Theatre Arts

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.