In accordance with the Province of Ontario state of emergency guidelines and to do its part to combat the current pandemic, Act One suspended all programs, effective March 18th. With the situation being so fluid and changing quickly, it has been difficult to obtain sufficiently dependable information to develop a plan with any real confidence. With recent government updates, we feel we are at a point where we can at least outline a framework for the foreseeable future. This plan will be updated if and when new information becomes available.
We hope the details below help both existing members of the Act One family and anyone considering one of our scheduled upcoming programs, with any planning related to Act One. The framework covers the current class year, this summer’s Theatre Camp program and the 2020-21 class year.
2019-20 Class Year
- General: Current year students will be receiving a follow-up e-mail to this announcement in the coming days. It will contain additional details related to their specific class. They will also be asked to complete and submit a short on-line survey that will greatly aid Act One in refining these plans.
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Revised Schedule: Act One and the instructors want to do everything possible to try to preserve the 2019-20 class year. With this in mind, we are extending the class year from June 30th to July 31st. This will allow us to make up class time lost over the suspension period and offer the students sufficient instructional/preparation time to still allow them to enjoy a year end class performance experience. By extending the school year, our deadline for a decision on cancelling the school year moves to around June 15th from its curren mid-May point. We will resume operations in a phased approach. This will allows us some flexibility to adjust our plans, as the situation evolves over the next two months.
Please note that for those classes that were working on solo performance (ie. monologues), in the interests of time, we will unfortunately be skipping the rest of this section and moving straight to the year-end performance phase of the school year. We will not extend the 2019-20 program past the end of July however. If we cannot complete the program by that point, we will be forced to cancel any remaining class plans.
- Class Phases:
- Phase 1 - Year-End Performance Selection:
Some classes had already decided upon their year end performances before the school year was suspended. For these classes, we will look to immediately start working on their selections. For classes who have not yet picked year end plays, options will be e-mailed to students to read at home and then submit their preferences to the school. Based on the preferences communicated, the instructors will select the class play, make any edits necessary and send out the revised script, along with casting, to their students
- Phase 2 - On-line Video Classes:
For the month of May, all classes will be held via on-line video group chat. We have yet to finalize the application we will employ but at this point we are leaning towards Google Hangouts/Meet. One of the questions in the survey seeks to determine what application would reach our student base in the broadest and easiest manner. Class focus during this phase will be on exploring, understanding and memorizing the play script/story and helping students develope their individual characters.
- Phase 3 - On-Site Classes at Act One:
If guidelines permit, we will resume classes at the Act One location in June. The precise date will be determined later in May, based on the best information at that point. If we have to delay resumption of on-site classes until later in June, we would continue on-line classes in the interim. Once on-site classes resume, focus would be on adding in all the blocking/movement aspects of the performance piece. The intent would be to start with a controlled physical spacing approach and relaxing gradually, as feasible. Given that most classes have less than 10 students, we have significant flexibility with respect to any necessary distancing and interaction procedures. For larger classes, we are looking at plans to initially divide the class into smaller groups for separate class times.
Phase 4 - Year End Performances:
For this year, rather than canvassing families for a show date, we will be fixing the performance date for each class at the end of July. This will give certainty for planning and maximize the time we have to help the students prepare.
We will be setting a maximum room capacity for the shows to allow for potential distancing options. This will be via a defined allowable guests per student quota for each show. This quota will be dependent upon the number of students in the class (ie the larger the class, the lower number of allowable guests per student). We will also implement a reserved seating policy to remove any requirement for audiences to feel the need to queue up in advance, in the reception area, to get the “best” seat.
We will also continue our practise of videotaping all shows. For this year, once the show discs are produced, we will be providing each student with a free copy. This will allow them to share their performance with any family or friends who may have been unable to attend the show in person, due to our reduced audience allowance.
- Performance Schedule: Year end performance dates for 2019-20 classes will be scheduled in advance, by the school. This is to ensure maximum advance planning certainty for students’ families and allow for maximum rehearsal time before performing. The tentative proposed schedule is as follows:
Class |
Performance Date |
Show Start Time |
Theatre for Ages 8-9 (Monday) |
Thursday July 23rd |
7:00pm |
Theatre for Ages 12-13 (Monday) |
Friday July 23rd |
7:00pm |
Adult Theatre 19+ (Monday) |
TBD |
TBD |
Early Years for Ages 3-4 (Tuesday) |
TBD |
TBD |
On Camera for Ages 11-13 On Camera for Ages 14-18 |
Tuesday Aug 4th |
7:00pm |
Theatre for Ages 10-11 (Wednesday) |
Wednesday July 22nd |
8:00pm |
Theatre for Ages 12-13 (Wednesday) |
Monday July 27th |
8:00pm |
Theatre for Ages 14-18 |
Wednesday July 29th |
8:00pm |
Theatre Basics for Ages 5-7 (Thursday) |
Tuesday July 28th |
6:30pm |
Improvisation for Ages 12-13 Improvisation for Ages 14-18 (Thursday) |
Thursday July 30th |
7:30pm |
Theatre for Ages 8-9 (Saturday) |
Saturday July 25th |
11:00am |
Theatre for Ages 10-11 (Saturday) |
Saturday July 25th |
3:00pm |
Theatre for Ages 12-13 (Saturday) |
Saturday July 25th |
8:00pm |
Musical Theatre for Ages 7-10 |
Sunday July 26th |
2:00pm |
Theatre for Ages 11-13 Musical Theatre for Ages 14-18 |
Sunday July 26th |
7:30pm |
Improvisation for Ages 14-18 (Sunday) |
Thursday July 30th |
7:30pm |
Vocal Program (Various) |
TBD |
TBD |
- Payment Policy: Act One has always prided itself on being very flexible and understanding with respect to payment policy. We have pursued this approach in an effort to make the drama experience as accessible as possible to all and to reduce potential stress on any current Act One families who find themselves in difficult situations. This policy has resulted in a common situation where approx one third of our students’ families have prepaid in advance, one third are roughly up-to-date and one third have outstanding balances from earlier in the school year. In "normal" times, everything sorts itself out by the end of June. With the current school year being suspended, as of March 18th, this three-way split is roughly the situation at present.
- Present Account Status: All accounts have been frozen as per their situation on March 18th, when school operations were suspended. Should the school year resume, either in full or partially, accounts will be pro-rated based on the class time added from resumption to year completion.
- Outstanding Balance Accounts: In recognition that families are likely facing uncertain times at present, Act One will not be requesting account settlement until after the State of Emergency is relaxed. Families are welcome to settle up their accounts before then, but it is not required.
- Prepaid Accounts: In recognition that we may not have to cancel the rest of the class year and the current state of emergency restrictions on business, Act One cannot at this point issue refunds. Once the school year is over, either through formal cancellation or at the end of any resumption period, refunds will be issued based on final pro-rated account balances at that time.
I hope everyone finds the above payment policy a fair and reasonable balance given the situation we all find ourselves in at present.
Summer Camp
- Session Scheduling: With summer camp season not beginning until July, there are still two months to go before it starts. Act One currently plans to run all four scheduled sessions if government and health guidelines permit. We will be revisiting things at the end of May to determine what measures and camp policies may need to be added or adjusted to accommodate the situation. At present, our intent is not to cancel the summer camp program outright, but to assess the feasibility of each session approx. two weeks prior to its scheduled start. If a session is deemed unable to run, it will be cancelled, not rescheduled. We are not at this time planning to run partial (ie one-week) sessions even if this would be feasible. Campers will still be able to attend an operational two-week session for just one-week, as has been possible in the past. Any campers registered in a cancelled session will have the opportunity to transfer to a later session. We will be keeping a minimum of five spots reserved in each of sessions II, III and IV, to ensure we have some transfer capacity throughout the summer. If a transfer is not feasible, any prepaid camp fees will be refunded.
- Payment Policy: Act One has never required advance payment for any camp session. This policy remains in place for this summer. Campers are free to register and defer payment considerations until it is confirmed the session will run.
- 5% Early Registration Payment Discount Policy: We are adjusting the deadline date to May 31st for July sessions (Session I and II) and June 30th for our August sessions (Sessions III and IV). Hopefully this strikes a reasonable balance between the uncertainty of the situation and those families who would still like to take advantage of this discount. Please note that as per standard school policy, all advance payments are refundable should a camper not attend the camp, regardless of reason (ie session cancellation, etc).
2020-21 Season
At this point in time, it is too soon to make any real assessment about what, if any, adjustments may be required to next year’s operations. At present, all we can say is that the school intends to offer a complete 2020-21 season, with all classes offered as they have been in the past. We will be reviewing the situation in late July and make any necessary adjustments prior to the regular August 1st Fall registration opening date.
If anyone has any questions regarding this update, please feel free to contact the school.
Sincerely,
Mark Nathanielsz
Owner/Artisitic Director