RSA students to produce 10-minute play creation

By Laureen F. Guenther Times Contributor

Rosebud School of the Arts students will present a 10-Minute Play Creation on Feb. 3, using their diverse artistic and performing skills while raising funds for their annual theatre study trips.
At 6 p.m. on Feb. 2, the students will be divided into groups, and each group will receive one prop and one prompt. The prop, said second-year student Rebbekah Ogden, might be anything from a sword to an umbrella to a cabbage. The prompt is a line of text. Students have no hints about what the prop or prompt will be until they receive it.
Based on those prompts and props, each group has 24 hours to create, write and rehearse a 10-minute play.
On Saturday, Feb. 3, at 6:30 p.m., the doors of the BMO Studio Stage will open to a silent auction, primarily auctioning works from Rosebud School of the Arts (RSA) students.
Items may include baking, handmade jewelry, or gift certificates for services or events. And Ogden, a visual artist whose paintings have been exhibited in Rosebud’s Akokiniskway Gallery, plans to auction some of her artwork.
During the silent auction, live artisans will also be at work. Anja Jonsson, a second-year RSA student, will offer henna art, and Mike Thiessen, an RSA graduate, will be sketching.
At 7:30 p.m., the 10-minute performances will begin.
Creating and performing these plays in a short span of time was a valuable learning experience in her first year at RSA, Ogden said.
“It was my first time working with other people to devise a piece we were performing. It was pretty fast-paced,” she said. “It was extremely educational for me.”
All funds raised from the silent auction and play creation support the students’ annual theatre trips, a required component of their studies at RSA. First-year students visit Canada’s West Coast later in February, while second- and third-year students are travelling to New York and Toronto.
These trips are also valuable learning experiences.
“Rosebud is a very awesome place,” Ogden said, “but it’s a certain type of theatre. So by going to New York or to the West Coast, you get to experience more versions of what theatre can look like, especially in professional settings.”
The students also take workshops and accept risk-taking challenges, she said. The trips also offer networking opportunities with theatre professionals.
On her theatre trip to the West Coast last year, Ogden took a song-writing workshop, where she wrote a song she later performed at a public open mic event. She and her classmates also took a breathing workshop and saw “inspiring” theatre performances, including Ogden’s first one-woman play.
The silent auction and 10-minute play performances will both be held in Rosebud’s BMO Studio Stage. The plays are family-friendly, Ogden said, and admission to the play performance is by donation.