MTYP welcomes new school director

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This article was published 24/06/2022 (1185 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE FORKS

The Manitoba Theatre for Young People is welcoming a new school director, who will head up the organization’s wide range of theatre programs.

Vern Thiessen, a playwright and arts educator for about 30 years, returned to his hometown to take over the role on June 6.

Thiessen has worked in various places, including Edmonton, where he developed and taught classes in French, English and Arabic, and New York, where he ran an arts education program for underserved children in Harlem.

He said he believes the arts, and theatre specifically, can play an important role in a child’s life.

“It’s critical for cognitive development, first of all, biologically and psychologically. It’s really an important thing for kids to have a place where they can go and play safely with other children and to learn the great skills that theatre provides — communication, articulation, collaboration, patience, creative place,” Thiessen said.

Those skills transfer into whatever children end up doing with their lives, he said, whether they become doctors or lawyers or anything else.

Thiessen said being an educator has shown him kids have lots to teach adults, too.

“It’s really important that everybody in life, as you get older, that you have young people that you surround yourself with and that you learn from. It’s not a one-way street … you are actually learning by engaging with them and learning about the world as it exists through their eyes,” he said. “And so it’s a really fulfilling experience.”

After two years of programming that resorted to Zoom classes and distance learning, Thiessen said his number one goal is to get children back into the theatre. He commended the organization for adapting to the pandemic, but said there’s no substitute for kids getting together to learn, have fun and be joyous.

He encouraged parents of children who may be interested to look up what programs are available on the theatre’s website and simply to give it a shot. There are many summer camps coming up in the next few months, he said.

“Here at MTYP, what we want to do is create a sense of excitement and awe in children, that this is a magical experience for them. So, when they leave here, they want to come back to experience more magic,” Thiessen said.

To learn more, visit www.mtyp.ca