Sixteen months ago, The Ottawa Children’s Theatre did a huge pivot. Like everyone else in the world, our lives were turned upside down by the pandemic. But we pooled our creative resources and stayed open, offering top-notch online acting and drama classes to young people aged 4 – 18. I was deeply impressed by the inventiveness of our instructors and the enthusiastic response of our students. The classes and camps that we offered were some of the very best that I have ever seen online or in-person! We all leapt in, learned beyond our dreams, and had a ton of fun.
But we are all now longing to be back together in-person. So it’s time for another huge pivot! The future is not certain, but things are looking up.
We’re planning a full semester of in-person classes in our studios at Carleton Dominion Chalmers Centre in Centretown Ottawa, starting September 25. We’re busy cleaning up, sorting out the Covid protocols, and getting ready to welcome you. We're excited to be back, although with cautious enthusiasm, knowing that we may need to change mid-stream.
We’re also going to continue offering online courses –– sometimes learning from your home is a lot easier than travelling to the studio. We also recognize that not everyone will be comfortable with in-person learning.
We're really excited by what we’ve planned for both in-person and online. There are new courses, and new ideas. We've started a whole new stream called "The Young Creator's Workshop." But the heart of what we do will always be the same –– to enrich the lives of children and youth through theatre and the performing arts.