The National Theatre School of Canada (NTS) recently announced that it has entered into a partnership with Scotiabank to strengthen its historic DramaFest program.
According to Businesswire, Scotiabank is committing $450,000 in funding over three years to the program to help expand regional programming and provide support to the dramatic arts community.
"With so much going on in the world today, and the level at which young people are engaged, having a program like DramaFest in schools across Canada is indispensable to education and growth," Maude Levasseur, Director of Arts Engagement at NTS, told Businesswire. "The festival allows students to bring their individual experiences and thoughts to the classroom — often tackling important and complex issues — and explore it through the arts. There’s no question these students, and their teachers, have the power to make a change through DramaFest, so we couldn’t be happier that Scotiabank sees our vision and the value in growing the festival’s reach."
Expanding DramaFest will help support NTS in its mission to make theater more accessible for students, teachers and and volunteers in a more diverse and equitable environment.
"We’re proud to partner with the National Theatre School of Canada," Scotiabank Regional Senior Vice President for Quebec and Eastern Ontario Genevieve Brouillard told Businesswire. “The value we’ve seen the DramaFest program provide to Canadian youth has greatly benefited their creative expression, and we cannot wait to see how our partnership will help to build on that.”
Established in 1942, DramaFest brings children together for everything that it takes to put together a theatric performance. Gathering across the country -- from Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and the Atlantic -- children come together for theater and some even gone on to have a career in the dramatic arts.