After offering emergency financial support to emerging artists affected by the coronavirus crisis, the National Theatre School (NTS) is proud to announce the next phase of its Art Apart initiative. Online classes for theatre artists, an exhibition of set and costume design artworks will be presented online for the first time, as well as two performances by graduating students.

FREE ONLINE CLASSES

In keeping with its mission to provide incomparable theatre training delivered from artist to artist, NTS will share 10 theatre classes online. Teaching artists from the professional training programs will offer classes to allow artists to deepen their craft. This is another way to continue sharing knowledge and having a dialogue among artists across Canada. “We have a responsibility to constantly interrogate ourselves on how best to meet the needs of our community,” says Alisa Palmer, Artistic Director of the English section. “In the current context, it’s more important than ever to foster a sense of community and to provide creative work opportunities for artists.”

Here are the teaching artists who will be leading conferences, conversations and classes online in the coming weeks:

• Tamara Marie Kucheran, Stand Back! Physical Distance and Fashion: from Paniers to Punks to Pool Noodles - A brief history of "physical distancing" inspired clothing
• Brenda Bazinet
• Debashis Sinha, Periphery of the sound designer’s world
• Dean Patrick Fleming, Writing for Young audiences
• Arianna Bardesono, Brewing ideas on scenic space : the director’s prep up to meeting the set designer
• Dany Boudreault, Initiation à la poésie pour les acteurs (3 séances)
• Xavier Huard (2 entretiens en baladodiffusion)
• Daniel Canty (2 conférences : la mise en ligne et le théâtre des éloignements)
• Monument-National Campus : Caroline Ferland et Julie Marie Bourgeois, Réflexion, Réflexion
• François Vincent et Stéphane Longpré, Conversation

NEW WORDS FESTIVAL

The New Words Festival is the culminating project of the graduating class of the English Section. For over a decade, students in all five of NTS' core programs work on these two brand-new plays for over a year, before sharing them with a live audience in the Studio Hydro-Québec at the Monument-National.

This year, social distancing measures have forced our campuses to close and students to stay home. But we’ve decided that the show must go on – online that is. We are so excited to share these plays with you, albeit in a different environment.

In only a few short weeks, the Directing, Acting and Playwriting students have boldly explored what it means to stage these plays in a virtual setting. We are immensely proud of our students for adapting so quickly to the situation. We invite you to experience these innovative new plays and explore what intimacy, spontaneity and togetherness mean in a lockdown digital age.

The Game, May 1st and 2nd, on Zoom, live with audience interaction
by Gillian Clark (Playwriting 3, Halifax, NS), directed by Angelica Schwartz (Directing 2, Winnipeg, MB), performed by graduating students from the Acting program

i am entitled to rest, May 4 to 6, on youtube
by Kalale Dalton-Lutale (Playwriting 3, Toronto, ON) and directed by Murdoch Schon (Directing 2, Montreal, QC), performed by graduating students from the Acting program

DIGITAL EXHIBITION

Each year, 2nd-year students in Set and Costume Design present works created in the first two years of their training: costume sketches, set models, life drawings, paintings, etchings, and more! This virtual event is part of their exhibition design class. In the current situation, the exhibition has been transformed into a website, which is an equally relevant learning experience in their training.

Don’t miss expo-pigments.ca starting May 1st.

The National Theatre School (NTS) is pleased to announce that Power Corporation of Canada and Canada’s public broadcaster, CBC, will contribute to NTS’ Art Apart project to support emerging artists who are facing increased financial precariousness because of cancelled contracts and lack of job opportunities due to social distancing measures.

Power Corporation’s generous contribution to enhance NTS’ Art Apart program will enable NTS to select 20 new artists to receive a grant among those who have already submitted their application. A total of 100 Art Apart works will be shown. The newly selected artists will be announced shortly. In the meantime, meet the first Art Apart artists on TheatreTraining.ca.

This partnership will also serve to share the Art Apart works more widely, as each work will benefit from national advertising, advertising in the artists’ community of origin, and amplification to a national audience by CBC through the public broadcaster’s newly launched ART UNCONTAINED collection, featuring a diverse range of innovative content supporting the Canadian artistic community and inspiring audiences during these unprecedented times.

Finally, this donation allows NTS to launch online theatre classes offered by the teaching artists of NTS’ professional training programs and to share online the work of students in the professional programs. Details of this second phase of the project will be announced at a later date.

“On behalf of the entire NTS team, I want to thank Power Corporation and CBC Arts for their valuable support of the Art Apart project,” said Gideon Arthurs, CEO of NTS. “Since the beginning of this crisis, the NTS team has been working tirelessly to continue to support emerging artists and to offer them the opportunity to continue to create and be financially supported. These two partnerships will allow these artists to continue working and to come together, digitally, with audiences.”

575 artists from 10 Canadian provinces and 2 territories have applied for the Art Apart project. This initiative by the National Theatre School of Canada (NTS) will provide $60,000 in support to emerging artists (as 80 grants of $750), who are facing increased financial precariousness due to the COVID-19 crisis.

“Artists help keep the social fabric alive, even from a physical distance, said Gideon Arthurs, CEO of NTS. Their work is essential to bringing our communities together even in times of isolation. We want to thank all applicants for their courage and desire to share their work and artistic practices with a wide audience during this difficult time. »

All selected artists have now been notified.

Click here to see the first artworks. Stay tuned for more! A total of 80 works will be broadcast in the coming weeks.

The works will be broadcast throughout April and May on TheatreTraining.ca and on the National Theatre School's and the artists’ social networks through the hashtag #artapart. Please follow along. We hope you will find as much pleasure as we did discovering these artists!

ABOUT THE SUBMISSIONS

Artists who have submitted artistic projects come from all areas of theatre (acting, directing, lighting design, production design and technical arts, playwriting, set and costume design, sound design) and from all genres (performance, musical theatre, puppet theatre, clown, improv, devised theatre, monologue).

These students and young graduates come from dozens of educational institutions across the country (National Theatre School of Canada, Concordia University, Dalhousie University, George Brown, Humber College, John Abbott College, McGill University, Queen’s University, Ryerson, Sheridan College, University of Ottawa, University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, University of Saskatchewan, University of Toronto, University of Victoria, University of Windsor, York University and more). Other artists have received mentorship or culturally specific learning.

This great diversity of languages, cultural backgrounds, provinces, regions and fields of theatre studies will be reflected in the 80 selected works.

Because physical distance shouldn’t mean total isolation, the National Theatre School of Canada (NTS) is allocating $60,000 in support of emerging artists (as 80 grants of $750). These funds will be granted to theatre artists in training, or artists who have completed a theatre training program within the past five years, to present a piece of art online.

With the COVID-19 crisis, artists find themselves in a situation of increased financial precarity due to the closure of performance venues and cancellation of contracts. The impressive and diverse arts community is already finding a thousand ways to keep hope and art alive in times of social distancing. Through this initiative, NTS continues to provide a voice and support to emerging artists. It’s a way to help minimize the impact of this crisis in the arts community and to provide much-needed assistance to artists who are in the early stages of their careers by rapidly injecting funds into the arts sector.

“Young artists, already living close to the poverty line, are finding themselves in particularly precarious situations because of cancelled contracts and lack of job opportunities, all while trying to manage the emotional weight of enforced isolation. This fund will hopefully go a little way to providing them some breathing space while helping them share their artistic voices. Art is a cornerstone of a compassionate society, allowing us to engage with the complexity of our times and we need it more than ever,” says Gideon Arthurs, CEO of NTS.

Eligibility

Theatre artists currently enrolled in and artists graduated within the past five years from a theatre training program anywhere in Canada are invited to submit a project. NTS recognizes that university and conservatory-type training programs are not accessible to everyone and therefore encourages artists who consider themselves to be in training (mentorship or culturally specific learning) to submit their work.

Artists from all theatre disciplines, including set and costume design, lighting, sound and video design, playwriting, directing and acting, are eligible to apply. Artists from all regions of Canada, from all backgrounds and languages are welcome.

The artist must own all rights to the work presented.

How to apply

To submit a project, artists are asked to fill out the application form.

Artists have until March 31, 2020 to submit their work or their project proposal for a live performance. NTS will select projects of various of forms from across the country (such as: performance recorded on video, monologue, text, sketches, paintings, and more). NTS will begin to share and promote works as soon as possible, while still receiving project proposals until March 31, 2020.

In addition to the financial support ($750 bursary), the selected artists will have their work disseminated via NTS networks with the hashtag #artapart.

Projects will be evaluated based on the originality of the concept, coherence of the application, relevance, and feasibility. The selection committee is made up of NTS staff members.