Stage Door News
Stage Door News
June 9, 2015, TORONTO – STAF is transforming into a mentoring, teaching, and innovation incubator that empowers independent artists, producers and leaders. After months of consultation with theatre creators, producers, arts organizations and funders, Executive Director and Transformation Designer Michael Wheeler is pleased to announce STAF's new programming:
Artist/Producer Training Program (APT): A one-year paid training program for artist/producers now accepting applications. The goal is to empower a generation of artists and producers who are able to create and implement projects and associated budgets that pay a living wage to artists, give them skills to sustain a career in the arts, and improve the overall health of the theatre ecology. The course will include three semesters of practical training and one semester of mentored practicum. Theatre Ontario is the community partner for APT.
Annual Resident Companies: Each September, three project-based companies will make STAF a producing home for one year. In addition to establishing a home in the office and access to our resources, these Annual Resident Companies will lead workshops and teach selected sessions for the Artist/Producer Training Program. Annual Resident Companies will receive creation space at Artscape Youngplace and Artscape Sandbox.
The inaugural Annual Resident Companies for 2015/2016 are Outside The March (recent winner of the Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Production Mr. Burns: A Post Electric Play), Litmus Theatre (Dora Award-winning company responsible for Matchbox Macbeth and Birth of Frankenstein), and Shakespeare in the Ruff (currently gearing up for their most ambitious project yet, Macbeth: Walking Shadows, an Elizabethan puppet epic in Withrow Park this August).
Community Leadership: Partnering with SummerWorks to present the SummerWorks Leadership Intensive Program (SLIP), STAF is hosting daily workshops for the program coordinated by Joseph Recinos and led by STAF ED Michael Wheeler and Director Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu. Now in its seventh year, SLIP is a unique professional training intensive for emerging artists, placing a specific focus on leadership and the business of arts professionalism. Next Winter STAF will be hosting Urgent Exchanges during the NSTF — four talks about critically important and timely issues for indie artists. Three topics will be curated discussions while the fourth will be picked based on online and stormboard suggestions from the Next Stage Tent.
Means of Production Research and Evaluation Study: Commissioned by The Metcalf Foundation and the Toronto Arts Foundation, the transformation STAF is undergoing is the subject of the study that will document the new models being innovated through The Riser Project at Why Not Theatre and at STAF .The study will be conducted by S.L. Helwig & Associates President and Principal Consultant Sherri Helwig, who also serves as Program Director of The Arts Management Program at University of Toronto – Scarborough.
STAF will continue to provide Financial Administration to select clients, curate new workshops geared to independent creators and producers and has also begun a online consulting and project management department.
NEW WEBSITE: stafto.org
#newstaf
For more information:
Katie Leamen, Communications Associate, katiel@theatreadmin.com
2015-06-09
Toronto: STAF announces new programs under its transformed mandate