On Sunday, September 29, Rosebud School of the Arts inducted four new graduates as Fellows of the Rosebud School of the Arts Guild (FRSA) at the school’s annual graduation and scholarship event The ROSAs: Recognizing Outstanding Student Achievement.
(l-r) Amy Burks, Jesse Lynn Anderson, Natalie Gauthier and Laurie Gillespie have been inducted as Fellows of the Rosebud School of the Arts Guild.
This year’s guild inductees – Jesse Lynn Anderson, Amy Burks, Natalie Gauthier and Laura Gillespie – are graduating after four years of training in RSA’s Mentorship Programme.
Also honoured at the event were 14 students receiving a certificate in Theatre Foundations and five students receiving a Mentorship Level 1 Diploma. Over $41,000 in scholarships and bursaries were awarded to RSA students from new and longtime donors.
Education Director Paul Muir describes RSA’s unique mentorship approach to theatre training.
“The programme is designed in such a way that as a student progresses towards their FRSA the instructor-student relationship transforms into a relationship of peers. By the time the student becomes a guild member, they are in fact colleagues. As part of their programme, each of these grads has had the opportunity to apprentice on the Opera House Stage in Rosebud Theatre productions, said Muir.
“This year’s graduates are affectionately known as the ‘Final Four. Out of a first-year class of 15 students, they were the ones who had the drive and passion to complete the program and commit themselves to a life in the theatre. They overcame incredible challenges discovering their true calling as theatre artists, becoming the storytellers they are today. We celebrate them and know that they will have a significant impact on the Alberta theatre community.”
Each of the four graduates has hit the ground running with all of them having professional work lined up for the 2013-2014 theatre season. Laura Gillespie will appear later in 2013 in Northern Light Theatre’s Fall show in Edmonton. Natalie Gauthier is set to appear in productions with Fire Exit Theatre, Sandbox Theatre, and Trickster Theatre, all in Calgary. Jesse Anderson will appear in Birnton Theatrical’s Stage West production in November. Amy Burks will appear in a new work by Red Deer playwright Andrew Kooman in November and a production with Calgary’s Theatre Basement in December.
The ROSAs ceremony took place from 2:00 to 4:00 pm in the Rosebud Opera house with a banquet for staff, families and friends following at the Rosebud Mercantile.
