In 28 years of school residencies, Trickster Theatre has created 750 original theatrical productions in over 200 communities throughout Alberta. Over the years, more than 250,000 Albertan students of all abilities and backgrounds have performed before 650,000 audience members.
2016-17 Impact
37 School Residencies
10,6333 student participants
33,518 total audience members
583 volunteers, 2207 volunteer hours
Communities visited: Airdrie, Cadotte Lake, Calgary, Carstairs, Cochrane, Coleman, Dapp, Didsbury, Eden Valley, Edmonton, Grande Prairie, High Level, Maskwacis, Medicine Hat, Niton Junction, Pincher Creek, Ponoka, Sherwood Park, Siksika, Taber, Tomahawk, Waterhen Lake.
“Dear Tricksters, thanks to each and every one of you so much for your time, energy, committment, vision, ambition, and patience this week. It has been utterly rewarding to see our students thrive this way – we’ve all made memories to carry with us for a long time. With gratitude, appreciation, and a healthy dose of awe.” – Cayley School, Cayley, AB
Artist in Residency Program
In each Trickster Residency we create an original 90-minute theatre performance for up to 500 actors. The show is based on a theme chosen by the school and developed with the assistance of Trickster. Recent themes have included: Kids as Global Citizens, The History of the Cowboy, Bullying, Literary Genres, The Wild World of Science, The Leader in Me and Canada.
From K-3 to K-12, from 50 students to 500, we’ve done it all. No matter what type of school you have, we can help you create a show that will astound you. We provide the lighting, sound, curtains, costumes and props – not to mention the directors, producers and artists to lead it all.
There is funding assistance available from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. This can cover between 50-75% of the cost (up to $15,000). The application deadline is April 1 each year.
Take a look at some videos about the residency program in our showcase section.
Act2Learn
The Act2Learn program is set up to support teachers in increasing the amount of teaching time in which students are able to learn physically. We call it the “out-of-desk experience”. A report was written by Arts in Education researcher Sheryl Krill and funded by Heritage Canada showing the results of a study that looked at the impact of our Act2Learn program in two Calgary schools. Take a look at the report here: Act2Learn Report
Kids Go Global
Kids Go Global is a partnership between schools, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), and Trickster Theatre. It supports K-12 schools in exploring global issues, taking action, and inspiring others to do the same. It is a free to use web platform as well as a very popular residency theme. In fact, we created the Kids Go Global website to support schools doing residencies on global issues and it very quickly grew into a web platform for schools everywhere to use.
For a more in-depth look – see our on-line presentation about Kids Go Global here
Storytelling Through Theatre FLEX program
Using movement patterns and storyboards, students will learn how to generate ideas and organize them BEFORE writing the story. The results from this project show overall improvement in the quality of writing when movement-based storywriting is the focus.Support a Stream
Schools choose to focus their residency around a certain theme in order to make it cohesive. Each class creates pieces of the performance that focuses on topics within your greater theme. Without grant funding, many schools do not have the capacity to have a Trickster residency. By funding a theme stream, you are enabling less fortunate schools to participate in the program. Some common theme streams include:
Canada, Leadership, Kids Go Global, Finding the Balance, Literary Genres, & Science: Alive & Kicking