The last Professional Development Day before the summer holidays is on May 20, and Joey Clarkson is planting another garden.
Take a handful of seeds, any seeds. Plant them in a fertile medium with room to grow, water well with encouragement and acceptance and watch your garden bloom.
Clarkson is a gardener of sorts.
For the past six years, she has been carefully cultivating the love of musical theatre in hundreds of children and youth on Vancouver Island and the mainland with her workshops and camps.
Clarkson’s high-energy Pro D Day musical theatre workshop will have your children singing and dancing for four and a half hours and will conclude with an informal presentation for family and friends.
Students work on activities that focus on developing skills in the student/actor.
Clarkson stresses that while the final presentation is important, success is ultimately measured through the learning and self-development that comes from the rehearsal process.
Empathy, sensitivity and concern for others are emphasized throughout the program.
The past year has been a busy one for Clarkson. After releasing her first album in July and sharing the stage with Canadian music greats Dan Hill and Jamie Warren, Clarkson spent the rest of the month at Mark R. Isfeld Secondary School, where she was musical director for Rainbow Youth Theatre’s productions of Grease and Aristocats.
August found this ambitious young lady writing, casting, directing and producing the full-length musical Common Ground. Written in a week with her good friend Breanne Larson and in dress rehearsal two weeks later, the profits from this well-received original piece went to Habitat for Humanity.
The next few months were spent performing in the U.K., promoting her new album Joey and teaching musical theatre workshops to North Island Distance Education School (NIDES) students in Nanaimo, Qualicum and the Comox Valley, as well as workshops on the South Island, Delta and Squamish.
A former home-schooled student, Clarkson has found a niche, bringing her enthusiasm and skill to home learners through distance education schools.
“Joey’s passion and enthusiasm for music and drama spills over onto her students,” said NIDES vice-principal Alissa Pratt. “Even the most resistant of children participated actively in her sessions with us. Joey’s patience, kindness and acceptance of all kinds of learners was so refreshing to see! I couldn’t believe what she helped the kids accomplish in such a short period of time. They were so proud of themselves!”
This summer will find Clarkson as musical director for Rainbow Youth Theatre once again, teaching private lessons and workshops, and back on the road touring with her music.
Clarkson’s Pro D Day workshop will take place May 20 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Warriors Realm Academy in Courtenay. The class fee is $40 for students aged five and older.
For more information and to book your space, contact Clarkson at 250-334-2208 or e-mail joeyclarkson@telus.net.
— Joey Clarkson
