Tuesday 18 July 2017

Stories from the Professional Theatre Training Program: Alessia Accurso

Our Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP) offers financial support for unique and flexible training with a chosen mentor in any theatrical discipline (except performance.)

Alessia Accurso will train in video and lighting design with Beth Kates at The Grand Theatre in London

(June 22, 2017)  I still can’t believe I was one of the few selected to receive this grant. A big—BIG—thank you to Theatre Ontario for making this mentorship possible. As I approach the beginning of my mentorship journey, I can’t help but feel excited and a teensy bit nervous. I will be training under Beth Kates in Video and Lighting Design for a new piece of Canadian Theatre, Silence. This play will be directed by Peter Hinton and will open January 2018 at The Grand Theatre in London, Ontario.

During these next few months, I hope to gain a thorough understanding of the many programs used to edit and manipulate images for video design. These include a large chunk of the Adobe Suite, with key programs, Photoshop, Illustrator, In Design, Premiere and After Effects. I am eager to finally learn and play with these programs under Beth’s guidance. My goal is to become proficient enough in video editing, so that I can properly support Beth in the creation of storyboards for the video design for Silence

I feel very excited to have this opportunity to train with Beth, as she is an incredibly talented designer. I am most looking forward to seeing her design process in its entirety- the ability to observe how she interprets a script, works with the director to create a design and then translates that design from a concept drawing to a work of art. I hope to use what I learn from Beth’s design process in future design work of my own.

In addition to the design process, I know I will also have the opportunity to witness a strong female in a leadership role, which I consider to be an invaluable experience as a fellow female theatre artist. To be given the chance to learn from one of the few established female projection designers in Canada is a complete honour. 

As I finish writing this post, my kettle is whistling, reminding me to grab my favourite cup of tea, download the first program, and start creating! I look forward to sharing what I learn over the next little while… silly Photoshop images and all!

The next application deadline for the Professional Theatre Training Program is October 2, 2017.


Theatre Ontario’s Professional Theatre Training Program is funded by the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

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