TNB Young Company will make digital collaboration a focus for 2021 season.
For the past 45 years, TNB Young Company have been provincial leaders in the creation and delivery of Theatre for Young Audiences. With decades of annual touring to our credit, visiting as many as 70 public schools a year, we have successfully introduced the magic of live theatre to an estimated 750,000 New Brunswick youth, a number roughly equivalent to the province’s current population. Our 2021 season will continue to introduce new audiences to theatre by adapting our program structure to meet current health and safety protocols.
The unwelcomed arrival of COVID-19 has forced many companies to reevaluate the way they do business and TNB Young Company is no exception. After more than four decades spent visiting schools and engaging directly with audiences grades K-12 through live performances and workshops, the ongoing health crisis has provided us with the opportunity to evolve and embrace the abundance of digital tools at our disposal. While theatre will always be best experienced live and in person, our 2021 season will enable us to explore new opportunities in digital engagement, opportunities that we believe will become essential in our ongoing mission to fuel the imagination and creativity of next generation New Brunswickers in the years to come.
Our 2021 season will involve two new initiatives: a collaborative writing process and the creation of new theatre resources for New Brunswick teachers.
We will partner students and teachers from across the province with emerging theatre artists and members of our educational staff to explore issues and topics relevant to today’s youth. Together we will identify themes and create characters and dialogue to support a deeper exploration of the subjects identified through these conversations. This open, equitable and collaborative conversation process between teachers, students and artists will result in the shared creation of a new work of theatre.
In addition to creating a play in a completely digital setting, we will also engage in direct conversations with teachers to learn what tools and resources they require to strengthen theatre’s place in the classroom. Informed by both the creative process and the conversations this new initiative will enable, we will respond directly to teacher’s needs by creating exercises, videos and activities to meet their in-class and extracurricular needs and make those materials available, by request and at no charge, to all interested teachers in the province.
Together with teachers and students from across New Brunswick, our 2021 season will build relationships, engage imaginations and strengthen theatre’s role in enriching the lives of future generations while also reinforcing our connection with provincial educators prior to our anticipated return to the classroom in 2022.
Facing the loss of our annual tour revenue and related grants that make up a significant portion of TNB Young Company’s annual budget, we’re reaching out to you, our friends and supporters, to help make our transition into digital engagement a reality. To make it all happen, we have some important news to share.
We’re very pleased to announce a generous offer from the Beaverbrook Canada Foundation. In support of the next three season of the TNB Young Company, the BCF have agreed to match, dollar for dollar, all donations received in support of the TNB Young Company. A $50 donation becomes $100!
To make a donation, follow our DONATION LINK and mention TNB Young Company in the message area. It’s that easy!
Two decades after his inspired feature debut The Hanging Garden won best Canadian Feature at TIFF, Thom Fitzgerald again explores interconnections of sexual identity, family, and small-town Nova Scotia life, in this intimate drama about a young woman reassessing her relationship with her mother following the death of her father.
From October 23rd to November 30th, you can stream this acclaimed film online at watch.eventive.org/splinters
Choose the venue tab that says “Theatre New Brunswick” and a portion of your ticket will go to support Theatre New Brunswick programs.
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