Save Our Summer Courses
In response to the potential cancellation of Concordia Theatre’s summer course offerings, including but not limited to TPER 201/202 (Introduction to Acting I and Introduction to Acting II) and TDEV 498B/C (Designing an Acting Workshop and Conducting an Acting Workshop), your CAST executive have initiated a petition (http://tinyurl.com/savesummer) which we intend to deliver to Dean of Fine Arts Catherine Wild within the next week.
We encourage all theatre students to sign it; we hope to rally the theatre community together and use our collective voice to encourage the administration to meaningfully engage with students as Concordia tackles its current budgetary problems. Furthermore, if you have had a meaningful experience in any Concordia Theatre summer course offering, please contact us and tell us about it so that we can share your stories with the Dean.
Thanks in advance for your support, and please share our petition widely!
While having never been able to take a summer Theatre course at Concordia (although I tried several times), I have heard many stories from fellow students of how endlessly helpful these courses have been.
I personally witnessed several close friends and colleagues of mine gain, over the course of the month-long intensive TDEV 498/C (Designing and Conducting an Acting Workshop), the necessary confidence to pursue their long-held dreams of becoming theatre teachers in their own right. I have yet to see my colleagues gain such competence with the work from any other source.
Other colleagues of mine who were having financial troubles managed to make ends meet by taking summer courses; speeding up the completion of their degree and thus reducing the amount of time that they spent paying school tuition.
These classes are immensely valuable, and a serious dialogue with students should be undertaken by the Dean of Fine Arts before cancelling them.
To whom it may very much concern,
My Name is Matt Dawson and I am in my fourth and final year of Concordia’s Theatre Performance Program.
I am writing to express how greatly disappointed I am to hear that the recent cuts in fine arts may result in losing the Designing and Conducting an Acting Workshop.
I took this course last summer with Bryan Doubt. The course was invaluable. It taught me the importance of understanding my own artistic process, and most importantly, it taught me how to benefit the practice of a fellow artist. The course developed a language in me that I needed as an actor.
I am now assistant teaching at Geordie Theatre School to young actors ages six to eleven. I would be in no shape to do this if I hadn’t taken this course, nor would I have my level of adaptability as an actor.
This is why I ask to whomever is responsible for making this decision to urgently reconsider cutting this course. It will only hurt the growth of future students. Moreover, there are few to no theatre studio courses offered in the summers.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Sincerely,
Matt