A spotlight continues to follow Chelsea Woodard, as she prepares for a production of "Rent" and finally being able to move onto post-secondary education later this fall.
"The arts are alive in Saskatchewan," said Woodard. "It is encouraging to see how much hard work is going into the arts."
"Rent" will be staged in Regina on July 31, and August 1, 2 and 3, at the Saskatchewan Express Theatre. It is produced by Zach Flis, who Chelsea has worked with before.
"Zach is working so hard with a lot of young people, to make a professional production," said Chelsea. "Everyone in the company, their age range is from 18 to mid-20s, who live in Regina or the surrounding area."
Last summer, Woodard worked with Zach with the musical "Girls Who Are Mean", loosely based on the movie Mean Girls, that was written and directed by Zach.
For "Rent", Chelsea will perform in the chorus. After working with others in the musical, she said "the main cast are incredibly talented people. The performers have studied theatre in Toronto, or in B.C. and other places, and they are all originally from Saskatchewan."
"It is a lot of hard work because it is a big show to put on," said Chelsea.
"The cast is practicing very well, we have rehearsed for the last month."
The cast also recently had a bonding experience, with everyone donating blood to give back to the community.
This fall, Chelsea will be attending George Brown College, located in Toronto.
"It has a very great theatre department, and their arts program is very strong."
"The school has four different campuses, that are located all across the city," explained Woodard. Her campus is located in the Distillery District, an older, artistic area of Toronto that is near Young Centre.
"All my classes will be in studios there," said Chelsea. "It is really wonderful. It is a prestigious school and I was so happy to hear from them."
Chelsea is very happy to be continuing her theatre education. "I love music and I love singing, but over the last year I have come to realize that above everything I want to be a strong actress. This is what drew me towards a theatre program."
A 2012 graduate of the Weyburn Comp School, she was most recently featured in the Do It with Class theatre production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", her last performance with that group after starting out with them in 2007.
She is not scared at all for the change, or relocating to Toronto. "I think I will find my place."
