The Velveteen Rabbit ~ Racheal Arnold

CSOPA is a non-profit, youth theatre arts studio offering training and performance opportunities in theatre and musical theatre for ages 5-24.

We acknowledge and support that engagement and success looks different for each student, and our faculty prioritizes keeping their teaching style, activities, and goals flexible to the needs of our students.

There are a lot of ideas about what theatre is and isn’t. A key component of our work at CSOPA is encouraging emerging artists to trust their voices and their instincts. We work on building foundations of creation. We discuss how discovery in rehearsal is where growing happens. However, the focus is often on the finished product. Productions are critiqued, discussed and assessed a success based on preferences and perspectives of audience members, critics and other artists. This viewpoint develops a hierarchy of value for the production, the performers and each individual role. From this viewpoint we can get stuck oversimplifying artistry and performance, incorrectly placing a higher value on lead roles, stage time, and the number of lines spoken or sung.

We are storytellers. We begin by breaking down expectations of casting and production by discussing how integral each life is in the body of a story. Each life on stage is imperative, so we start by acknowledging we are storytellers with a responsibility to honour each individual story we are entrusted with because each individual story is a life. Each life holds value, so we approach each individual’s story with the value and respect equal to the respect each human life deserves.

CSOPA is a registered charity, governed by a volunteer board of directors.

Collaboration is not the act of creating without conflict. It is the act of creating something in spite of our differences.