This was the final week for all our classes, with culminating celebrations, special events and presentations held for all our students. For our Acting and Film Production classes, this meant a public showing of their work at The Village Playhouse in Bloor West Village last night. With parents, friends and other guests in attendance, our actors performed their favourite monologues from this semester. It’s been a busy few weeks for them all: in May, they performed two monologues and an original piece each, for their Trinity College ‘Individual Acting Skills’ exam, and we are all eagerly awaiting the results! Our filmmakers have been equally busy this semester: last week, they held a 12-hour marathon film shoot in a forest along Humber Valley, and it was with great pride that they shared the results of their hard word with all their guests last night, when they premiered their fantasy film, 
Trish’s Journey. Our instructors and students held a ‘question and answer’ session to conclude the event, describing the kinds of workshops they have taken part in throughout their acting and film classes at the academy. The evening was a huge success for everyone involved.
Our two Creative Writing Salons wrapped up the semester in a very different way – with special writing and reading events in magical locations around High Park. We observed people, and imagined their lives. We wrote fantasy fiction based on objects hidden beneath the water of Grenadier Pond, ad used the unique park environment to stimulate original story fragments and poems. Our meditative writing adventures were interrupted by curious squirrels and chipmunks, as well as a swooping red tailed hawk (the Saturday class) and a snapping turtle sighted on the edge of the pond (our Monday class).
From the lovely gardens in High Park, we moved our writing adventures into the forest. We made our way slowly through the trees to the Labyrinth, where we experienced story creation through daydreaming, developing one of our writing ideas into a complete plot as we walked, lost inside our own imaginations. Our time in High Park concluded, for both classes, with readings of our work from this semester. Students shared their favourite pieces, celebrating all they had achieved.
The Centauri Arts Academy has now closed for this semester, and in two weeks, our instructors and offices move down to Centauri Summer Arts Camp – where we will be welcoming 400+ teens from 20 different countries, to work with writers, acting instructors, artists, dancers and filmmakers from across Canada. We still have limited space in a few programs, and you can read more at www.centauriartscamp.com
Classes at the Arts Academy will resume in late September. We’ll be offering Film, Acting and Writing classes as we did this year, as well as a brand new Junior Acting Course for ages 9-14. Registration is open and some classes are already half full! You can read more – and register – at www.artsacademy.ca
Wishing you all a fabulous and creative summer season!
Julie