Interview with Artistic Director ETC Evan Tsitsias by Vince Kennedy, 5 September 2020
Eclipse Theatre Company is launching its new educational initiative - Mentoring, Training and Opportunity. How is that going to work?
ETC has always included an educational mandate since it’s inception. We all feel strongly about mentoring and training the next generation of artists, but also helping professionals continue to train and hone their skills. Since the pandemic, we have all learned how successful the use of the internet and Zoom technologies can be in sharing knowledge and skills, so this felt like the right time to begin this arm of the company. We have a very rich roster of Associate Artists that will be leading some of these classes and will be inviting other guest teaching artists to lead as well. We are also offering personal coaching sessions from this roster of artists, so if you would rather work one on one with someone, this is something we are happy to help with as well.
What is unique about the ETC approach?
The first series of sessions will be based on specific ETC successes with our past Dora winning productions of Kiss of the Spider Woman, Sunday in the Park with George and Ghost Quartet. Our initial set of classes will be led by alumni of these three shows -Sara-Jeanne Hosie, Tess Benger and Beau Dixon. These exceptional artists will bring with them their intimate knowledge and connection with these pieces to share with the participants and make this a truly unique and special experience.
Who have you got involved in this process?
We have two phenomenal Educational Directors – Alexis Gordon and Jacob James, both passionate artists with vast credits behind them and Jacob with a robust background in the NTS Festival as an adjudicator and teacher. We also have our wonderful Education Administrator, Katherine Winter to make sure it all runs smoothly. As the program grows and evolves we will continue to add classes based on the needs of the participants and things we think will excite people. We are truly committed to outreaching to the community through this initiative and are so excited to welcome an entirely new crop of artists to our ETC family.