Engineering a bright future through the Bard
Each week during the campaign, campers and staff from Fresh Air Fund camps will share their memories in their own words. University student Isaac Ellmen, 20, who attended Danforth CTI, helped run the Shakespearience Performing Arts Summer Experience in Toronto. He was involved with the camp from 2010 to 2014.
I found out about Shakespearience through one of the school workshops in my middle school, Spectrum Alternative. I signed up because I didn’t want to sit on my couch all July and because I had heard excellent things from my classmate, Emma.
More than anywhere else I had ever been, Shakespearience made me feel like I could open up and just do things that felt right to me rather than things that looked right to other people. I felt safe. During my second year of Shakespearience, I learned how to act. After the show, a video of the performance was sent to The Characters Talent Agency. Since then, I have been doing commercial auditions as well as acting in my drama class and school improv club.
I had strongly considered attending a summer engineering program. However, I chose Shakespearience because I genuinely thought it would equip me with vital skills that help in all my academics. Every university engineering program requires your English mark to be counted in your average. Shakespeare is a huge part of the mandatory English curricu- lum. There is no doubt in my mind that Shakespearience helped me achieve a good mark.
Above and beyond that, though, the Shakespearience summer program also teaches invaluable life skills. It helped me understand that there are no shortcuts in life and that a commitment to excellence demands time, effort, hard work, planning, attention to detail, knowing your audience, working as a team, thinking outside the box, having a backup plan, setting standards and doing what it takes to meet them.
Shakespearience has given me the tools to succeed, not just as an actor, but academically and socially.
I am quite certain that all of these things will serve me well in my engineering studies.