What is EdTA Canada? My name is Craig Wrotniak and I am the Executive Director of the Educational Theatre Association of Canada. Like you I am also a drama teacher and ITS Troupe Director at North Surrey Secondary (Troupe 8854). This pandemic has been tough on our world and specifically in our profession as drama/theatre teachers. One bright spot that has come out of this very dark time is the establishment of the first ever national association for educational drama/theatre teachers in Canada - The Educational Theatre Association of Canada (EdTA Canada). We are a registered non-profit with the mission of "shaping lives through theatre education" following the 4 core values that "People Matter, Strive for Excellence, Work Together and be the person you want to work with". We accomplish our mission by running national and regional programs for: Drama Teachers (Professional Development Conferences and Community Forums), School Drama Programs (Honours Recognition and Student Programming to help build enrollment), Drama Students (Thespian Festivals, Playwriting Events, Scholarships, Honours Recognition, Support in Post Secondary Entrance and Finding Acting Agents) Educational Theatre Advocacy (National, Regional and School Based levels). Sounds ambitious... we are! We have National Program Directors and Chapter Directors in every Province & Territory of our country. We are running full speed ahead with new programs that will help support your needs, your programs needs and your students needs like never before. We are collaborating with many of Canada's strong pre-existing provincial organizations that have similar goals and objectives to our own such as: SDA in Saskatchewan, MDEA in Manitoba, CODE in Ontario, QDF in Quebec, EDANS in Nova Scotia. We are currently seeking out Canada's most ambitious and passionate drama teachers to join our movement as volunteer leaders on our newly formed Provincial & Territorial Chapter Boards.
Invitation to get involved! This year has "overwhelming" written all over it - so no pressure at all... being a drama teacher usually means being over extended at the best of times. But if you have some capacity and find this organization interesting please email me at: craig@educationaltheatre.ca so that I can meet you and plug you into opportunities in our educational theatre community. We all know as drama teachers how deadly cliques are in our classes. We feel the same way in our teacher community. Although it tends to be the 90-10 principle at play, where in an organization 10 percent of the people are doing 90 percent of the work - we feel strongly that any teacher who wants to volunteer with our non profit will have an opportunity to do so! We have ways for you to flex your arts admin leadership muscles and also programs to help you develop your leadership skills too!
Canadian Drama Teacher E-Newsletters - "Dramatics Canada E-Newsletter" This is first online newsletter for the Educational Theatre community in Canada. We hope for this digital newsletter to be a place for gaining excellent resources for our classrooms, amplifying the voices of educational theatre leaders across Canada, keeping you up to date on our programs / events for teachers & students and connecting you with our partner organizations who are ready to support you and your students needs. We plan on doing 4 editions each year with one in: September, Nov/Dec, Feb/March and June.
Canadian National Drama Teachers Conference This year will be a year of firsts as we roll our out national programs and some new regional ones too. We started the year off right with our annual Canadian National Drama Teachers Conference. It was virtual across the country on Oct 22nd and 23rd with in person HUBs on the 22nd in Metro Vancouver & Montreal. The event was a huge success with 160 drama teachers registering from every corner of the country and enjoying a wide range of excellent professional development including some well known educational theatre leaders like: Rick Mercer, Anne Bogart, Allison Green, Don Zolidis, Jonathan Rand and Stephen Gregg. We know that for some of you it was short notice and difficult to get release time from teaching if that Friday was not a Professional Development Day at your school. So we want to give you the dates well in advance so that you can warn your administration, prep your school board and save the date in your calendars. The 2022 Canadian National Drama Teachers Conference will be on Friday October 21st and Saturday October 22nd 2022. It will be delivered live over an interactive zoom platform on both days plus on Friday October 21st there will be live in person HUB gatherings in Vancouver and Montreal with partner gatherings in Winnipeg & Halifax. There is potential interest in having other HUB gatherings pop up in other regions across Canada too! If you have any questions or ideas about next years national conference please feel free to email our planning team at: events@educationaltheatre.ca
Facebook Group Exclusively for Canadian Drama Educators We have created a facebook group for Canadian Drama Educators so that our community can stay connected and support each other! All are welcome and encouraged to join!! https://www.facebook.com/groups/canadiandramaeducators
Upcoming EdTA Canada Events (happening between now and our next e-newsletter in March): National Events: Remembrance Day Student Scriptwriting Monologue Challenge (Already Completed) Unified Canadian Post-Secondary Theatre & Film School Auditions (Happening now) Canadian National Thespian Festival (Virtual) Feb 25 -27th 2022 Regional Events: Metro Vancouver Regional Thespy Festival - November 12th 2021 (Already Completed) Northern Ontario Regional Thespy Festival - First week in December 2021 Fraser Valley Regional Thespy Festival - Jan 13th 2022 BC Provincial Thespian Festival - Feb 25th & 26th 2022
Normally my welcome messages will be much shorter. Lots to share in this first newsletter edition. If you have any questions for me or just want to reach out and say hello, you can always email me at: craig@educationaltheatre.ca
Looking forward to meeting many of you this year and over the many years to come! Warm Regards ~ Craig
