We want to wish you a warm, gentle, and happy holiday season from all of us here at the College. Thank you for being part of the CCPA community, and we'll see you in 2021.

We can all agree 2020 has been a challenging year for all of us, so we are taking an opportunity to celebrate the small victories our Performing Arts Diploma (Year I and II) students experienced through their first term.

In an extraordinary year, we are so proud of the tenacity, commitment, humility, and compassion they’ve brought into the College every day, while adapting to all of our new health and safety protocols.

We work in small cohorts, we dance in masks, we sit inside grids, we learn to act “at a distance”, we sing outside (and behind screens), but at the end of each day, we have been creating, training, learning and growing safely in person. We do not take that for granted.

We know it’s a bit cliché, but they’ve taught us so much.

We also want to celebrate our COVID-19 “silver linings”. With the advent of new digital technologies and ideologies, and the installation of computer and internet upgrades in all our studios, we were able to extend our guest faculty to include artists who were able to ZOOM into the classes from around the world. We are always honoured to have guest artists join our outstanding team of faculty.

Performer Jonathan Winsby joined us in person for a week of voice masterclasses and coaching.

Indigenous playwright Kim Senklip Harvey joined our Year I students in Christopher Weddell’s Text Analysis class.

UK-based physical theatre practitioner Amy Russell dropped in for Zoom class with Treena Stubel’s Year II Physical Theatre class.

At the beginning of the year, Zoran from Kizo Performance led a mental conditioning workshop that addressed approaches to healthy mental health for the students.    

Reaching the end of Term 1 could not have happened without the dedicated spirit and leadership of our acting, dance, and voice faculty. They agreed to step into the studios and work with students in person, and have carried out the mandates of our program each week. We are so grateful for this amazing team of artists.       

The students have worked so hard this term, and we have asked them to reflect on their milestones, accomplishments, victories, and breakthroughs. Here are a selection that we have permission to share:

The Year I and II students will be taking an extended break and returning to the College on January 18th, 2021. We wish them a happy and safe holidays where they can rest, process, and congratulate themselves on a great first term.

We are taking action to improve affordable food options at the College. Campus food assistance is critical and will serve not only students who are experiencing emergency food insecurity, but all our students who need healthy meals. We are committed to supporting our students while ensuring their privacy about food insecurity.

Students can find themselves without reliable access to affordable and nutritious food. This is not a failing of responsibility - a variety of factors may be out of the student’s control. We need funds to stock the kitchen with non-perishable food and gift cards to local grocery stores for fresh food, as we are desperately low.

We want to take a chance to celebrate a dear member of our community, Maureen Shaw. She has acted as a donor, volunteer, and board member over the past 15 years.

photo from Young Frankenstein by David Lowes.