WHAT’S NEW this year you ask? Why so much is new that I have to move from a narrative format to bullet points…

- Musical Theatre for Kids taught by the wonderfully talented Clara Hilts.

-The Art of Clowning taught by clown guru Dan Fewings.

-Joes vs Schmoes.  Our answer to Theatre Sports!  Using the format of Impros vs Joes, we give our students (or anyone else who wants to play) a venue to improvise with people of your own skill level as well as a chance to play alongside some VERY skilled players. In front of a supportive, encouraging audience to boot!

-Wee Improv with Paul O’Sullivan is now a Drop-In class as well.  Save some money by registering for the ten weeks, or, pay as you play! Ha ha get it? Pay as you…I don’t have to be funny, I just have to TEACH funny.
And of course we still offer the same fun, informative classes we’ve always offered. Check out our CLASSES page for details!

We’re very excited!

Paul O.

Check out the awesome pictures!

Project number 1, activate! Dr. Horrible, go! The first big project of the musical theatre class. If anyone is unaware of the internet sensation Dr. Horrible, allow me to start up a little history lesson. (Boring stuff out of the way first. Then we get to the musical juiciness.) In the middle of the writer’s strike in 2008, Joss Whedon, creator of shows such as Firefly and Dollhouse got together with his two brothers Zack Whedon (Writer) and Jed Whedon (composer) and actress Maurissa Tancharoen to create an independently funded musical for internet distribution. They also gathered well versed actors to play the characters. The actors included Neil Patrick Harris (Dr. Horrible) Nathan Fillion (Captain Hammer) Felicia Day (Penny) and Simon Helberg (Moist.) The musical, upon release, almost instantly became a huge success and brought much fame, fortune, riches, cookies, social acceptance blah blah blah. Enough of the bloody history lesson, thank you very much. It’s time to get onto the interesting stuff. Personal experiences! Yay!

Day 1-7:00pm EST. Wind is blowing North-northwest. Temperature is nice and cool. A pleasant enough evening. A perfect night… for a murder. Or a movie. Depends on my mood. My car pulls around the back of the building. A door opens. A toe falls out. Followed by a foot. Followed by a leg. Then a human body. Alive. Without shoes. Or socks. This confuses me more then if a severed toe had fallen out. I need to stop watching so many movies. The door to the academy is wide open. I can see the shadowed figures of my classmates sitting inside. My heart begins to race with anticipation. Or maybe it was fear. Or maybe the butterscotch pie I had earlier. My poor arteries. When I get inside, a new sight greets me. An extremely large television has been placed in the corner of the room. Paul is hooking up his new iPhone, showing it off to everyone. He is now the most hated person in the room. Rod makes a bad pun. It only makes my brain bleed a little now. Paul begins to connect his iPhone to the TV. “Everybody, I’d like to introduce you to, our new project.” Lo and Behold, it’s Dr. Horrible. By now, about half the people in the class have seen it and memorized at least one of the songs (myself included.) Suffice to say, we’re pumped. After the movie is over, we move into the music room to learn two songs. To be more precise, the people who’ve memorised the musical sing the songs, and everyone else struggles along. Two songs are learned. The first is Freeze Ray, and the next is The Bad Horse Chorus. Before leaving, Paul promises that the roles will be cast next week. I receive an ominous look from Josh. Odd, but it’s probably nothing. Jeff then looks at me and laughs maniacally. I’d comment more, but maniacal laughs from Jeff are pretty standard. I hop into my car, and drive away, humming Dr. Horrible songs. Looking forward to next week.

Day 2-7:05pm EST. Through a series of unfortunate events, including a train, a Panini, and a trio of Spanish dancers, I was late for class. Nervous, yet excited, I’m prepared for pretty much anything. Walking through the door, everyone is sitting in the front room, as seems to be the custom nowadays (or the back room, depends on which door you come in from.) Paul makes a crack about me being late, as is the custom. If he went without jokes at someone else’s expense for a whole 24 hours I think the universe would explode. (And that’d be just fine by me. (The fact that he makes jokes at others expense, not the universe exploding. I think that would throw a wrench into my… well, everything.) Paul beckons us into the main room, and begins to announce the cast. Since there are a lot of people, there will be two casts, and we’ll be split up accordingly. My heart races with anticipation. Or maybe that butterscotch pie from last week has formed a wall around my heart. Keep pumping little buddy, you’re doing fine-ish. Paul slowly unfolds the piece of paper that will determine our future for the next ten weeks. Every Thursday. From 7:00 to 8:30. This doesn’t seem like that big a deal anymore. Huh. He announces cast two first. Devon is Dr. Horrible. Jeff is Captain Hammer. He receives props. Kate is Penny. Mike is Moist. Then there’s the rest of the cast, but they aren’t important. (I kid!!!) Now Paul begins to announce cast one. Marie is Penny. Mike is still Moist. I’m Captain Hammer. That’s odd. “But Paul,” I say. “How am I going to play both Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible?” I am ignored. Oh wait, that only happened in my imaginary world where I am not a kind sweet modest humble person. I’M MORE HUMBLE THEN YOU!!!!!!! I’M MORE MODEST THEN YOU!!!!!! GO **** YOURSELF!!! … *Clears throat* … I’m gonna choose now to ignore the elephant in the room. Its bright pink colour is hurting my eyes. Let’s just throw a sheet over it and hope nobody notices… Paul finally announces Josh as Dr. Horrible. He laughs maniacally. Getting into character I suppose. Then Jeff laughs maniacally. Again, this is very normal. We spend the rest of the day (And by day, I mean the next 45 minutes) learning So They Say. I come in on the wrong note. Twice. And I only have one singing part in the song. I defy the laws of physics, just to come in on the wrong note again. Crap. Ah well. We’re done for the day. Time to head home, forget everything I learned, and then relearn it next Thursday 15 minutes before I go to class.

By (P.A.P.A. Student) Rowan Lamoureux

Just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who participated in our March Break extravaganza. We learned so much about how to keep things interesting and fun for a wide age range. We hope to take the best of that experience and bring it to our upcoming week long summer day camps at PAPA.  Thanks again to our tremendous staff and to a group of great kids that brought the kid out in all of us!
Hope to see you all again soon.
Linda & Paul
xox