Rosebud School of the Arts: joys, challenges and growth

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

Rosebud School of the Arts’ education director, Paul F. Muir, recently reflected on 2016 and looking to the year ahead.
One of the highlights, Muir said, was record-high enrollment for the 2016-2017 year. Also, in spring 2016, Rosebud School of the Arts (RSA) students danced a performance of New Blood, telling the story of Canada’s residential schools.
“It was so incredible that Deanne [Bertsch, director] could do New Blood here in Rosebud, with Zach [Running Coyote] at the center,” Muir said. “At the end of the show, Chief Yellow Old Woman stood and talked about the story and its profundity and what it meant to him and other people from Siksika.
“It was also really special that Jeany [Van Meltebeke] could direct the [spring] student production, Wrinkle in Time, a show that’s been close to her heart for decades,” he added.
“Another stand-out in many ways was being at the Critter Awards and seeing the level of representation of RSA grads,” said Muir.
In May, Muir, numerous RSA graduates and several Rosebud Theatre productions were nominated for Critter Awards, the nicknamed former Calgary Critics Awards. Three RSA graduates received awards.
“I couldn’t have been prouder of our grads who were nominated and our grads who won,” Muir said, though he’s reluctant to accept credit. “I was beaming; I was so proud and gratified.”
For Muir himself, a high point was performing in Rosebud Theatre’s Outside Mullingar, which earned a Critter Award Best Actor nomination.
“To do Outside Mullingar was just such an incredible gift,” he said. “To do that show, to tell that story and to tell that story with that cast buoyed me up week after week, day after day; because all of us knew how much the audience loved that story.”
Directing Miracle on 34th Street was another great experience.
“It was a joy to direct,” Muir said. “Those kids are so great to work with. It was such a huge show with so many moving elements – elements that had to come together. That was a challenge and a joy.”
The school faced challenges along with joys, including the economic downturn and a couple students unable to continue.
“We invest so much that [students] become like family,” Muir said. “When someone leaves for some reason, we miss them.”
It was also a challenge to lose Adam Furfaro, executive director, and Byron Linsey, technical director, this fall. But Muir said, “I try to live in a place where change is good.
“One of the most rewarding things is seeing the growth of the students,” he said. “You’ll see growth moments in class; but the culmination of that growth seems to come at the end of term, with final presentations from classes and performance night.”
The greatest reward is seeing students create successful careers, he added.
“This fall I was going through how many graduates were working professionally in this field at that time,” he said. “The list was long.”
Students and staff look forward to even more in 2017.
This month, RSA hosts its annual four-day Winter Intensives.
“This year, we have a killer combo,” Muir said.
David Smukler, creator of York University’s voice program and founder and leader of Canadian National Voice Intensive, is teaching voice. Peter Balkwill of Old Trout Puppet Theatre is teaching Suzuki Movement, “an intense and very disciplined and focused movement practice.”
In February, RSA students take their annual theatre study trips to Canada’s west coast and to London, England, and Muir will lead this year’s London trip. To fundraise, RSA students will host a 10-Minute Play Creation in January, creating and rehearsing 10-minute plays in a day.
In spring, Muir will direct the second-year students’ production.
“I had these students in class in their first year,” he said, “and now of course they’ve grown a lot. I’m really looking forward to working with them in a show.”
In April, Deanne Bertsch will direct a devised-movement show with first-year students.
In 2017, RSA is refining its Technical Theatre program, and considering a twist on the Summer Intensives.
“We’re going to call it something like the Rosebud Family Camp, like an immersive theatre training family experience,” Muir said. “It’ll bring people deeper into what Rosebud is, and the kind of work that we do.”
Muir looks forward to more joyful challenges at Rosebud Theatre. He’ll act in one show, and direct the Christmas show, Cariboo Magi.