn Smith, and Kelly Malcolm, Calgary region
Congratulations to the finalist productions, and all the companies who competed in regional festivals as well—for more information about the ADFA visit adfa.ca.
Theatre Alberta would also like to congratulation the award recipients and honourable mentions recognized at the Alberta High School Drama Festival Association (AHSDFA) Provincial Festival that took place at Red Deer College May 7 - 9. The number of recipients is too large to list here - check out our news story on our website to see the full list!
ARTSTREK 2015 FUNDING PROGRAM DEADLINES
| Program: |
Artstrek Rural Outreach Bursary |
| Eligibility: |
To be eligible, you must live 80km or more outside of Edmonton or Calgary. |
| Deadline: |
June 8, 2015. |
| More information: |
The bursary is specifically for teens in smaller communities or in rural Alberta, where there are fewer opportunities for students interested in theatre and drama to explore their craft. There are two $300 bursaries available for teens attending Artstrek 2015. |
| Additional details: |
Click here for more information. |
Find community sponsorship opportunities at www.theatrealberta.com/artstrek/community-sponsorship.
If you offer or would like to offer teens community sponsorship funding, please email Aaron Talbot at aaron@theatrealberta.com to have your organization and program profiled on our Artstrek Community Sponsorship webpage.
WORKSHOPS BY REQUEST - June
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Workshops by Request are coordinated by Theatre Alberta at your request and targeted to the specific needs of your theatre company. Workshops in both technical and non-technical aspects of theatre bring highly trained professionals to your community for one, one and a half, or two-day workshops.
Click here to apply for a Workshop by Request.
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Workshops by Request scheduled for June 2015 include:
Site-Specific Theatre in Edmonton
On June 28, The Common Ground Arts Society will host a workshop on Site-Specific Theatre—that will culminate in a performance—as part of their Found Festival. Leading the workshop will be Mark Hopkins and Charles Netto the Co-Artistic Directors of Calgary’s Swallow-A-Bicycle Theatre.
Things are already in the works for a couple workshops next fall, including: a two-day Directing workshop in Camrose hosted by Churchmice Players and a Dialect workshop in Drayton Valley hosted by the River Valley Players.
Workshops by Request will take a break during July and August—however, you can still submit a Workshops by Request application for workshops that take place in the fall of 2015. Any theatre organization in Alberta that is a group member of Theatre Alberta may apply for a workshop through the Workshops by Request program. For more information, please email at frazer@theatrealberta.com.
LIBRARY HOURS
Theatre Alberta has switched over to our Summer Library Schedule. Just a reminder that the Library will be closed Friday thru Sunday until the end of August. (The Drop Box will be available during regular times.)
Summer Schedule: June 1 to August 31, 2015
Mon: 12-8 pm
Tues/Wed/Thurs: 10 am–3 pm
Fri/Sat/Sun: Closed
Please note Theatre Alberta's Library will be closed July 1st for Canada Day. The Drop Box will be unavailable.
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indicates production was written/collectively created by an Albertan artist/group
indicates production was written/collectively created by a Canadian artist/group
