Saint John Theatre Company Launches Residency Program For Emerging Artists
SAINT JOHN – The Saint John Theatre Company is taking another ambitious step in its growth with the creation of the Atlantic Repertory Company (ARC), a profession residency program that will offer emerging artists the opportunities to develop their theatre careers and provide a deeper pool for locally staged productions.
“This program will have many benefits,” said executive director Stephen Tobias at a launch event Wednesday. “It will create new opportunities for emerging artists throughout our region. It will build creative capacity for the Saint John Theatre Company. It will add creative vibrancy to the already amazing cultural scene in Saint John, and these artists will be in a position to showcase the creative vibrancy of our community as they move out into the world as our representatives.”
Within three years, Tobias hopes to have 10-12 emerging artists with strong ties to the Atlantic region taking part in a 10-month paid residency that helps them develop their skills and contributes to the continued development of the theatre scene here.
“These residents will receive career mentorship from national class professionals that we will engage to coach them,” said Tobias. “What we want to do is foster in them a spirit of leadership that will help further their careers so that, in years down the road we will have a network of senior and mid-career professionals that are showing leadership throughout the industry and they’re going to be our pals and our partners forever after. We want to develop [ongoing] relationships with them.”
Tobias envisions them creating things like a new summer festival for the region similar to ones that take place in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
“We really don’t have one of those in southern New Brunswick and we believe there is room for one and I believe ARC will be the team that can deliver that,” he said.
He also expects that they will help out with the education outreach programs operated by the theatre company.
The theatre company plans to stage the development of this new program over three years. They will begin with two stage productions in the first year and plan to have the residency program in place in three years.
The first two productions will be two dramas: No Man Is An Island, an original work based on the history of Partridge Island and written by Saint John playwright Thomas Hodd, and Abyss, a thriller written by Maria Milisavljević and translated from German.
The productions will be directed by noted Canadian theatre professionals Natasha MacLellan (No Man Is An Island) and Richard Rose (Abyss).
Tobias is especially excited about the opportunity to stage an original work with roots in the city itself.
“It’s an amazing story and we’re thrilled to share it,” said Tobias. “We don’t have a great track record of telling our stories theatrically. I have a lot of colleagues in Newfoundland that I take inspiration from, and they’re really good at telling their stories. They put plays on the stage that celebrate their communities and their history.
“The francophone community [as well]. You look at a lot of the work that’s happening in northern New Brunswick. They’re amazing at telling their stories and sharing their history. In southern New Brunswick, we haven’t done as good a job historically as we could. This is an opportunity for us to strive to do better.”
The development phase of the ARC program is being funded in part by the Canada Council for the Arts and the RBC Emerging Artists Project.
Banner photo: Stephen Tobias, executive director of ARC, and Tom Gribbons, Branch Manager and Associate Portfolio Manager at RBC Dominion Securities.
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