Life Drawing an Astor Academy Program

Mentors: Artist Roger Savage, RCA
Time: 2:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Fee: $20 per session

Program Starts: Thursday, September 24, 2026 from 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Life Drawing was started by Roger Savage. Weekly studio sessions provide the opportunity for lay and professional visual artists of our region to practice and improve their drawing and observation skills. Participants are from communities along the South Shore. This program costs $20 per session to provide payment to the models used in the drawing sessions.

This is a drop-in program, preregistration is not required.  For more information contact boxoffice@astortheatre.ns.ca

They meet in the Gorham Room on Thursdays from 2 pm to 4:30 pm

Astor Academy Playwrights Study Circle

Mentor: Katherine Schellmer
Time: Fridays 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Program Starts: Friday, September 25, 2026 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Are you interet interested in learning about theatre and famous theatre playwrights?

Join Katherine Schellmer in the Playwrights Study Circle!  A brand new Astor Academy designed for adults.  Meeting on Friday evenings in our Gorham Room, this program will provide a fun, informative learning experience. Katherine has written professionally for theatre, TV, radio, and film.  She was also an educator at The National Theatre School of Canada for three years, running a sessional course entitled “Solo Show” in which she mentored and then directed students performing their own works.

She hopes to use her experience/knowledge to invigorate the theatre community in Queens County.

In this program, the group study a specific playwright, as well as the time period the play was written in; world events, cultural events, the forces that shaped the creation of the work, and the reaction to the work when it premiered.

The first session will accommodate 15 women studying the Quebec playwright Michel Tremblay and his groundbreaking work “Les Belles Sœurs” (The Good Sisters).

At the end of the session, the group will then do a staged reading of the play to members of the community in the Gorham Room – preceded by a short lecture on the cultural significance of the work and how it relates to the present day.

This will be a wonderful opportunity to expose the community to works they would never have a chance to see performed. More than just entertaining, these staged reading events will also educate, inform and challenge the community and the readers themselves.

This program will start with an information session and cold read through on Septebmer 25, 2026.

Individual sessions will be scheduled and will last approximately 10 mins.  To register for your timeslot, email boxoffice@astortheatre.ns.ca