Tania Sablatash
Discipline: Drama
Tania Sablatash is a professional actor, singer, and drama instructor. Since graduating with a BFA in acting from the University of Alberta in 1985, she has performed for companies including Theatre North West, Theatre Calgary, Stage West, Quest Theatre, One Yellow Rabbit, Glenmore Dinner Theatre, the Calgary International Children’s Festival, ABC TV, CBC TV and Radio, Access TV, and Northern Light Theatre. She has sung in operas, restaurants, clubs, Fringe Festivals, and shows across Western Canada. This year she is looking forward to performing with the Calgary Opera. Her most recent stage appearances have been as Katrina in Inventing Katrina for SoloCentric, Chelsea in On Golden Pond for Theatre North West in Prince George, BC, as a Wagmanite in Calgary Opera’s world production of Frobisher, and a singer in Me & Bob & Bob & Me for One Yellow Rabbit. Her most recent movie role was in the independent Calgary film Jet Boy. She has worked as a drama coach and instructor with the Calgary Stampede’s Youth Talent, Quest Theatre, and Theatreworks Alberta, teaching children from 4 to 17.
SPECIALTIES: Drama, Singing, Movement, Acting with Mask, Collaborative Play-making, Inter-disciplinary Collaboration
GRADE AND CURRICULUM PREFERENCES: Tania enjoys working with, and has worked with, children of all ages, from ECS-12, and with developmentally challenged students of all ages, as drama artist in schools, both through AFA, formerly with CAPES. and independently. She loves a challenge and has worked in almost every curriculum area, including LA, Social, Science, Math, Technology, and Health.
RESUME HIGHLIGHTS
TRAINING
1981 Drama, Banff School of Fine Arts
1985 BFA Drama, University of Alberta
1990 -- Present Various Workshops in Drama, Dance, Music, and Music Theory
Professional Affiliations
Canadian Actors Equity Association
Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA)
RECENT WORK IN SCHOOLS
Tania worked with the CAPES program starting 1998 – she has worked at many CAPES schools, as well as with ArtsCore and ArtsSmarts. In 1999/2000 she was a member of the InteGreat! ArtsSmarts team. She is also an active member of the AFA Artist Roster.
Memorable experiences include working on contact improvisation and classroom chemistry with grade fives; buildings and structures in our community with grade one/twos; building and structures with fairy tales with grade threes; civic politics with grade sixes; character creation with grade five/sixes; and historical figures with grade nines.
Tania has also done numerous projects with other artists, working with visual artists using photography and puppet-making, video artists, literary artists, and other drama artists.
WORKING WITH CHILDREN
Tania has worked as an AFA Resident Artist, an independent Drama Artist, and as a CAPES artist at many CAPES schools, as well as for ArtsCore and ArtsSmarts, teaching children all the way from ECS to grade twelve. Curriculum areas include stories, myths, legends, fairy tales, poetry, Shakespeare, native communities, other Canadian communities, other world communities, local politics, important historical figures, medieval society, buildings and structures, rain forests, insects, small flying and crawling creatures, under the sea, animal life cycles, classroom chemistry, units of measurement and patterns. Tania also worked on an ArtsSmarts project, which developed a model for integrating curriculum with various artistic disciplines in 1999/2000. Tania has taught drama classes and camps for Theatreworks Alberta, Quest Drama School and with Youth Talent, working with children from ages four to seventeen. She works a lot on trust, risk-taking, and confidence. Her approach in the classroom is fun and structured.
“You have taught me to open and use my imagination more.” - Albert Park Student.
“Thanks so much Tania! You are great with the children.” - Holy Family School
COLLABORATIVE WORK
Tania worked on an ArtsSmarts project called “Integreat!” with three other artists from different disciplines and Riverbend, Holy Angels, and Banting and Best schools. All the artists involved were interested in taking the concept of arts integration one step further – integrating multiple artistic disciplines, curricular areas, three schools and community. She has worked collaboratively with visual artists, literary artists, video artists, and other drama artists on CAPES projects.
“CAPES involved collaboration on many levels – in planning with the teachers and in working with students. It is important to brainstorm ideas freely, and then to come to planning sessions with as many ideas as you can. Communication is what makes a successful project.”
Tania has worked extensively in collaborative theatre projects and has been a long-time board and committee member in Calgary’s thriving performing community.
ARTS INTEGRATION
“In an arts integrated curriculum, children should be able to learn in a very hands-on environment, through experiencing creativity themselves in a cooperative setting. I know through my own teaching experiences that different children express themselves creatively in different ways, and that while some may be visual or language-oriented, others may find their way in through music or movement more effectively.”
“The arts may be incorporated into learning environments as an aid for explaining a concept or through allowing a child to express his or her understanding of a fact or idea in a medium other than or in addition to traditional classroom discussion or written formats.”
“In my role as an artist in relation to the teacher in a class room setting, I would expect to work cooperatively, in close collaboration with the teacher, to come up with effective ways to introduce children to concepts in the curriculum.”
