Rosebud Education Director grateful that God blesses and provides

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

My year-end conversation with Paul Muir, Rosebud School of the Arts education director, started with a tour of the 102-year-old Rosebud Hotel, which houses the school’s offices. Muir and I mused about the stories those walls hold about people who moved in and out of the building 100 years ago. We agreed the hotel guests couldn’t have imagined their rooms would one day be offices for a performing arts school.
But likely or not, Rosebud School of the Arts (RSA) is here – and it’s thriving.
“I am continually so pleased and proud of our graduates,” Muir said. “I was at the Emerge auditions, back in April, which are the province-wide auditions for (new) grads of all the theatre programs, and I was so proud of all of our people … everybody just did so well.”
And those graduates – Fellows of Rosebud School of the Arts (FRSAs) – are in demand. This fall, for instance, four FRSAs were involved in Theatre Calgary’s The Crucible, and several were involved in The Shakespeare Company’s Romeo and Juliet.
In December, two more performed in Theatre Calgary’s Christmas Carol. That demand can bring unexpected results, though, as when Muir wanted to hire a 2015 graduate to stage manage an upcoming RSA student show, but found she was already stage managing for another theatre.
“The fact that they are busy and getting work — I’m just pleased and proud of them,” he said.
That’s the goal and reputation he’s been working toward since he came to Rosebud 15 years ago. “There’s this theatre school that’s a place of faith that trains people and that our graduates are recognized in the professional world,” he said. “So that is gratifying, that people recognize the training here to be something that is really outstanding.”
To keep making that possible, Rosebud Centre of the Arts (RCA) launched The Harvest fundraising campaign this year, with the goal of $250 000, to be matched by patrons Richard and Lois Haskayne. In fall, another donor offered to match, and therefore triple, the last $100,000. By mid-December, RCA had exceeded the goal – resulting in a total of over $600,000.
“That has been an absolute blessing,” Muir said. “An unexpected joy to actually go, wow! We did it! People came forward and contributed and that was awesome.”
For Rosebud Theatre, Muir acted in Miracle Worker this spring, connecting deeply with the story, because RSA strives to do for students what Helen Keller’s teacher did for her.
“We work to try to bring life and voice and language to our students,” he said. “Once that student really steps into their unique, God-given, authentic voice – when that voice speaks from the stage, when that voice, that essence, puts who they are into a set design or into a building a costume or something, then we’ve got the magic theatre. And theatre that has the potential to transform lives.”
Muir directed Mass Appeal in Rosebud this fall, and also shared his directing talents at Pacific Theatre, remounting Underneath the Lintel in January, and Chemainus Theatre, where he directed Confessions of a Paper Boy in August.
The primary challenges of 2015 have been staff departures, but Muir marveled that God provided just the right people to replace them. April Harrison filled the vacant role of recruitment officer.
“We’ve been so grateful for her help,” Muir said. “That brought us into a really fine and full class, 12 students for this past September.”
When FRSA Cassia Schramm filled the vacant position of Education Assistant, her work “revolutionized the office.”
And when Rosebud Theatre’s wardrobe manager Jette Brown retires, she’ll be replaced by Amy McIvor-Castro, “a perfect fit.”
Pianist Sarah Penner and a voice instructor are also leaving, but Muir is optimistic their roles will soon be filled. All in all, he said, “people leaving, but then in ways that we really wouldn’t expect, God providing new people to step into those spots.”
It’s been a busy year for him, but “in my tiny little pockets of spare time, I continue to make some progress on the ongoing project that is my house!” Muir said. “This fall’s project has been (building) a deck, which my brother came down (from Edmonton) and helped with.”
RSA will open 2016 with a Winter Intensive on Acting for the Camera, and a few weeks later, the new Bloomin’ Playwrights Festival, showcasing the plays of Leah T. Herne and Laird Salkeld.
In February, students will again take theatre trips to the West Coast and New York. Muir is pleased that FRSAs are involved in leading those trips, and that other graduates are working as RSA teaching assistants.
“To learn the (skill) is one thing,” he said. “To learn to teach it is another whole skill set, so it’s neat to have ways in which we can pass on not only the skills, but pass on the teaching of the skills.”
Between January and August, six fourth-year students will present Final Projects, ranging from a wartime love story, a performance based on the music of Travis Friesen, a compilation of women’s stories, a poetry piece, a play based on L. M. Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside, to a one-man show called House.
In March, the fourth-year class will perform the Rosebud Theatre for Young Audience’s Sleeping Beauty, and in April, the second-year class presents Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time.
Muir is excited that RSA is re-developing the Arts in Action program, set to begin in September and “designed to give people a grounding in using theatre as a medium for (gospel ministry) outreach and for social change.”
He’ll act in Rosebud Theatre’s Outside Mullinghar in spring and direct Miracle on 34th Street next December.
In school, theatre and further afield, Muir looks forward to another full year.
“Here we go, and take a deep breath!” he said. “Trust in God and jump in and somehow we make it to the end of the year, every year. Trust God with the education here. Trust God with theatre. Trust God with ticket sales. Trust God with our finances. Trust God with our students. We have to go into each year like that.”