Vancouver Opera’s Work Experience Program

In order to graduate from Grade 12, every student in British Columbia must complete a minimum 30-hour Work Experience / Community Involvement program related to a field that they might be entering following completion of secondary school.

Each September, Vancouver Opera accepts applications from students who are considering a career in the Performing Arts, whether it be as a performer, a technician/production vocation or as a possible administrator. Students are selected based on their previous experiences and their ‘fit’ with our upcoming mainstage productions.

Once selected, students are interviewed at their schools by either Michael Grice, VO’s Director of Education, or Gwen Murray, retired Fine Arts Coordinator (Surrey School District) and long-time volunteer with the program. The students are provided with a 40-page booklet outlining their schedule, information about the composer and this specific production, and general information about opera, (including terminology, voice-types and pictures/bios of artists appearing in the production.) In addition, there is a section of the booklet the students use as a ‘journal’, wherein they take notes about each event they witness, commenting on how the production changes from one rehearsal to the next, the set/costumes, etc. and how things change once the move is made from rehearsal hall to the QE Theatre.

During their ten days with us, the students witness staging rehearsals, the Sitzprobe, piano and orchestra ‘techs’ in the QET. In addition, they do one-on-one interviews with personnel in Stage Management, Production, (they love chatting with Carmen and Elke in the Make-up & Wigs room, especially the one student who gets to go home with a grotesque ‘black eye’!), Administration and, of course, the Artistic Dept., by meeting and interviewing all of the Principal Singers in the production.

Their time with us culminates in attending, along with a guest, the final Dress Rehearsal. They are making observations, and writing commentary in their journal at each event. The students then write up a formal copy of their journal notes and submit it to VO staff for evaluation. The evaluated documents are returned to the students at the end of the process, along with an autographed poster of the production, so that they will have a lifetime remembrance of their time at the opera!

We are very proud of this program and are pleased that each year we have more applicants than we can accommodate. This past season, for instance, we were able to accept 32 students (8 for each of our four Mainstage shows) from more than 60 applications received. The program continues to grow as students from more and more school districts hear about it from older students in their schools and become anxious to join us.

~ Michael Grice, Director of Education