At the Atelier, we do not coddle, yet even more strictly, we do not tolerate any abuse. We are here for the common yearning for bold, truthful works and mutual growth. We assume everyone invited into the space to operate from a place of good will, yet at the same time when the interactions and materials allow us to reexamine our values, at our own pace, we vouch to take it up so we are either changed or have our old values be even more cemented. We need not be offended by ideas, we can and should fiercely and passionately debate and have the space for respectful disagreements in this, at times, very personal art form. And as such, we also encourage speaking in drafts, radical candor as well as a call-in culture. So progressive conventions do not become an in-group marker, but just inclusive tools that promote a transformative justice.

The most relevant works of our times will likely contain ideas and contentions of the times yet to be solved and agreed upon. The notion of art lies in the spectrum of dialectics. We hope our students and faculty are used to engaging in these topics at the atelier, as much as they nudge the zeitgeist outside.

“Excellence“ is a passé idea, as it denotes a singular vision’s idea of preference and idea of the “good”. RELATIVE RIGOR is essential in our craft. It simply takes dedication and numerous loops of trial-and-error to get us to a draft that are proud to sharing - a labor of love, sweat, and care. We learn to explore and exercise our boundaries IN ORDER TO have the safety and bliss in performing our jobs as performers to the fullest extent. And while that may infer stretching into places of unknown and the discomfort of growing pains, it points even more markedly at the deep awareness of when NOT to push further, usually to satisfy ones ego. We work just hard enough for maximum growth, but not so much that we stunt long-term growth for a one-off ego win.

The aspiring actor must understand that what got us into performing may have to do with dopamine and rewards for the egos from such a high stakes activity — to be seen, comprehended and even judged by others! Yet when we need to fully tap into full embodiment of visceral events, and the complete transformation into characters of range and complex psychology, a large part of our work requires a sublimation and dialogue with our egos. We must, counter to our lifetime’s socialization, embrace being a blank slate, and celebrate every productive failure. Each failure is a discovery - and we are not saying this on faux positive terms.

Most of the awareness-and-habit-building work we do in actor training happen in four phases of competences:

-Unconscious Incompetence;

-Conscious Incompetence;

-Conscious Competence; and ultimately

-Unconscious Competence.

That perceived vulnerability when jumping from step 1 to step 2 often stunts the growing actors as the new found awareness often conjures shame, or a false feeling of “unsafety”. We have exercises we employ, and a transparent awareness of these phenomena, to reassure these sensations as major stepping stones, and even important moments of discovery in an actor’s development. With enough agency empowered, the actors also learn to gauge and advocate for themselves in this delicate process.

It is master acting teacher Ron Van Lieu, who in his eighth decade, continued to question how actor-training curriculums in the US were still modeled after Michel St Denis’ vision in the 1960s?. In the way our Atelier curates faculty members, we only invite those who are at the forefront and still asking questions, while having a strong legacy in technique and teaching history. I think we are in trouble once the teachers are the be all and end all. We are in shifting times, and we hope the teachers are both masters and are in the growth mindset. And following bell hooks’ provocation, we hope our faculty also strives towards self-actualization.

The beauty of an independent Atelier is that it doesn’t have grades. The notion of grades, and students showing up to fulfill external boxes in order to get something sometimes puts the content of the work in the backseat. (So the infrustructure becomes the obstacle in our main pursuit!) At the atelier, we stress narrative and constructive feedback - from multiple angles and faculty members.

Our faculty doesn’t assume power to pass/fail you nor to sell an idea of you to our colleagues and networks. We let the work speak for itself, and we understand that the nature of our industry is unpredictable. The only constant is a solid practice and craft, and a healthy attitude we can bring so to show up in our full selves.

We will be honest and sensible with you, and we also assume you have full agency to discuss and voice any points of disagreements or blind spots during feedback sessions — as our dynamic is one of common pursuit, and in no form is a retaliatory reaction from a faculty member in our structure possible, nor tolerated.

Our hope is to train students who possess tools, mastery, visions, awareness and points of views so full that they can begin negotiating the discourse with the faculty. So our student-colleagues can change the expression of the art form as they rise.

We assume we have the capability to hold conversations between different cultures, value systems as well as ways of thinking and operating. We bring the most thrillingly curated international voices into our artistic community as we also make work and prepare artists who are ready and competent to interface in other major performing art worlds, across disciplines, mediums and countries. We also encourage students to begin discourses with instructors who are from another continents to open up the Canadian context, yet at the same time challenge themselves in letting that difference be a mirror for self-examination. So many literal and metaphorical worlds open up when we can see and negotiate that way.

We want to open up our craft as a pathway for radical empathy so we can interface and discover stories, humanity, and ways of living beyond borders, and our limiting lived lives.

In order to truly understand one’s context as an actor, one much leave their own context to see how their way of living is in relation to “the other”
— so they are more conscious in their owning and reckoning of themselves, and hence a more aware approach can emerge. When we breach into characters and stories beyond their scope, in terms of the geographical, time, form and universe alike.

We do not pledge or worship a single technique at our Atelier. We are a symposium of some of the most effective and progressive ways of working in our field, agree upon by some of the busiest trained actors we know in the industry. All of our faculty members are fully trained in multiple approaches, yet possess a truly unique way into such a work from their lens. They investigate and fully OWN how they work, master teachers or budding master teachers. And we encourage even master teachers to continue to investigate their approach as the times and population receiving this work morphs. It goes both ways.

However, we do have foundations we favor as the most effective ways into the work over time, surveying various institutions and film sets / rehearsals. We think embodied physical practices such as Grotowski, Mask and Post-Modern Presence work are the most effective ways to get the actors into their bodies and impulses, and a heightened state of attention so the real work can begin smoothly. We believe that the Clown work of the Pierre Byland and Chris Bayes traditions holds the key to actors fully expressing, in developing deep listening, and a very flexible visceral imagination to an extreme level of freedom of the actor’s instrument.. We believe in Kristin Linklater’s work to be fundamental in our understanding of resonance, and Catherine Fitzmaurice’s voice work is the most immediate way to unlock and link the performer’s vocal prowess and their emotional life. We think IPA and speech work are fundamental for clarity and transformation. We think the ability to understand text and context are important before we look at subtext; and a very practical way into Stanislavski’s system as a bedrock for most linear drama, before we take his later work in Activated Analysis to augment the potential of your scenes even future.

Though we ALSO understand that you’re anxious to see the results in a scene, and in our eventual scene studies and coaching sessions, we will then work very custom to your needs and the way you work and receive feedback. So we are not bound to a set of working ways, based on the best compatibility of the student.

And FINALLY, we also find the bridge between industry and rigorous training often disjointed, so we are also going to to get our students’ works in front of the right folks so you can exercise what you’ve learned. Ultimately as our colleagues and peers.

We promise at the end of the road, all the seemingly strange modules will transfer so potently and easily into the ultimate work. The more impatient, and the more you’re only interested in the veneer and appearance of the work, the longer it will take for you to master the shell, yet when the craft and the inner building blocks click, and you have dependable ways to conjure not only technique but inspiration from a place of self-knowledge and trust of your own process, that transcends mediums, and you can scale and flip the habitually agile muscles to fit styles easily, ultimately.

As such, we will always prioritize works that connect you to that source, and in shedding light to your self awareness and ability to reach a place of freedom — in advance of any character or story-driven notes.

We are intentionally an independent organization we as want to experiment with the possibility to have a self-sustaining structure that can best feed the work. So the daily operations doesn’t need to fit the agenda of a larger structure, but have a structure whose sole purpose is to speak to the needs and passions of the current students, and the interests and needs of the current faculty members. So we don’t need to perform anything perfunctory nor fit into external timelines.