Online Storytelling Residency

The Cause

Trickster Theatre’s Online Storytelling program was developed in our 2020-21 season as we navigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is an online version of a program that had previously been delivered live in schools. The Online Storytelling program is being offered to schools across Alberta and we are working with regional partners to assist with the rollout in various school boards. This program rollout is taking place during the 2021-22 school year. For over 30 years Trickster Theatre has provided arts-based education programs in more than 75% of all communities in Alberta (over 1000 residencies), including 24 Indigenous communities in Alberta (more than 100 residencies). The program is geared to grades 3 - 9 and we would seek to include school boards in Southern Alberta.

We are looking for partners to assist with the rollout in various school boards. EPCOR is confirmed as a sponsor for schools in the Edmonton area and Syncrude is supporting the program in the Fort MacMurray region.

We are in the process of rolling out the program in the 2021-2022 school year and are looking for supporters to fund the program in various regions of Alberta. Once funding is confirmed, we will conduct outreach to regional school boards to find schools that are a good fit for the program.

In this storytelling program, each of the classes would receive two 75 minute sessions. In each session we use Google Jamboard and Google Meet to develop a story from a picture prompt. The story is then told orally at the end of each class. The goal is that the teacher will then use some of the techniques demonstrated.

The program has had an extensive development stage with support from The Rozsa Foundation, Calgary Arts Development, The Calgary Foundation, The Alberta Foundation for the Arts and Deloitte. The program has been tested this season in approx. 350 schools and has received fantastic reviews. The program offers a new and dynamic way to interact with artists online.

View a brief introduction to Online Storytelling here - https://vimeo.com/560606510/6c10a727a7.

Who Will it Benefit?

Funding in the amount of $5,000 will enable us to deliver the program to 50 schools to participate in our Online Storytelling Workshops in the Calgary and Red Deer area.

Students and teachers in Alberta will be the main beneficiaries. Covid has opened up the world of online learning. Our first foray into online learning was this storytelling program. The demand for the program has been huge and we now have 21 artists trained to deliver it with modest funding for the 2021-22 school year already in place.

The Artists. This program expands the training and skills of our artist team. At the beginning of Covid we made a decision to adapt quickly and to bring our artist team along with us. That meant a big investment in training as we changed gears to create online programming. Our very successful adaptations to Covid enabled us to provide more weeks of employment to our artist team than in normal years and bring our budget this season back to almost pro-Covid levels.