INTRODUCTORY NOTE FROM ENBRIDGE IN A BOX

As a leader in energy transportation and distribution, Enbridge builds more than pipelines. We also help build sustainable communities, and consider Health & Safety, Education, Culture & Community, and the Environment as key building blocks. Because we recognize the importance of Culture & Community, we are proud to support the Enbridge Emerging Artist Awards and the Enbridge High School Mentorship Program. Through our support, we help create opportunities for artists to achieve their full potential while enriching the communities we touch.

Regards,
Roshan Kastrinos
Community Partnerships and Investment
Public and Government Affairs
Enbridge Pipelines Inc.

Outside of the box

Nextfest’s High School Activity

For over ten years Nextfest’s High School Mentorship program has been creating practical educational experiences focussed on the process of developing and presenting new work. The program offers a variety of shadowing and presenting opportunities for students interested in professional arts practice. Some of these experiences result in public programming; some of these experiences occur behind the scenes. Over the years, many of those high school students have grown into the role of being mentors themselves.

This year our high school theatre activity includes a full-length Francophone play, an original musical, fourteen original short plays, and an afternoon of play readings. Vide Tes Poches Bonhomme, C´est 1932 (Spend It Like It´s 1932) is a result of a partnership with L'UniThéâtre. This collective is written by students from L'École Maurice-Lavallée under the direction of Céline Gareau-Brennan. See page 11 for more detail. IRL: In Real Life is an original musical theatre presentation about cyber-bullying researched, written, and performed by the teens of MYP under the direction of Carol Murray-Gilchrist, and is the seventh MYP production to be presented at Nextfest since 1996. Please see page 9. Together Six-Picks and Stack-o-Seven (under the guidance of Elizabeth Hobbs and Nicole Schafenacker) give over twenty high school students the opportunity to have their work tred the boards at one of Edmonton’s most notorious new works stages: The Living Room Playhouse. See page 11. And last but not least, five high school playwrights have been working with local playwright (and alumni of the High School Mentorship Program) Jon Lachlan Stewart to take their first draft to the well… the next draft.  On Sunday, June 13th, you are invited to participate in the development of their work in progress in the informal environment of Conrad’s Sugar Bowl. See page 31 for more details.

And for the second year running, our high school mentorship activity has extended beyond theatre to the discipline of dance. Emerging professional choreographers/ dancers went into Victoria and Strathcona high schools and worked on develop the work of high school choreographers: giving them constructive criticism, posing questions to help them understand their pieces, helping them develop new movement. Those mentors include Barbara Murray, Ainsley Hillyard, Cheryl Jameson, and Linda Turnbull.

Then there is the mainstay of our high school initiative is the Mentor-Shadow Program. Each year high school theatre artists (the “shadows”) are connected with mentors from the Mainstage Theatre programs to witness and gain experience in all aspects of theatre production, from directing and stage managing to acting and set design. Thank-you to the dedication and enthusiasm of this year's Mentors: TBA

Thanks to all of our contacts within the Edmonton and area high schools: in particular: Rhonda Day at Jasper Place High School, Alise Ketchum Walker at Edmonton Christian High School, Linette Smith at Strathcona Composite High School, Alexina Dalgetty at Inner City High, Pamela Schmunk at Ross Sheppard , Keith Ewasiuk at Beaumont High School, Jon Shields at J.H Picard, Fiona Williams at Arch Bishop MacDonald, Jodie Shwartz at Eastglen High School, Tom Collins at St Joseph High School

Special thanks to: Diane Conrad, Junetta Jameson, Pascale Ouellet, Jon Stewart, Jake Prins