Getting Cultured

It's hard to believe that something that I've been apart of for over 10 years can just go away and disappear so quickly. Since I was 10 I've been involved in the performing arts. From playing 'Gad' in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" to Monsieur de Treville in "The Three Musketeers", I've been involved in many aspects on stage and behind the scenes.

I've spent the past couple years working for North America's oldest student-run theatre company, Sock 'n' Buskin, first as Communications Director and second as General Manager. They were two absolutely amazing years.

When I left the company in April, I made a person vow to remain involved and active in the theatre community...I have, sadly, not followed through on that vow.

School, work and life have kept me very busy, and even though the NAC is right across the street, I've not made the walk over once this season.

Tonight was, hopefully, my turning point! I went and saw Sock 'n' Buskin's first show of the mainstage season, Midsummer Night's Dream. The production was well done, and has inspired me to seek out more cultural opportunities in Ottawa, Mississauga and, soon enough, London!

Theatre gives the actors, the crew and the audience an opportunity to experience something new, the ability to enter into a new world, to release ones inhibitions and venture into the unknown. Sometimes theatre is seen as a flimsy form of expression, but in reality, it's the most surreal way of communicating ideas - past, present and future - to audiences of all sorts (and one of the most fun ways of getting cultured)!