St. George's School | Theatre Arts

The Theatre Arts Department at St. George's School is a vibrant, busy program that challenges students in a myriad of endeavors to support our rigorous schedule of presentation. Our students involve themselves in every aspect of production and can explore their particular interests with vigor.

List of 3 items.

Curricular Activities

From a curricular standpoint, the Department offers drama classes from Grades 1 to 9 in well-appointed spaces that introduce students to public presentation. At the Junior School, our drama room includes a raised stage, draperies, and bleachers that all work together to make a black box theatre. At the Senior School, Drama 8 and 9 are currently taught in a specialized black-box theatre/classroom, with ready access to the newly-renovated 450-seat Performing Arts Centre. Acting is also taught at the Grade 10, 11, and 12 level, where the curriculum tends increasingly towards the craft of acting.

Theatre Arts students may also attain course credit in our well-developed stagecraft courses. Starting in Grade 10, boys may enroll in three years of Technical Theatre training which will introduce them to every aspect of production from set construction and decoration to lighting/sound design and execution to costume/prop acquisition and construction. Opportunities are also available in Theatre Management, as students are taught the leadership skills involved in stage management.
Production

The Saints' Players Theatre Company - Usually the end result of curricular involvement in The Theatre Department is a boy's membership in our theatre company, Saints’ Players. We produce five main stage productions a year and provide technical support to a wide variety of school events. In any given year, the company may have as many as 125-200 members from both our school and our sister schools. We produce separate plays at the Primary (Grades 1-3), Junior (Grades 4-7), Middle (Grades 8-10), and Senior (Grades 10-12) levels. In the last category, we stage two full-scale productions.

Our productions are well supported within the community with approximately 4,500 patrons attending our performances last season. Each production has its unique demands but actors, managers, and technicians alike all ensure a high caliber of presentation which often astonishes our audiences.
In conjunction with the Music Department, Saints’ Players also tackles elaborate Broadway musicals and past favourites from Gilbert & Sullivan. Our most recent musical productions have included Oliver!, Fiddler on the Roof, and My Fair Lady.

The great strength of the company comes from its students who not only act and provide technical support but who also manage the on-stage activities and the marketing/ticketing needs.
The Rigg Scholarship and The Saints' Players' Award

With the gracious support of the family of Philip Rigg (1960-1975), The Theatre Arts Department is pleased to be able to recognize the accomplishments of our students in both our curricular and extra-curricular programs. The Rigg Scholarship goes each year to both Actors and Technical Theatre students in Grade 11 who exhibit a genuine love of Theatre, a commitment to the program, and talent. They are then expected to lead the program in the coming year and to operate as mentors to younger students.

A companion award, the Saints' Players Award, has been created in recent years to acknowledge the outstanding contribution of the young ladies in the company who come from our sister schools, and those students whose skills and leadership are demonstrated in their graduating year.

Theatre Arts Department

List of 5 members.

Marcus Stusek

Theatre Technical Coordinator

mstusek@stgeorges.bc.ca
Robert Wisden

Head of Theatre Arts

rwisden@stgeorges.bc.ca
Bio
Robert spent 25 years as a professional actor with nearly 100 credits in film and television on his resume. Looking for a mid career change, Robert became a teacher in 2005 at the age of 47, and has been happily working in the drama department at Saints after a year at Heritage Woods high school in his town of Port Moody. Robert satisfies his creative drive by writing and directing plays for his curriculum drama students and enjoys photography, music and creative software.
Luke Fredeman 84

Teacher

(604) 221 3625

lfredeman@gmail.com
Bio
After graduating from St. George's in 1984, Luke completed has Theatre Arts degree at UBC where he won the Yvonne Firkins Prize for Directing. He has worked and studied in England and Germany while pursuing his passion for theatre. Luke directs a Senior Production each fall at the school. He is also a hockey enthusiast, currently heading the St. George's Hockey Program and coaching the Varsity Team.
Wes Boise

Theatre and Film Teacher/Performance Cohort Lead

wboise@stgeorges.bc.ca
Bio
Wes Boise, a native of Ajax, Ontario attended Acadia University in 1999 where he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Studies. After graduating from Acadia, Wes returned to Ontario and continued to study theatre and film at York University in Toronto while also acting in small independent films. In 2006 Wes left Toronto to launch a drama education program with Seoul Language Institute in South Korea. After completing his Bachelor of Education degree specializing in senior drama at Queensland University of Technology in 2009, Wes returned to South Korea to work as a drama and film teacher at Korea’s first BC Off-shore school. In 2013, Wes began working on his Masters of Education in educational leadership from Vancouver Island University. Wes completed his MEd in 2015, at which point he and wife moved to
Vancouver and started a new journey at St. George’s school. While at Saints, Wes has revamped the television production program and co-launched the Express cohort, the school’s performance-based cohort program. Wes enjoys directing the middle school theatre production each year for Saints Players.
Stephen Ross

Teacher

sross@stgeorges.bc.ca