The application process to the Acting program culminates with the callback workshops, held during the month of May. The callback is a series of classes and workshops typical of the training at NTS. It is led by NTS faculty members and professional artists. Below, applicants share some thoughts about this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The call

“When I learned about my invitation for a callback, I was jovial. It was more than a step toward getting into NTS, it was affirmation and encouragement for me, and my potential as an actor.” –Isaac, BC

“When I heard about the callback, I threw my fist up in the air, cheered myself on, and ran around the apartment like a madman. Then I acted like it was no big deal. It was great news to hear.” –Andres, MB

“I was so happy that my eyes filled with tears. I told my mom immediately and then unsuccessfully tried to calm myself down. Ha ha.” –Dakota, QC

The work

“I adored the class work that we did at the beginning of the day. Everyone was working their hardest and really contributing to a supportive and fun class.” –Madison, AB

“The opportunity to do voice and movement exercises really surprised me the most. I didn’t know what the workshop would entail so having the opportunity to go in depth with those exercises while being guided by professionals for a couple of hours was a real treat.” –Andres, MB

The people

“What surprised me the most about the workshop was how diverse our callback group was. I was very happy to see people not only from Canada, but from the UK and America as well. Also, seeing other actors of colour was very encouraging and representative of not only Canada’s landscape, but the world as a whole.” –Dakota, QC

“The group of people I got to share the weekend with were some of the most talented and passionate people I’ve ever met.” –Ben, PEI

“Meeting Alisa Palmer has been an honour. I was so inspired by her after leaving my first audition that receiving a callback was a huge privilege to be able to work with her for a few more hours.” –Isaac, BC

“Because it’s such an intimate and vulnerable setting over the two days, it really gave me the opportunity to get to know them well. I made some fast friends and met some kindred spirits. I felt more community and warmth in those two days than I did all year.” –Margot, ON

“I really valued the words that people gave me when I was a little flustered. It was nice to hear the journeys and advice of the other people.” –Madison, AB

“I was so blown away by the talent present and the incredible attitude that was so conducive to creation. The entire experience was incredible.” –Dustin, QC

“It was such a beautifully collaborative space, there was no sense of competition or judgment. It was all about seeing what each of us had to offer, and understanding what young people all over the country are doing with their theatre.” –Chloe, QC

The self

“I learned so much about myself as an actor and an artist. I learned that no matter how nervous or anxious I may feel going into a situation, I am capable of opening up and being vulnerable and connecting with the people I’m with. I left the callback feeling inspired.” –Margot, ON

“The callback process was both life-changing and life-affirming for me. It really cemented the fact that acting is what I want to do with my life. This was one of the most important and most enjoyable weekends of my entire life.” –Ben, PEI

“Something I learned about myself in the workshop is that risks are something that scare me, but that’s also where the heart of theatre lies… And that I need to continue to go where the fear is in order to grow as an artist.” –Dakota, QC

“The callback was one of the most inspiring artistic experiences of my life.” –Dustin, QC

I’ve felt fear in my heart the past few months regarding what has been happening between indigenous land defenders and armed RCMP in B.C. This fear has been slowly escalating to an anxiety that occasionally leaves me in tears. This feeling is compounded on the stresses of everyday winter life that I believe so many adults feel. I sometimes wonder how the average canadian feels about this country and the communities that surround them. I know that everyone has a complex narrative spanning many lives behind them but I wonder if this country gives them comfort and why. I am sure that many people view this country as a place of safety, security, and as well as a home, just as I am sure that others do not think about these types of things. I do know, though, that everyone I see has an immense need for the land they inhabit in some way or another and would feel hurt if they were asked to leave it.

The Wet’suwet’en have lived on and maintained their territory using their ways and customs as many indigenous communities have, since long before settlers arrived in their territory. They are incredible because they have survived the harsh effects of colonization like so many communities across Turtle Island. In 1997, the supreme court of canada ruled that the Wet’suwet’en people, as represented by their hereditary leaders, had not given up rights and title to 22,000 square kilometers of northern B.C. By their laws and by the laws of canada their land is theirs. All five clans of the Wet’suwet’en have unanimously opposed all pipeline proposals and have not provided free, prior, and informed consent to coastal gaslink/ transcanada to do work on Wet’suwet’en lands.

Todd Houseman(Acting 3, Edmonton, AB) in Burning Vision by Marie Clements, directed by Mike Payette and presented in December 2019 at the Monument-National

When I follow this story, I am reminded that this country’s relationship to the land of my ancestors has been one of great turmoil. Today as I read the news I am reminded: that the ecosystem of the land my great-great-grandparents inhabited was destroyed by the over hunting of bison to meet the needs of settlers entering the territory, or how the lakes and rivers that fed the communities I am born of can no longer be drunk without treatment, or of the schools that my people were forced to attend because our customs and ways were deemed inappropriate, or the missing and murdered indigenous women, or the vast plains and forests my kin used to live in harmony with and how much things have changed in such a short amount of time. When I think of all these things, I feel a great weight, and I am only one person. I believe these feelings are felt by a great many people that carry the same anxiety that brings me to tears as this story is not mine alone.

Today, militarized police have been deployed to remove land protectors from Wet’suwet’en territory in a situation similar to the Oka crisis that happened 30 years ago here in quebec. They are being removed so an oil company can build a pipeline through their territory and they are being removed by the police of this country.

It feels awful, horrible, and embarrassing to be at the end of a long story that is beginning again right now and being able to look back at the pain suffered by my ancestors, pain I feel in my bones, and know that it has begun again for so many more to come. The history of this country has repeated itself.

How can this still be happening today? When I ask myself this question, my answer is one of great sorrow. One that makes me feel that myself and the community I belong to are uncared for. This feeling is crushing. It spirals into a depression and leaves me feeling low and broken.

I write this now because I feel helpless and I do not know what to do about the tremendous weight of the feelings that go along being a colonized person. These feelings have been felt around the world by so many others throughout human history time and time again, yet now with the use of the internet, which I use to cry out my woes as so many before me cried into silence throughout the history of colonization.

Todd Houseman (Acting 3, Edmonton, AB) Indra’s Web, a creative collection piece by the graduating class of 2020 in Acting, Production Design and Technical Arts, and Set and Costume Design. In collaboration with directors Arianna Bardesono (Directing, 2007) and Zach Fraser, presentedat the Monument-National in October 2019

And yet even now as I write this, I feel my pain turn to anger and then to sadness and turn and turn in a fit of held energy. This energy is being built up to a point of breaking that I must use to create or be destroyed. I can only try to do my best by continuing to dedicate my work to fighting for what is right and to sharing with you something precious to me, my stories and my feelings. This sharing is something that so many indigenous artists before me have done, and so many before me were not allowed.

I think we artists have a responsibility to use our voices, bodies, minds, words, screams, laughter, movements, silence, tools, and images, as instruments of change, to remind as many people as we are able, that we are human beings, and we deserve to be fought for. I hope we can all reflect on this situation as a call to action that our voices are important and we have an opportunity to use them for good, because no one should feel how I feel when I hear the story of Wet’suwet’en.

Todd Houseman (Acting 3, Edmonton, AB) is a third-year student at the National Theatre School of Canada in the Acting program.

Subscribe to our newsletter. Never miss a blog post – they’ll come straight to your inbox!

Students were invited to speak to Board members and Governors at the School’s Annual General Meeting.They have allowed us to reproduce their speeches on this blog. Here, Todd Houseman (Acting 3, Edmonton, AB) shares with us the challenges faced by Indigenous people in theatre and his hopes for Canadian theatre to become more inclusive in the future.

Todd Houseman (Acting 3) delivering his speech at the 2019 Annual General Meeting

I think it would take time, maybe years, to digest how my experience at NTS has affected me and any reflection I had now would perhaps be too near to the still-hot, radioactive waves produced by attending a 3-year conservatory program with no Saturdays off; one that I feel I have tackled, with equal parts deep and freezing introspection, and vapid staring at cold concrete ceilings.

I can say that right now, in this exact moment, that my time at NTS has been a strong and reflective learning experience where I have been able to challenge myself artistically, emotionally and physically; learn more about who I am and understand better my relationship with the space I occupy with my ever-refining voice, all the while laughing, crying, lifting and leaning on 13 of the strangest and most beautiful friends I’ll ever have.

Todd Houseman (Acting 3) and Mark Breton (Interprétation 3, Montreal, QC) during the 24 Hours Creation Project called Tutti Frutti

Looking back on my experience at NTS I will ultimately be connected to my reason for choosing to apply to a classical training institution, and that was to take action against the embarrassing sense of feeling like a token young, indigenous, Cree Mixed Blood actor. This is something I have personally felt while working as a professional in the chaos years of my early 20s, and based on secret conversations with many other indigenous people, I know I’m not alone in feeling tokenized. I figured that if I applied and was accepted to the National Theatre School that I would be able to contribute to the visibility of indigenous professionals working in theatre, and lead to a dismantling of tokenism through increasing indigenous leadership roles. This goal of mine is achievable using the skills I’ve gained, skills I’ve sharpened, and newly forged pathways created here at this school, between students and teachers alike. Though the work I do to achieve this goal often puts me in the very specific position of taking on a lot of emotional work. This school offers wonderful resources to ensure the health of its students, which I have benefitted from, but no amount of support can erase the intense and crushing feeling of being a colonized people.

“I look forward to seeing indigenous leaders rise in this school and the new indigenous programming employee to fill the space that would make this program better for indigenous students”

Throughout my schooling I have always been the only Indigenous person in my classroom save for a few times of being one of 2 or 3. This creates a strong narrative in a young mind that one does not belong to this non-Indigenous majority. This thought is a product of colonization in that we indigenous people subconsciously feel like we are meant to fail by the narrative of Canada and the actions this country has taken to destroy our people. This lives inside of me and is very difficult to treat. I know the school is aware of this feeling I have, and I see its sensitivities to how we indigenous people feel, but there are a great many steps that need to happen before I and assumedly most Indigenous people feel safe in Canadian schools.

Todd Houseman (Acting 3) in Indra’s Web, a collective creation piece by the graduating students in Acting, Production Design and Technical Arts, and Set and Costume Design, presented in Fall of 2019

My experience at NTS was made easier by having other indigenous students around me, ones who understand the colonial impact on our experiences in schools. We are able to lift each other in ways others may not know how. The student body at this school is amazing, with a diversity of perspectives and politics, most of whom strive to contribute to the conversations around diversity in theatre and what that means. It would have been easier throughout my schooling in general to have more indigenous teachers and staff to help support from a leadership perspective and the same can be said about NTS. I look forward to seeing indigenous leaders rise in this school and the new indigenous programming employee to fill the space that would make this program better for indigenous students.

Wahsonti:io Kirby (Acting 3) and Todd Houseman (Acting 3) in Burning Vision by Marie Clements,

performed at the Monument-National in December 2019

As I mentioned earlier, it would take a long time to truly process my years at NTS. Some of the greatest connections in our movement studies have dawned on me months after class while walking through the forest, voice lessons can be learned by whispering lyrics on long walks home, text becomes clearer when finding you might be living in a Chekhovian play, and observing the world through a complicated and beautiful new lens is always a delight. I look forward to these enriching new lessons continually dawning on me after my time at this school has come to a close, and hope to channel this new power for good, by creating work that acts to dismantle that crushing feeling we Indigenous students can’t help but feel and by telling stories far greater than I ever thought I could.

Todd Houseman (Acting 3, Edmonton, AB) is a fourth-year student at the National Theatre School of Canada in the Acting program.

Subscribe to our newsletter. Never miss a blog post – they’ll come straight to your inbox!

Students were invited to speak to Board members and Governors at the School’s Annual General Meeting.They have allowed us to reproduce their speeches on this blog. Here, Irdens Exantus speaks about the moment when he knew that his life would be forever tied, in one way or another, to the theatre.

Irdens Exantus (Interprétation 3, Laval, QC) delivering his speech at the 2019 Annual General Meeting

I would like to begin by thanking the members of the Board of Directors and Governors who have provided me with the opportunity to be here with you this morning.

My name is Irdens Exantus. I am a third-year student in the Interprétration Program at the National Theatre School of Canada. I grew up in Fabreville, Laval, and went to the Collège Français de Montréal on Fairmont Street, just a few blocks from here. It is there that I met my high school drama teacher, Emmanuelle Ouellette, who introduced me to my first true love, theatre.

For as far back as I can remember, I have always felt a deep connection with the arts. And yet, back then, I didn’t fully realize just to what extent Ms. Ouellette had ignited a spark that was to become a burning need to act. A need to experience that moment when I dive headfirst into the void, where time is suspended, where we share our fears, our questionings, our rebelliousness.

Camille Giguerre-Côté (Interprétation 3, Montréal, QC) and Irdens Exantus (Interprétation 3, Laval, QC) in Dessiner le monde*, a young public show written by Tamara Nguyen (Écriture dramatique, 2019) and Hugo Féjabise (Écriture dramatique, 2019)

Unfortunately, ideas of studying to become a mechanical engineer, a lawyer, or even a pastor (the hope of every Haitian parent for their young son!) far outweighed my newly discovered passion. Above all, I wanted to follow my parents’ dream.

It was at the Collège Montmorency that I reaffirmed my love for acting by joining the theatre group, Le théâtre Délirium. At the end of CEGEP, my stage director recommended the Stage Horizons Diversité, a four-day program in which the participants explored different aspects of actor training at the National Theatre School through workshops given by the school’s teachers and coaches. At the time, I knew very little about the school except that it was one of the most prestigious theatre schools in Canada and that big names such as Roy Dupuis, Sylvie Drapeau, and Didier Lucien (my favourite!) had studied there.

Lydia Sherknies (Interprétation 3, Montréal, QC) and Irdens Exantus (Interprétation 3, Laval, QC) in the show Dessiner le monde, texts by Tamara Nguyen (Écriture dramatique, 2019) and Hugo Fréjabise (Écriture dramatique, 2019)

The workshops, however, were a real revelation for me. It was precisely then that I fell in love with the National Theatre School, not only for the quality of its teachers but also because of those workshops, which had already allowed me to know myself better, surpass myself as an actor, and develop my identity as an artist.

I knew right then that my life would be forever tied, in one way or another, to the theatre. My desire to act and to make a living from acting had almost become an obsession. It was only after I had enrolled and begun the Acting Program at the National Theatre School that I was able to relax. And this, despite the incredible chance I had had, right after I had finished the Stage Horizons Diversité, to make my film debut in Philippe Falardeau’s film Guibord s’en va-t-en guerre. Despite, too, that I was taking a huge risk in promising my parents that their son would have a more prolific career in theatre, in spite of the fact that nothing here can be taken for granted, that we are always having to start over, and that that’s a most terrifying thing.

Maxime-Olivier Potvin (Interprétation 3, Montréal, QC), Lydia Sherknies (Interprétation 3, Montréal, QC), Irdens Exantus (Interprétation 3, Montréal, QC), and Fabrice Girard (Interprétation 3, Montréal, QC) in the show Dessiner le monde, texts by Tamara Nguyen (Écriture dramatique, 2019) and Hugo Fréjabise (Écriture dramatique, 2019)

Nevertheless, it was to experience all of it that I decided to come and study here. To live these moments of complete freedom in which we can take the time to search, to make mistakes, to search even deeper, to cultivate what we discover and everything that shapes our character, our personality, our artistic DNA. To experience these moments when we give ourselves the right to fully celebrate being alive.

Thank you.

Did you know that NTS has a blog? It’s true!

Interested in hearing all about the latest news, opinions, sneak peeks, and even what’s going on in class across our 9 programs? Check out the blog and get the real scoop on the NTS experience! Each post brings you behind the scenes at the school and shows you the many talents of our students, teachers, and professionals.

* A new article every week – stay up to date by signing up now for our newsletter. Never miss a post – they’ll come straight to your inbox!

I’ve always believed that art is inherently political. When you make a piece of art you’re saying something about the way you think, the way you see things, the ways in which things have impacted you. Being an actor of colour I’ve learned that my body, in its simplest form, is a political statement. The roles I play have the potential of taking on a different meaning just because of my blackness. Studying at NTS has opened my mind to how I view myself as a performer and as a woman of colour. It has helped me come to accept the things I cannot change but also find the power that those very things can possess

In the last year, I changed my approach of how I view and study the characters I play. It becomes very easy to describe what a character likely looks like based on first impressions in a reading. It’s also very easy (and I’m sure many actors of any background would agree) to describe a character that looks nothing like ourselves. Yes, we inhabit these fictional lives for a period of time, but we don’t have the luxury of changing our bodies to conform to these ideas of what this person “ideally” looks like. It was then that I realized the importance and necessity of seeing myself in these characters. Not just Shauna in the abstract sense but also in the physical sense. Currently, my class is performing in a production of “The Threepenny Opera,” and indulging in the addition of “young black woman” to my own personal character description has been a true pleasure. Our director Eda Holmes was a great advocate for us as actors having a say in how our characters were portrayed.

One of the characters I play, Jimmy, is traditionally played by a man, and Eda was very encouraging in my choice to play Jimmy as a woman (because why couldn’t a “young black woman” be the fourth member of a super cool East London gang?!). This support meant the world to me because going forward I want to bring myself to the forefront of all of the work that I do. Each role I take on will always have an essence of Shauna in it. It’s unavoidable. So, it’s not a matter of fitting myself into a narrow idea of who the character is or could be, but finding the similarities between us and using those likenesses to build my own interpretation of the role.

Shauna Thompson
Graduating student of the Acting program (2018)