Browse all workshops
Auditioning Workshops
Best Foot Forward: Preparing for Auditions
During this workshop we will explore important elements of preparing for auditions so that you can arrive feeling poised and ready to go!
The workshop will include: how to prepare; what to wear; what to expect at the audition; tips for cold reading; getting started with monologues… read more
Students remain seated throughout this workshop.
Dance Workshops
Musical Theatre Dance
Do you like catchy upbeat showtunes and flashy bust-a-moves dance choreography?
Then let’s get together to do a some warm-up activities, move across the floor and learn a musical theatre dance combination.
Find your own space in the room… read more
This workshop can be offered in French.
Ideal for classrooms with open space.
This workshop may include group work
Design Workshops
Intro to Sound Design
This workshop focuses on the roles and responsibilities of a sound designer during performances. We will begin by covering with the contractual obligations a sound designer is often responsible for (such as paperwork) and how the traditional role of a sound designer has shifted during COVID-19. Following this, participants will learn the basics of sound terminology and software that are commonly used in the industry, and resources within Halifax that could give students access… read more
Students remain seated throughout this workshop.
SFX Makeup: The Basics of Injury Makeup: Bruises, Wounds, Scars
The workshop will cover the following five topics, fundamental to special effects makeup:
Introduction to Tools and Materials
To start, Emily will do a quick introduction to the various tools she uses, including brushes, sponges, and spatulas, and the makeup she uses in each demonstration. She will also touch on proper hygiene when working with these tools on other people… read more
Students remain seated throughout this workshop.
Lighting Technology and Design
This workshop will teach students the basics of stage lighting, and will cover the following topics: how lighting impacts the human audience; how lighting has been implemented for live performance through history; the basics of how modern lighting equipment is used; the ways lighting designers and lighting technicians organize and… read more
Students remain seated throughout this workshop.
Scenic Painting Techniques
This workshop will cover some of the basic and most commonly used painting techniques in scenic art. Following a brief discussion of general scenic design, students will watch as Garrett gets his hands dirty with paint, glue, sawdust, and other materials to create different types of woodgrain, stone, concrete, and finally marble on wooden (meranti) surfaces. The workshop will cover different application tools including… read more
Students remain seated throughout this workshop.
Marionette Making Workshop
This is a four-string marionette making workshop, adapted for online streaming and basic, everyday materials. Students will create a simple four-string marionette, in one hour. Supplies needed: -1 piece of light, poly fabric or a scarf, 15″ x 15″* -scissors -glue gun -small ball of yarn -duct tape -corrugated cardboard, two pieces minimum 7″ x 7″ -2 pencils, 2 popsicle sticks or 2 short pieces of dowel *Fabric can be sent to the schools, pre-cut, if… read more
Students stay seated throughout this workshop
This workshop requires supplies.
Directing Workshops
Preparing to Direct
What is a director looking for in the words of a play? How can we unlock the world of the play, and what clues will uncover the mechanisms that drive the play?
Dorian will share some simple tools for reading plays from the perspective of the director and asks participants to apply those skills to sample scenes. He will share Elinor Fuchs’ Visit to a Small Planet so that… read more
Students remain seated throughout this workshop.
Dramaturgy Workshops
Dramaturgy: Find the Story
This workshop is a two-part introductory textual analysis course. In the first session, students will learn the basics of story structure, and identify themes, arcs, and stakes within narratives. As homework, the students will be assigned to do the same with a narrative (book, film, play, etc), and given a reading and report back to the next session… read more
This workshop is offered as a two-part series.
Students remain seated throughout this workshop.
This workshop includes take-home work to be completed before the second session.
Decolonizing Story Structure
In this workshop, students will examine story structure from an indigenous point of view and challenge western norms around what a story is and how it should be formed. We will discuss the nature of oral storytelling and its connection to performance, and the circular nature of traditional storytelling using texts by indigenous playwrights as examples. We will also look at patterns of speech in indigenous texts and how… read more
Closed to indigenous students only.
Students remain seated throughout this workshop.
Improv Workshops
Improvising Characters
This workshop will teach students how to improvise new never before seen characters on the spot. Accepting offers, with a focus on physicality and voice work, will be the main focus for this hour long improv workshop.
The students will be led through multiple improv games and techniques that will help them be able to make quick character choices for not just themselves, but their scene partners. Not only will we create characters, but… read more
Ideal for classrooms with open space.
This workshop is interactive and includes group work
Short Form Improv
Ever heard of Who’s Line is it Anyways? Ever thought – wow, I wonder how they do that. Well now you can know! This short form improv workshop will lead you through the skills needed to quickly yes, and, allowing you to jump into any improv scene.
Short form improv can help students to be quick on their feet and learn to support fellow team members. This workshop will lead students through multiple short form improv game formats like… read more
Ideal for classrooms with open space.
This workshop is interactive and includes group work
Professional Make-Believing: An Introduction to Competitive Improv
Step out of the box and into the shoes of a professional make-believer as we begin to explore the world of competitive improv! In this workshop, you’ll learn how to… create a solid scene foundation, explore both zany and lifelike characters, and raise the stakes in your scenes. We will explore how the fundamentals of improv act as the glue that hold our scenes together, while also incorporating unique flair and style to shake things up! Competitive improv highlights both the laugh-out-loud… read more
This workshop can be offered in French.
Ideal for classrooms with open space.
This workshop is interactive and includes group work
Improv Workshop: Think Fun? Think Fast!
Improv is about having fun, expressing artistic impulses, and laughing together. This workshop is designed to be a safe space where you can be creative and silly while learning essential performance skills! The only hard and fast rule in this workshop is respect. Everything else is about creative explorations and fun. With groups of 20 students, we will do activities that everyone can participate in at the same time. All the students will have the opportunity to benefit from the experience… read more
Ideal for classrooms with open space.
This workshop is interactive and includes group work
Music and Composition Workshops
Creating a Mini-Musical
In the first session of this two-part workshop, students will work together to compose lyrics for their mini-musical. The workshop will also explore lyric writing, song form, and song types particular to musicals. Participants will use the tools and exercises they learn to write lyrics for key moments in a story, each group will be responsible for coming up with lyrics for a different moment in the show, together laying the foundation for a mini-musical. In the second session… read more
This workshop is offered as a two-part series.
Students remain seated throughout this workshop.
This workshop includes group work
Find Your Inner Song
This workshop focuses mainly on lyric writing, however Micaela will share melody-finding techniques as well. The session will begin by covering ways to break down narratives around creativity and work through writer’s block. The class will perform a series of writing exercises and improvisation games. The class will then move into a stream of consciousness writing exercise with a series of prompts to help get ideas out. These exercises… read more
This workshop can be offered in French.
Students remain seated throughout this workshop.
This workshop has the option of including group work.
Performance Techniques Workshops
Close-up Magic with Everyday Objects
In this hands-on workshop, students will be introduced to foundational sleight of hand techniques and apply those techniques to a variety of magical effects. Students will learn how to make a coin vanish and reappear, how to make a pencil float, how to cause a rubber band to slide through their finger and other classic magical effects. Students will also learn about the history of the magical arts, and the importance magic has played… read more
Bill requires two weeks' notice to book this workshop.
Students stay seated throughout this workshop
Physical Theatre
In this workshop, participants will explore their own self-expression through improvisation, games, and mime. They will learn techniques that actors use to develop believable characters and honest interactions, and apply their new skills to short scenes and ensemble work. The workshop will… read more
Ideal for classrooms with open space.
This workshop is interactive and includes group work
Intro to the Speaking Voice
When you know how your voice works, you can engage the different components to achieve maximum use of your voice, safely. This is not just useful for stage purposes but also to be clearly understood when wearing a mask, presentations in class, and being present and heard in conversations. Sherry will guide your class through various exercises that help to warm up each component, strengthening your voice, expanding your breath capacity, reducing anxiety, and promoting relaxation and… read more
Students stay seated throughout this workshop
Object Revolution: The Radical Puppet
In Object Revolution: The Radical Puppet, students will be given a crash course through the history of fighting for change using theatre, puppets built for protest, and the power of the object. Through creative exercises and explorations in storytelling and object manipulation, students will be emboldened to use the objects that often control us to make powerful statements. By turning… read more
Students stay seated throughout this workshop
String Puppet Inspiration
Puppeteers Heather and Darryll Taylor give an inspring overview of marionette artistry showing marionettes of both simple and complex design. Students will see close up basic construction and manipulation, as they demonstrate one-string, two-string, three and four-string cloth puppets. They also will feature movement demonstrations of their hand crafted wooden human and animal marionettes, with 9 to 14 strings. The basics of lighting, sound and presentation… read more
Students stay seated throughout this workshop
Stage Management Workshops
From Scheduling to Show Reports: A Day in the Life of a Stage Manager
Wonder who makes lights and sound happen when they’re supposed to while you’re watching a play? Curious about how costumes and props get to where they’re needed during a show? Have you asked yourself why the cast gestures to the back of the audience during bows? When a show comes to your school, do you ponder about who makes sure that the actors/set/costumes are all there and ready to go? Do you love theatre, but don’t want to be onstage? “From Scheduling to Show Reports – A Day in the Life of a Stage Manager” will answer all these questions, and more. Learn about what a Stage Manager is… read more
Students stay seated throughout this workshop
Writing Workshops
Playwriting 101: The Next Stage
This interactive playwriting course, led by The Villains Theatre’s artistic director Dan Bray, is the perfect introduction for burgeoning playwrights. Students will begin by using fun and accessible prompts and stream-of-consciousness techniques to kickstart the writing process. Students will isolate themes and images to create monologues. From here, they will explore the concept of “active writing” and use this material to generate dialogue between multiple characters. Next, they will use this new dialogue to flesh out scenes, characters, and arcs. Finally… read more
Is willing to create and tailor multi-part workshops for your classroom. The ideal would be a three-part series.
Students stay seated throughout this workshop
This workshop can include take-home work.
(Your Name) In Lights!
What you’ll need: A memory, a dream (for the future), or an object (or the memory of an object), writing device (paper & pen, computer, phone), a desire to tell your story, help someone else tell a story, or make one up!
We will use a memory, a dream (for the future) or an object as our first step toward your very own one-person show! Through a crash-course series of fun writing and creation exercises, we will each build a short script, and discover at least one unique (and safe) way it could be staged. This workshop can be adapted to work as a one-hour crash course, or as a series of 3 – 6 workshops with a digital performance at the end (in the case of 6 workshops). Students who.. read more
Is willing to create and tailor multi-part workshops for your classroom. Longer series can include a digital performance at the end.
Students stay seated throughout this workshop
This workshop can include take-home work.
This workshop can include group work if preferred.
Playwriting Basics: The Two Hander
This workshop will centre around three sessions with the goal of creating and writing a two-person scene. This workshop can also be adapted to suit one one-hour session, or two one-hour sessions. Please let us know when you book how many sessions you would like to book for this workshop.
The first session will be a discussion of the key elements of a scene. Participants will be asked to read or watch the opening scene of Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead prior to the workshop for context on two-hander scenes. Beginning with concrete elements, participants will develop an understanding of characters, setting, dialogue, and action. Then the group will… read more
This workshop was designed as a three-part series, but can be adapted to suit your needs.
Students stay seated throughout this workshop.
This workshop includes take-home work.
This workshop includes some group work.
Ready to book?
Please note: Theatre Nova Scotia respectfully requests that schools and community groups ideally do not cancel workshops once they are booked, unless absolutely necessary. If a group must cancel or reschedule, please give us a week of prior notice. In these precarious days for arts workers, TNS is going to great lengths to provide schools with exceptional theatre education and local artists with paid work in our industry. Please be aware that artists may have turned down other paid work to accommodate these workshop bookings. Thank you for your understanding.
