Curriculum - Acting

Our training

NTS offers highly individualized training. As such, the curriculum is subject to change, following the latest development in technology, new artistic practices, and the needs of the specific group of artists making up each class.

Our training is always practical, underpinned by the 20 student shows created each year.

Curriculum

1st Year

Core Classes

  • Pure Movement and Imaginative Play for Actors including Laban, Imaginative Play, Animals, Elements with Rebecca Harper
  • Foundations of Voice and Speech: Breath / Body / Voice connection, Poetry, Sonnets with Laurel Thomson
  • Choral and Ensemble Singing Music Theory including Ear Training and Sight Reading with Floydd Ricketts
  • Vocal Play and Text with Brian Dooley
  • Stage Combat with Anita Nittoly and David Chinchilla
  • Canadian Theatre in Context with Leah Jane Esau
  • Theatre History with Willow White
  • Text work with Mike Payette
  • Ongoing Creative Resistance Through Indigenous Theatre with Wahsonti:ioKirby

Project Work

  • Silent Improvisation with Brad Cook
  • Jeu and Play with Arianna Bardesono
  • Neutral Mask with Rebecca Harper
  • Project Motherland with Todd Houseman
  • Introduction to an Actor’s Process - Scorched by Wajdi Mouawad with Fiona Byrne and Yousef Kadoura
  • Shakespeare Scene Study – As You Like It - with Tim Welham and Jessica B Hill
  • Improvisation with Dialogue with Rebecca Northan
  • Solo Piece Creation with Ann-Marie MacDonald, Rose Plotek and Mel Hague
  • Creation Project (Year 1 of a 3-year process) - with Maiko Yamamoto
  • Canadian Theatre Study - Angelique by Lorena Gale with Quincy Armorer and Willow White
  • Full Play Study TBD with Quincy Armorer
  • New Play Development - Workshops and Play Readings with students of the Playwriting Program

2nd Year

Core Classes

  • Movement for Actors: Pure Movement, Laban, Imaginative Play, Animals, Elements in connection to text with Rebecca Harper
  • Breath / Body / Voice connection, Dialects, Shakespeare Monologues with Laurel Thomson
  • Choral and Ensemble Singing, Music Theory including Ear Training and Sight Reading with Floydd Ricketts
  • Stage Combat with Anita Nittoly, David Chinchilla and John Stead
  • Ballet and Contemporary Dance Forms with Andrew Giday
  • 20th-century Dance Forms with Jocelyn Coutu
  • Vocal Mask with Brian Dooley
  • Theatre History with Willow White
  • Complex Movement with The Montreal Steppers

Project Work

  • Canadian Scene study with Diana Donnelly, Andre Sills and Harveen Sandu 
  • Chekov Intensive with Jackie Maxwell and Jessica B Hill
  • Creation Project (year 2 of 3) with Jiv Parasram and Christine Quintana
  • Solo Song with Floydd Ricketts and Alexis Gordon
  • Shaw Intensive with Graeme Somerville and Marla Mclean
  • From Page to Stage- Contemporary Theatre – 365 Plays/365 Days by Suzan Lori Parks Directed by Alisa Palmer
  • Expressive Mask with Rebecca Harper
  • Make-up Technique with Florence Cornet
  • Shakespeare Studio Production- A Most Offensive Soul a Mash up of the Henry Plays adapted and directed by Danielle Irvine
  • 15-minute and New Play Development with Students of the Directing and Playwriting Programs

3rd Year

Core Classes

  • Movement and Voice and Text Coaching with Rebecca Harper and Laurel Thomson
  • Music Theatre Audition Technique with Floydd Ricketts
  • Commercial and Voice-over Techniques with Alain Goulem
  • Methodology of Auditions; Classical and Contemporary Monologues with Fiona Byrne and Tim Welham
  • Professional Development -Self-initiative and Business Knowledge workshops with Caroline Aki Matsushita-Guertin and Cherissa Richards
  • New Play Development workshops of new scripts with Students of the Directing and Playwriting Programs and Professional Dramaturges and David Yee
  • Next Generation Audition Showcase with Tim Welham, Fiona Byrne and Cherissa Richards
  • Self Tape workshopwith Meegwun Fairbrother

Productions

  • Creation production An Irresistible Urge To Do Something Inadvisable directed by Jani Lauzon.
  • Mainstage 1 Venus by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Mike Payette with Rebecca Harper and Warone Setshwaelo
  • National Audition Showcase in Toronto, ON
  • Film Audition Workshop with Deirdre Bowen
  • Mainstage 2 Cabaret by Joe Masteroff (Book), John Kander (Music), Fred Ebb (lyrics), based on a play by John van Druten and the stories of Christopher Isherwooddirected by MatjashMrozewski and music direction by Floydd Ricketts
  • Cabaret Performance with Floydd Ricketts
  • Film Intensive with Allan Hawco
  • New Words Festival Plays - TBD

Note: Curriculum varies each year according to student needs and productions. Here is a sample of curriculum from the 2021/22 school year.

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