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Grade 10 Carlton Comprehensive High School drama students mentor young actors

Nov 22, 2015 | 11:13 AM

Carlton Comprehensive High School drama teacher David Zulkoskey took ten drama students to Arthur Pechey School for a chance to collaborate.

Over the course of two months Zulkoskey’s students met with grade eight drama students to give the younger dramatists more experience.

Both grades write their own scripts, and the older students give their input and suggestions.

Grade eight scripts are focused on social issues, while the grade 10 students write a monologue to develop their character skills.

Grade 12 Alain Tahir helped Zulkoskey with this project by mentoring both the grade eights and 10’s.

“One of the students that I would give advice to would really absorb it in. It changed her monologue from something that seemed as if it could be read in a class room to something personal and real,” he said.

This is a new project run by Zulkoskey and Shelly Acorn, the arts education teacher at Arthur Pechey. They proposed it to the school division, and it was chosen for funding after a selection process.

“Once it began rolling…the students worked very well together, discussing and communicating ideas,” Zulkoskey added. “The grade tens were able to be the role models intended for these younger students as they structured their monologues.”

Tahir told the younger students to not be embarrassed, and be ready to make fools of themselves. “All the best actors do,” he said. “Live it up, be the character, and don’t care what others think.”

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