As I prepare to close this studio in its current form, I want to take a moment to look back and celebrate the students who made my work as a teacher so meaningful.

From 2018-2025, I had the privilege of working closely with over 50 young performers to develop their spoken voice; build confidence; fall in love with poetry, prose, and theatre; create memorable performances based on their interpretation of a piece of literature; learn how to speak extemporaneously and answer challenging questions like ‘tell me about yourself’ (a surprisingly difficult question to answer); and develop physical awareness and presence through the study of mime.

I worked with students on these skills at 9 Creative Lives Studio, but also from Place des Arts, Viva Voce Speech Arts Studio, Tri-city Youth Debate Club, Vancouver Biennale’s BIG IDEAS program, and the Pacific Northwest Music Festival as their Speech Arts Adjudicator in 2019 and 2024 (selling out a workshop on including your imagination in how you approach public speaking).

From the beginning, I avoided teaching Speech Arts in a way that encouraged my students to conform to a fixed ideal of a public speaker or performer. There is no such thing. A captivating performer and speaker understands themselves and how they feel about a particular subject or piece of literature, and then learns to communicate that understanding with confidence and skill. I’m very proud to have supported my students to do just that.

I’d like to celebrate some of the accomplishments of my students over the last 7 years as they performed at festivals and completed RCM Exams.

Congratulations to…

• M. for earning First Class Honours five years in a row for her grade 3-7 RCM Speech Arts Exam.
• M. for winning the ‘Outstanding Acting Award’ for the 13 years and under category, along with a medal and $100 cash prize at the VAYA Festival in 2023.
• N. for earning Gold for his Dramatic Monologue in the 10 and under category at the VAYA Festival in 2023.
• E. for earning First Class Honours for her grade 2 RCM Exam.
• I. for winning First Place at their grade 2 Speech Competition at Mulgrave
• E. for earning Gold for her Solo Mime performance in the 10 and under category at the VAYA Festival in 2024.
• A. for winning a VAYA Gold Medal for the 8 years and under category in 2024, and a $75 cash prize.
• A for winning 2nd place at the CDMF Festival in the competitive category for ages 7-8.
• A. for winning 2nd place for her performance of an original story at a local Speech Competition.

Then, there are several accomplishments that are very much worth celebrating that didn’t result in an award.

Congratulations to my students for: developing the confidence to speak up in class and contribute to class discussions (even if it felt awkward at first), trying out for drama club and playing a role in the school play, signing up for the Model UN conference and excelling, and redefining what confidence means for them and learning to grow into that for themselves.

It has been a pleasure to be your teacher and cheerleader. Thank you.

I’m in the process of bringing together the Speech Arts materials I developed over the five years of running this studio and making it available on TPT in 2027.

To be notified when I begin releasing Speech Arts teaching resources, you can subscribe to my mailing list here.