Stories from the Professional Theatre Training Program: Stephanie Kast

Our Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP) offers financial support for unique and flexible training with a chosen mentor in any theatrical discipline (except performance.)

Stephanie Kast trained in writing and producing with Joshua Bainbridge in North Bay

(August 17, 2018)  I have officially finished my mentorship for Writing and Producing with Joshua Bainbridge.

I’m writing this on the last day of my mentorship because next week is going to be very busy. In North Bay, August is our Fringe Festival month. After the mentorship ends we run right into The Fringe Festival. What is exciting is I’m doing a read of the one-act version of the play I’ve written. I am doing this read with colleagues of mine. After weeks of working so hard on this I am thrilled to get responses and opinions from my peers and the community.

Here is the image for advertising purposes for my read: 

I learned a lot about producing through this mentorship. What was great is we focused on things that I was unsure about such as: budgeting, advertising and marketing. Closer to the end of our mentorship we ended up focusing heavily on the writing aspect of things.

Now that the mentorship is over, I am applying what I’ve learned from my mentorship to mount the reading of my play. Producing this for the North Bay Fringe will be quite different because it’s through a Festival setting, but I am confident that I will do it properly.

I was able to write a strong one-act play and I’m still in the process of editing the two-act version. I was hoping to get it finished by the end of this mentorship but these things take time and I’m okay with that. I learned a lot from Joshua through this mentorship. He was able to bring things out of my writing that I was nervous and hesitant on approaching. He made me realise that it’s okay to take risks in my writing; that it’s okay to push the boundaries of things.

Outside of this mentorship and outside of the Fringe Festival I fully intend to put the two-act version of this show up in North Bay. After a few more edits it will be ready for me to take on my first try at producing.

I want to send off and say how grateful I am for this experience. Being able to work with Joshua this closely on a piece of my work was amazing. I’m very honoured that he was so eager to work with me on a personal piece when he has so many other projects he is also working on. I am extremely happy with how this experience went and proud to call him my mentor.

Related Reading:

• Stephanie’s first update
• Stephanie’s second update

The next application deadline for the Professional Theatre Training Program is October 1, 2018.

Learn more about Theatre Ontario's Professional Theatre Training Program

Theatre Ontario’s Professional Theatre Training Program is funded by the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.