What's New > S.M.Arts Toronto Conference 2012
In April 1996, Winston Morgan held the first S.M.Arts Conference in Toronto. Never one to start small, the first conference offered 20 courses and was attended by 41 people in various stages of their career. Sixteen years later, over 500 stage managers have participated in 90+ courses taught by over 110 different instructors. True to Winston's vision, this is an inclusive conference; it is a place for working stage managers to learn new skills or brush up their old ones and a place for the apprentice stage manager to learn more about their chosen profession and hone their abilities.
This year we are ressurecting a topic that we haven't had in more than 14 years. Daniel Levinson will be teaching "Foundations of Staged Combat". Participants in this course will actually learn the basics of falls, slap, punches and kicks, looking at the safety measures required and how to notate fight choreography. Also, based on feedback from past participants we have developed the course Stage managing for Cruise Ships. It is not just about stage managing on the water, but an entirely different job and set of skills.
Our basic building blocks remain the same but we have rotated in some courses into the "Genres" category as well as into the "Positions" categories. See full descriptions of this year's course offerings on our web site.
Registration is now open.
For those of you interested in our Master Class programme, we are still in negotiations so we cannot yet announce this year's offering. I will send an email announcement once details have been confirmed. It will probably happen in late April or early May.
I look forward to seeing you at the conference.
Sincerely,
Janelle Rainville - Director, S.M.Arts