Faculty and students of the Drama in Education /Applied Theatre concentration had a truly exciting weekend at the Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators Conference (CODE), which took place October 21-23, 2011 at Blue Mountain, Collingwood.

Adrienne Smoke, a second year student in the Concentration in Theatre Praxis, attended the conference as an invited artist.  She and dub-poet Greg Frankson opened the Conference with a performance: she drummed them in–thus beginning the conference–followed by a dance, and then provided a drum accompaniment to Greg’s poem performance.  She also gave a workshop for teachers, some of whom presented an excerpt of a Shawl Dance as part of the final evenings’ performance.

Alex Kazam, a third year DART student was the conference MC, wandering magician, “gentil animateur” and overall conference figure, “Jack-out-of-the-box” (the theme was on REACH–beyond the classroom, with a visual of getting out of a box…).

Part-time faculty Suzanne Burchell and Helen Zdriluk participated with projects in the 4-hour poster presentation on community-school outreach projects, which was followed by later, in-depth discussion sessions.  Part-time faculty Carolee Mason and full-time faculty Glenys McQueen Fuentes both delivered workshops to teachers.  Helen Zdriluk convened and organized a group of 10 DIE/AT students as very well-appreciated conference volunteers.

Congratulations for a successful weekend at CODE!