Act One Update

In accordance with Durham Region Health guidelines and to do its part to keep its teaching staff, students and their extended families safe during this pandemic, Act One has implemented the following safety protocols. While it is impossible to guarantee 100% effectiveness, Act One is confident that these measures represent an effective and reasonable approach to balancing health and safety while maintaining a positive drama experience.

We hope the details below help both existing members of the Act One family and anyone considering one of our scheduled upcoming programs, with the necessary information to make any decisions with regards to their own personal situations.

General Guidelines

• Class Size: No class will have more than 10 combined students and instructor(s). The only exception to this is Musical Theatre, which will be allowed a maximum of 12. Only one class will operate in the school at one time. Keeping the maximum limit to 10-12 allows Act One to have the flexibility to offer up to 8ft of physical distancing between participants.
• Student Arrival: Classes will be scheduled to allow for a dedicated 5 minutes (first 5 minutes of the class time) for students in that class to arrive. This will minimize any chance of students congregating in reception prior to class start. Students can walk straight into the main studio upon arrival.
• Student Exit: The last 5 minutes at the end of the class will be reserved for students in that class to be able to leave safely. Students will be directed by their instructor to exit in staggered, single file. This is to ensure physical distancing between students and minimal interaction in reception.
• Main Studio Access:
  • Only the instructor(s) and students in the current class are permitted in the main studio.
  • No parents, guardians or non-students are permitted studio entry. If anyone does need to talk the instructor, they must wait until the instructor has an opportunity to come out into reception or outside in front of the school.
  • All those entering the main studio will be required to be wearing a mask.
  • Once in the main studio, participants may be allowed to remove their masks, at instructor discretion. This is dependent upon the activity taking place at the time and/or being able to ensure proper physical distancing can be maintained.
  • Students must keep their masks on their person at all times, if/when the instructor deems it necessary for them to put them back on for any reason.
• Reception Area Access:
  • Anyone entering the reception area of the school will be required to wear a mask. This includes students, instructors and parents, etc.
  • Masks must be worn at all times when in reception.
  • Act One’s reception area has four designated “waiting zones”.
  • Maximum capacity of the reception area is twelve persons, with a maximum of 10 students and other guests and up to 2 school staff.
  • Two “zones” have a two-person limit and the other two a maximum of three.
  • Only persons in the same social circle can be in the same zone. For the purposes of Act One, social circle refers to anyone designated by the student’s parent or guardian as safe to be together. This can be extended family, family friends or students who attend the class together, etc.
• Short-Term (less than 5 mins) Reception Area Access:
  • When possible, students are asked to wait in their family car until the start of their class.
  • Entrance to the reception area is open to all students participating in the upcoming and current class and anyone accompanying the student(s), as long as one of the four following conditions apply:
  1. The student(s) will be proceeding directly into the main studio for their class.
  2. Those accompanying the student will be remaining in reception for less than 5 minutes.
  3. The class is over, and the student will be picked up within 5 minutes of end of class.
  4. Anyone picking up a student will be in reception for less than 5 minutes.
• Long-Term (more than 5 mins) Reception Area Access:
  • Anyone, student or other, who does not fit one of the above four conditions will be required to arrange for and obtain prior permission from the school to stay in reception for longer than 5 minutes before or at the end of class..
  • The request can be via e-mail or phone conversation. Voice and e-mail messages unanswered by the school cannot be considered permission. The requestor must have received prior direct permission from Act One.
  • As Act One’s reception only has four “waiting zones”, we can only accommodate up to four simultaneous long-term requests. All others will either have to wait outside in front of the school or in their cars.
• In-Class Procedures for Students:
  • Prior to the start of each class, instructors will set up enough physically distanced chairs, with individual student name labels on each, so that arriving students can go directly to their assigned chair when they enter. Students will be required to stay in “their” chair until the instructor indicates otherwise, unless they need the washroom, etc (which will require instructor permission to avoid any chance of students crossing paths).
  • All students will be required to use the provided hand sanitizer prior to taking their seat and starting class activities. Hand washing and sanitization breaks will be scheduled throughout the class by the instructors based on need and specific class activities.
  • Once the class is over, the instructor for the just finished class will fold up and put aside all chairs from that class in a “quarantine” area. New chairs will be set up for the next class. Used chairs will be disinfected before they are reused.
  • All in-class activities will be adapted for physical distancing or eliminated if this is not possible in a reasonable manner. This includes games, exercises and performance staging/blocking.
  • If physical props or costume pieces, are required at any time during a class, each item will be assigned to a specific student and unavailable to any other student in that class for the rest of the class duration. In the rare case where a prop must be handled by multiple students, this will only happen if adequate sanitization of the item or students’ hands is feasible.
• Washroom Procedures for Students and Guests:
  • Washroom use will require prior instructor/school staff permission to make sure we are aware of when they are used.
  • Paper towels are available for those who do not wish to come into direct contact with any common washroom touch points.
  • Anyone using one of the washrooms will be expected to wash their hands before exiting and then use the hand sanitizer provided outside the washroom locations before resuming other activities.



COVID Screening

• Contact Tracing:
  • All non-student visitors entering the Act One facility should be aware that their name and contact information must be recorded, if they will be remaining for more than 5 minutes. This is to align with Durham Region contact tracing requirements.
• Temperature Checking:
  • All students will be required to have their temperature checked (via the school’s non-contact scanner) by the instructor or school staff, prior to entering the main studio.
  • Any student with a reading of 37.8 degrees Celsius or higher, cannot be allowed to enter the main studio. (FYI – 38 degrees Celsius is considered an almost certain indicator of a fever). If a student does read 37.8 or above, they can opt to wait 5 minutes and be retested. This is to acknowledge that immediate environmental factors may contribute to a temporary rise in body temperature. If on the second try, they test below 37.8 degrees C they can be admitted. If they test above for the second time, they must be sent home. No third test will be allowed.
  • Failed tests do not impact the next class. The student will have the opportunity to be retested on that day.
• Health Declarations:
  • Durham Region health guidelines also recommend, for safety reasons, that organizations such as Act One receive explicit weekly confirmation from parents, that to the best of their knowledge, their child has not demonstrated or come into contact with anyone exhibiting coronavirus symptoms.
  • Before each class, parents will be asked to provide such a declaration.
  • This declaration can be provided by signing the class declaration form, available in reception, when dropping their child off or by sending in an e-mail declaration.
  • A generic e-mail form will be sent to all families before the first class, to allow them to simply and easily send it each week.
• Designated Student “Drama Bubble”:
  • For safety reasons, in general, all students not living in the same household will be required to maintain physical distancing at all times.
  • Act One does recognize however that many students who are friends attend classes together and that families may permit the students to carpool and do other activities, such as Act One classes, together.
  • To allow for this in Act One classes, parents have the option of providing a one-time waiver indicating that they allow their child to join a “drama bubble”, consisting of two or more students in the same class.
  • This declaration must be signed or received from the parents or guardians of ALL the students who wish to be part of the bubble.
  • A “drama bubble” allows Act One instructors to treat all students within it as it they live in the same household and thus do not have to worry about any physical distancing, etc amongst themselves.
  • Students in a drama bubble would still need to adhere to all safety procedures when interacting with the instructor and any other students in the class outside of their bubble.



Mask Usage Policy

• As of November 2020, the Durham Region Department of Health general COVID-19 guidelines requires mask usage in all indoor “public” venues, with certain specific exemptions.
• One of these exemptions may apply to any school, camp or other organization that provides children’s activities.
• The exemption is based on the organization’s ability to control social interaction in a “private” (ie the ability to restrict and supervise who shares a space) vs “public” (open to anyone) environment. This is why masks are mandatory in stores, where even though capacity is monitored, the actual individuals constantly change. Organizations, such as Act One, that are able to restrict and control access to an area to a specific “cohort” and ensure no interaction with other cohorts, can consider that area to be “private”.
• This is why masks are required in Act One’s reception area (where we cannot necessarily control who enters and thus is “public”) but fall under the exemption in the main studio (where we have implemented strict access requirements, in order to allow it to be deemed “private”).
• Being designated “private” and exempt from the mandatory mask requirement also does not mean that an organization can ignore physical distancing and other recommendations. In fact, being designated “private”, by itself, is not sufficient justification for relaxed mask usage. It merely means that if a “private” activity can be undertaken in a safe, physically distanced manner and addresses all relevant guidelines, then mask usage can be more situational and flexible.
• In Act One’s case, the benefit of these exemption allows us the opportunity to balance mask usage with its impact on the students. It is not absolute however and is still conditional on the degree to which we can ensure social distancing and other relevant measures throughout the class duration.
• Act One instructors will take the above factors into consideration regarding decisions surrounding required mask usage in each specific class, at any point in time.



COVID-19 Infection Procedures

• Should any Act One student or staff test positive for COVID-19, Act One will immediately notify all students and their families in all classes.
• Act One will notify the Durham Region Medical Authority to advise them of this occurrence and to request additional information as to what next steps to follow.
• The school will be closed to all operations for at least 48 hours to allow for cleaning and disinfection of the facility, as well as allow time to learn the result of any follow-up contact tracing.
• No instructor, school staff, student or parent or guardian who tests positive for coronavirus will be allowed to reenter the school until they can provide proof of receiving a negative result from an official COVID-19 testing facility.

If anyone has any questions regarding the protocols above, please feel free to contact the school.

Sincerely,

Mark Nathanielsz

Owner/Artisitic Director