Welcome back to live in-person theatre! (again!)
Last year CCPA, like all of us, mourned the loss of our professional performing arts industry. We knew, however, we might face an even greater loss if the next generation of performing artist wasn’t nurtured. The College made the season-long commitment of safely ‘forging a way forward’ to ensure our students would be prepared to lead the industry when their time came.
We were fortunate to be among the very few training institutions in Canada able to successfully continue in-person operation. Our community rallied and endured risk and restrictions because being together in creative learning was essential. Not only did our students master technique under very challenging conditions, they emerged stronger and more adaptable. The sense of community that makes CCPA so special was not lost despite the distancing; expression and joyous music was still felt from behind masks, and they made up for the energy exchange shared with a live audience to ensure you felt it through a screen from the safety of your home.
We forged a way forward, putting the full force of our endurance to the test with the great hope that we, as a society, would also emerge stronger and united. We are stronger. But increasingly our world is not united, with mounting tensions and divisions all around.
When Worlds Collide on stage it makes for compelling theatre. It is our hope that the theme explored this season will help spark dialogue and reflection that supports less collision and judgement, and more unity in our lives.
Worlds collide in the singularly unique Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land, a Chinese masterwork where comedy and drama clash. Can two disparate groups vying to control the same space resign to sharing it? A timely and current theme in our increasingly polarized world.
Heaven and Hell collide in a downtown New York court room in the riotously funny, time-bending, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. The forces of good and evil dissect if history’s most infamous sinner was the duplicitous master of his own fate, a much-suffering pawn, or just a man who made a mistake.
Worlds collide in The Quest, when the comfort of safe imaginative play must bravely confront the harsh realities of high school. A brand-new Canadian musical, this show provides students the chance to delve deep into the development process, work directly with the creators, and embed their voice into a piece specifically relatable to young audiences.
50 worlds collide in Love & Information, a uniquely theatrical and thought-provoking play of shorts exploring, with compassionate urgency, the funny, complex intricacies of our rapidly-changing world, such as knowledge, technology, communication, and our capacity for love.
We want to thank those of you who have, and continue to engage with and support the College (and live performance in general) either in-person or through multi-cam livestreams. We appreciate the flexibility you continually demonstrate to support an art form that has been so challenged in the last year but remains so integral to reflecting, inspiring and nourishing our world.
Caleb Marshall
Managing Artistic Director
Hello, and welcome to the Canadian College of Performing Arts.
I would like to acknowledge the Lekwungen people and the Esquimalt & Songhees First Nations, on whose traditional territories we learn, create and perform.
After 19 years spent living and working in the UK arts and education industry, it is an honour to return to CCPA as the Director of Education, to lead alongside Managing Artistic Director Caleb Marshall, during a time when the artistic global community transitions to a new paradigm of performance.
The pandemic has prompted the artistic community to let go of old ideas about training, performing and “show business.” During my time in the UK as a student, performer, voice coach and academic, I gained the skills, knowledge and craft necessary for a successful career in the arts. However, the most impactful aspects of my experience were finding a sense of belonging through dialogue and shared experience, creating community through exchange of ideas and beliefs, broadening perspectives, and working with others toward common goals.
Through training at CCPA, my wish is for students to become expressive, articulate, constructively critical, curious and creative individuals – thinking practitioners capable of shifting habits and beliefs through exploring different perspectives, and developing confidence in themselves and their abilities as performers and active citizens.
Since arriving, I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of community and exceptional artistry generated at CCPA. I look forward to collaborating with students, faculty and staff as we work together through artistic practices.
Danielle Meunier
Director of Education