Student Life: Connecting the Dots

by Christopher DiRaddo

For eight months of the year, they belong to the National Theatre School (NTS). But for the other four, the students are on their own — finding different ways of expanding their training, taking a breather, making some much needed money, or getting the experience that will ultimately help them when they graduate. One thing is for sure — most students need to find some sort of summer job to help get them through the following year. The Journal caught up with three students entering their final year at the School this September, and asked them about the work they did during the summer to see if they were able to find resemblances between what they learn at the School and what actually happens in the real world.

“I have found that it’s really useful for me to keep working on what I’m going to school for,” says Acting student Gemma James Smith. This summer, Smith returned home to Calgary to work with Shakespeare in the Park, performing in several different plays and putting on almost 60 shows. “Doing the show over and over kept me on my feet while I wasn’t in school,” she says, “and kept me doing the voice work that I’ve spent the past two years perfecting.”

This was the second year Smith worked with the company. She played roles in both Love’s Labours Lost and Henry IV part I and helped out backstage with some of the other productions. The group also brought a traveling show to children’s hospitals and shelters for women and the homeless. Smith found this experience to be humbling. “Doing a show there can really put smiles on people’s faces.”

Smith counts herself lucky to have been able to find summer work related to her career goals. It has allowed her to make a connection between what she studies at the School and the professional world she will soon enter. “I’m connecting the dots all the time. The School really pushes you to do good work and that allowed me come into this job knowing that I could do it. Everything I learned at the NTS helped me.”

Building Confidence

Her fellow classmate, Acting student Trent Pardy, also believes that the NTS prepared him for the acting work he did this summer. “The training is invaluable: I felt that I could come into a semi-professional company, look around the room, and feel confident in knowing that I had a strong foundation.”

Also from Calgary, Pardy opted to try and find work in Montreal so that he could stay and visit the city. Through an introduction by one of his classmates, Pardy was set up with Montreal’s Gravy Bath, a young and bold new company whose work has been setting fire to Montreal stages. Pardy had roles in two productions this summer, playing the lead in Gravy Bath’s interpretation of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, and playing a minor role in Anthony Kokx’s adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s celebrated play, renamed for their purposes, The Portrait of Dorion Gray.

Pardy worked closely with director Madd Harold, breaking down the text in the Shakespeare script. He had already done this type of work at the NTS, but this unique opportunity gave him the extra chance to put it into practice. “In class, it’s reassuring — you have that safety net underneath you,” he says. “But here it is different — I need to know what to bring in before I come to rehearsal and what I’m allowed to find there. It’s easy in school to be able to make those big choices and it’s a little easier to fail.” This experience has enabled Pardy to trust that the choices he makes are appropriate and, if they’re not, that they’re easily changed or adapted.

Double Duty

Playwriting student Blair Francey got a double shot of experience this summer with two completely different, yet equally challenging, jobs. First, Francey worked for Global television as a production assistant on Train 48, a new instant drama that was shot and aired on the same day, every day. Second, Francey worked for the Dora Mavor Moore Awards as a graphic artist, working on multimedia presentations, designing ads and postcards, and coming up with the overall design concept for the show.

“This summer, I’ve learned that I can multitask with the best of them,” says Francey. “During the school year I was so inundated with work on scripts — it’s very specific in terms of what you’re doing artistically,” he says. “To have all these graphic design jobs is a great way for me to express myself in various artistic ways, and something like Train 48 is so removed from the theatre world that it provides a completely different perspective.”

Francey believes that in this day it is important for artists to be multidisciplinary. “I think that as a theatre artist you need to know a little bit about everything and not just your one passion. Playwriting is my passion, but I have a little basis in acting, in directing, and in technical, so I can understand all the elements and how they work together.”

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