Bio

Dorrie is a long-time arts educator who has turned to theater/performing arts and visual arts as her work. She has completed a wide range of Arts Smarts projects ranging from exploring Grade 3 fractions by means of printmaking, to writing & producing plays with students (as many as 128 grade 3-5s onstage at once!). She has created & facilitated large clay mural installations that tell participants’ stories through that medium and has published a book about that work (Uncommon Clay). A lover of words, she has also published a number of plays for young people, and is currently working on a children’s book about the Fundy Biosphere. Dorrie regularly instructs at Capitol Theater Academy has been in charge of props production for the Capitol’s major musicals. She has performed a two one-woman plays (More the Fool in Orange Boots by Sheree Fitch, and Mary Beyond the Asylum); she also played a Phantom in the Capitol Theatre’s production of Rocky Horror Picture Show. She paints acrylic miniatures that are often found in fundraising endeavors (Moncton Public Library, mental health, refugee families). Recent Arts Smarts/ Artist Residencies have included printmaking & T-shirt design and cultural and historical mask-making (Birchmount, gr. 6); the Alice in Wonderland themed work with an Alt Site; and extracurricular work with high school drama (Moncton High)

Residency Project

Anything that opens creativity in young people. Projects are always designed in consultation with the teachers involved, and they always take their own fascinating paths; our initial designs are only a guideline as the students and their discoveries take over. I like to work with any combination of visual arts (clay, papier-mache, drawing/painting, printmaking), music, theater, and writing: explorations of a theme of their own (or curriculum’s) choice. Projects completed have included exploring fractions in Grade 3 through printmaking; writing a play about Canada that involved elephants (!) and a large moveable puzzle-map of the country’s regions made from styrofoam; a permanent clay mural installation that depicts students’ take on their community. Equally, I like to work with students to create their own exploration of a theme through theater (sensitivity/awareness training, writing & performing from improvisation; movement, music). At Petitcodiac Regional School, 128 grade 3-5 students created a play (with movement & music) from personal narratives that explored emotion, related to the Zones of Regulation. I work in multi-faceted projects that may include several arts disciplines (wordsmithing, rhythm & music, painting, drawing, sculpture, movement, acting… So many possibilities! The important thing as I see it is that students are engaged and empowered through the design of the project; that the development of particular skills comes about as the result of students’ need to communicate and express.

Teaching Experience

I taught visual and theatre arts for many years in several Labrador communities, and was a longtime contributor to the Labrador Creative Arts Festival, which involved writing and producing plays giving children their own voice. I currently teach at the Capitol Theater Academy.