Fall Semester Begins for Acting Students: Guest Blog Hart Massey & Michael Ayoub
Welcome to the 2016 Fall Semester for the Acting for Film, TV & Theatre Program. We have a record breaking 13 sections this term! This will include four new term 1 groups and 3 theatrical productions. We couldn’t be more excited!
Firstly, welcome to all of our new students. This is the start of an extraordinarily fulfilling time in your life so take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. The creativity and talent are all around you and it is essential that you network and collaborate with students from all departments and build up your demo reel. Remember everyone at Toronto Film School is working towards a career in this industry. This is your community.
We have worked hard to integrate all the Toronto Film School programs in order to provide you with a greater overall learning experience. Some of this term’s acting program collaborations with other departments include:
• TFS General Auditions which highlight our actors for Film Production films
• Actors starring in each other’s Term 6 films and monologues
• Film Production students helping to produce our Term 6 Greenlit Films
• Actors’ Voiceovers being used by Video Game designers at Steeles Campus
• Writing Program students pitching scripts to our Term 5 Acting Students for the greenlight competition
• Graphic Design Students creating more dynamic packages for our Term 5 pitches
• Graphic Design students building motion graphic sequences for our term 6 films
Make sure that you audition for the Toronto Film School General Auditions which will be held by our resident instructor Omar Zamir. This is an online platform for acting students to record a monologue on camera, and then have Omar post it online for TFS directors/producers who use it to cast their films. If you have not auditioned for the generals, we urge you to contact Omar at OZAMIR@YORKVILLEU.CA
We are thrilled with the level of talent and commitment that we are seeing within our student body. Our plays and short films continue to show the versatility and astonishing strength of our actors and graduates. Our graduates are thriving in the industry and are represented by some of the best agents in the country including:
• Noble Kaplan Abrams
• Talent House
• Characters
• Butler Ruston Bell
• Ambition Talent
• AMP Talent
Graduates have gone on to direct/produce/write/and star in several films that have premiered at TIFF, Sundance Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, and Toronto Film School’s Festival of Films. They have also made appearances in both commercials and tv series including Kim’s Convenience, Degrassi, Covert Affairs, Rookie Blue, Hannibal, Odd Squad, Mr. D, Reign, Motives and Murders, Web of Lies and the HBO series Sensitive Skin.
Sue Miner, Noam Lior & Tim Chisolm are back to direct the Term 5 plays along with Joe Dimambro who will be directing his first show for us. The show titles will be announced shortly and will run at The Pia Bouman Theatre.
Finally, our ever-popular acting showcases will be held the week of December 12th to December 17th. Attendance to all Term 5 plays and the Term 6 Short Film Screening are mandatory. Please ensure that you are all available for the duration of showcase week (ie don’t book any flights home for Christmas until after December 17th) and stay tuned for specific times.
We want to wish you all the best in the coming semester. Break a leg!
Hart Massey and Michael Ayoub are the Coordinators of The Acting for Film, TV and Theatre Program at Toronto Film School. Hart is also an actor, writer, and producer, known for his television shows Hart of the Annex (2006) and the Gemini-nominated series The Film Student (2009-2013). Michael is a graduate of the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater in New York City, under the brilliant Sanford Meisner. As an actor, director, producer and teacher, Michael has been an active force in the business for more than forty years.
