Centre Stage Theatre School

Centre Stage offers a wide range of drama, music theatre, vocal music, and on-camera classes, in order to provide quality programs for a wide range of students, interests and circumstances. Classes based on age group and performance discipline allow us to focus on individual and specific development for everyone from enthusiastic beginners to serious seasoned performers. Extensive and varied performance experiences, opportunities for competition at festivals and for speech exams for those who wish it, our student-centred choice of material, and opportunities for volunteering, technical and production work, allow for student choice and ensure an individualized and unique experience for all students. Centre Stage also offers private singing and acting classes, as well as specialty workshops in a variety of areas.

Our student-centred opportunities WILL CONTINUE AND HAVE included:

• The World Festival of Children’s Theatre
  • June 28-Sept. 1/15: Working with the Centre Stage Faculty and music video director and cinematographer Evan Winter, Centre Stage students are creating a video to be sent world-wide inviting groups of children to share their stories of our world for a WFCT website.
  • June 10-12/16: Centre Stage students will perform at the WFCT symposium in Stratford Ontario
• Speech Arts and Drama Festivals
  • Since our inception 6 years ago, 9 Centre Stage students have been chosen to represent Burlington at the provincial Speech Arts finals of the OMFA. Our students have been consistent multi-medal recipients at Speech Arts Festivals.
• RCM Exams
  • Centre Stage student Barbara Morrone Sanchez has scored the top mark in Ontario for her grade in her Speech arts exams for the past six years. Last year she scored the province’s top mark for her grade on her initial exam.
• Senior Trip
  • For the past 3 years, our senior students and some families have attended the Broadway Student Summit workshops in New York City.
• Community Outreach
  • In the community, students participated in Santa’s Welcome, the Burlington Public Library playbuilding workshop, Momstown end of year celebration, and a 2014 Crossroads video. Many students have played significant parts in their school productions, and in community productions, and several have made demos at a recording studio. Since 2011,  students have played roles in Centre Stage Theatre Productions’ summer and spring shows.
• Original Student Work
  • In addition to published material, our students have written and performed original scripts (Girl in the Mirror Erin MacLachlan & Sr. Drama) and music (It’s Over – Makayla Edwards, Glee)
• Script Selection
  • We choose our shows each year in collaboration with our students in order to ensure material that showcases the students in each class and to represent student interests.

Helen’s students have performed professionally in Canada from Charlottetown to Vancouver, in Europe, on Broadway, in L.A. and in international touring productions throughout North America and Europe. They also work professionally as writers, theatre and film directors, stage managers, production managers, and lighting and sound designers. Many of her students are teaching the arts throughout Canada, in England, Australia, and Indonesia.

PERFORMANCE OPPORTUNITIES

STUDENTS: Since our inception 6 years ago,  Centre Stage students have been chosen to represent Burlington at the provincial Speech Arts finals of the OMFA. Our students have won many medals at Speech Arts Festivals.

Centre Stage student Barbara Morrone Sanchez has scored the top mark in Ontario for her grade in her Speech arts exams for the past six years. Last year she scored the province’s top mark for her grade on her initial exam.

In the community, students participated in Santa’s Welcome, the Burlington Public library playbuilding workshop, Momstown end of year celebration, and a Crossroads video.
Many students have played significant parts in their school productions, and in community productions. Since 2011, 40 students have played roles in Centre Stage Theatre Productions’ summer and spring shows.

POSSIBLE WORLDS: A GLOBAL INVITATION

For the first time in North America, the world’s children came to Canada for the World Festival of Children’s Theatre. From June 5-14, 2016, Stratford, Ontariohosted up to 500 children, ages 7-15, in a theatre festival unlike any other. Under the theme “My World, Our Planet,” up to 22 countries will show how children see their world. The festival is “for children, by children,” with productions for children and kids at heart.

The Festival wants to give children 7-15 worldwide a way to be seen, to contribute, to add their voices – regardless of distance.  By fall 2015, a group of students from Centre Stage Theatre School in Burlington, ON, prepared and videoed their own short pretext/invitation based on the theme “Possible Worlds,” with the idea being: “If we [children] led the world, this is how we would like it to be.” The Centre Stage vision was to offer their piece of a puzzle – and invite groups of children worldwide to add their own vision. The videos were shown throughout the 10 days of the celebration, and the Festivalset up a permanent website that will house the videos and give the students a chance to stay in touch with one another internationally. They worked with music video director and cinematographer Evan Winter as well as with the Centre Stage Faculty.

Working with the Centre Stage Faculty and music video director and cinematographer Evan Winter, Centre Stage students created a video to be sent world-wide inviting groups of children to share their stories of our world for a WFCT website.

Centre Stage also performed live at the Festival symposium.

photography courtesy of Paola Marrone