Telus Becomes An Integral Part of GCTC's Youth Outreach Plan With A $20,000 Donation to High-School Matinee Program

Ottawa, ON, Oct 12, 2005 – The Great Canadian Theatre Company and TELUS have partnered to give high-school students an immersive, educational theatre experience in GCTC’s Student Matinee Program, which debuts on October 19 with a special performance of the theatre’s production No Great Mischief.

TELUS has donated $20,000 through its newly-established TELUS Ottawa Community Board to support the Student Matinee Program, which is designed to provide Ottawa-area high school students with an enhanced educational experience with the professional arts. Students in this program will gain exposure to the professional arts in a manner that will flow seamlessly with arts curriculums taught in schools. 

TELUS’ donation makes it possible for GCTC to provide students with the opportunity to not only attend performances, but also have the experience enhanced through study-aids such as fact-sheets. These educational tools will allow teachers to integrate GCTC main-stage series performances with their curriculums. Post-performance talk-backs with cast and crew members of a show will allow students to ask pointed questions about the inner workings of professional theatre in an open and inviting forum. Here they will be able to ask all manner of questions and get immediate, professional answers from artists with years of experience in the field.

"TELUS is delighted to be part of this great GCTC program to connect young people to the performing arts,” said Janet Yale, TELUS Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs.  “At TELUS we believe it is vital to encourage our youth to develop a life-long relationship with the arts.  Supporting initiatives such as the Student Matinee Program is part of  TELUS’ commitment to being Canada’s Premier Corporate Citizen.”

The Student Matinee Program offers students the opportunity to get exposure to great works such as David S. Young’s No Great Mischief adapted from the original novel by Alistair MacLeod; the complexity of comedy with Marie Jones’ Stones In His Pockets; Democracy by John Murrell; modernized restoration theatre entirely in rhyming couplets in Swollen Tongues by Kathleen Oliver and Yasmina Reza’s critically acclaimed piece Life X3 directed by RH Thomson.

TELUS’ donation to the Student Matinee Program is an integral element in GCTC’s ongoing Youth Outreach plan to make theatre more available to the youth of the Ottawa area. Other branches of this plan include providing similar performances to university and college programs, Ontario’s lowest–priced student subscription flexi-pass and a proactive student internship program already in place with high-schools and universities of the Ottawa area.

For media information, contact Adam Stephens at (613) 236-5192 ext. 229, or via e-mail at publicity@gctc.ca

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