Discover, dream, and create - together.

Dreams & Bones is a new youth theatre and creation lab that offers classes in improv, theatre and creation for young people (K - 12).

The curriculum is built around helping each young person discover, honor and courageously share their unique creative expression while working together with their classmates.

We’re gearing up for our second-ever session starting mid-September 2025!

THE CLASSES

The students work together to create and perform an original show.

The process provides opportunities for young people to:

Build confidence in both themselves and in others.
Listen and be heard.
Collaborate and communicate with others.
Make creative decisions and compromises.
Manage disagreements and negotiate solutions.
Take diverse creative contributions and weave them into a unified whole.
Play, brainstorm and experiment with ideas.
Tell stories.
Speak clearly and use their voices.
Express themselves.
Celebrate the self-expression of others.
Move their bodies and present themselves for an audience.
Commit themselves to a creative process.
Take responsibility for their part in the creation and performance of the group's piece.
Create, edit, refine and finish a work of art.
Make dreams reality, and have a blast doing it :)

Everyone has a different set of talents, interests and points of view.

And the Dreams & Bones way to encourage the students to bring their uniqueness to the table.

Someone wants to write a song? AMAZING! Someone else wants to sing it? PERFECT. Someone wants to paint a backdrop or build props? FABULOUS! Someone wants to dance? SO GOOD. Play kazoo? HECK YEAH! Do a comedy sketch? ABSOLUTELY. A monologue? WE NEEDED SOME GRAVITAS. Bounce a soccer ball on their head 10 times? THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT!

Anything is possible!

The process and the tools used to create each show is as unique as the students themselves. And it reflects the connections they make with classmates throughout the session. Everyone is encouraged to bring their full selves into the process. Together, the students create something they can all be proud of.

THE TEACHER

Sam Chaulk is a passionate artist educator from Mount Pearl, Newfoundland.

In the past thirteen years, she has performed, produced, created and taught theatre and improv in Montreal, Toronto, and Chicago. Now that she’s back on the rock and ready to roll, she’s eager to share her bottomless enthusiasm for theatre, improv and creation.

Sam has worked in theatre professionally since 2009.

She has worked at Rising Tide Theatre and Grand Bank Regional Theatre Festival. In Montreal she was in a number of musicals, and in Toronto, she discovered her love for improv and theatre creation. In 2017, she wrote, produced and starred in her play Dear Uncle Wish at the Toronto Fringe Festival. In 2018 she performed at the Chicago Musical Improv festival. Most recently, in summer 2023, she toured her solo show, Influenced to the Montreal and Winnipeg Fringe Theatre festivals, where it received critical acclaim and multiple award nominations. The show then returned to Toronto for a sold-out run at Sweet Action Theatre.

Sam taught at Young People’s Theatre in Toronto for eight years.

And she’s very grateful to have gotten the chance to learn from incredible instructors and hone her teaching skills at Canada’s oldest and largest theatre for young people. During her time there, she developed, tested and taught what would eventually become the Dreams & Bones curriculum. She was a teaching artist at The Travelling Stage Company, where she visited schools across Toronto teaching drama, improv and mindfulness workshops. She has also taught a number of improv and clown workshops for adults.

Sam has studied theatre, improv, creation and clown intensively.

She holds a BFA in Acting from Memorial University (Corner Brook), and an MFA in Performance Creation from York University (Toronto). She has taken improv classes and intensives at Bad Dog Theatre (Toronto) and IO Theater (Chicago). In 2019 she received funding from Canada Council for the Arts to take a two week improv intensive at The Annoyance Theater (Chicago). And in 2022, she received more funding from CCA to attend a six-week clown course at Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Etampes, France.

We need the voices of young artists now more than ever. For that reason, Sam has dedicated her career as an educator to helping each young person she works with discover, honor and courageously share their unique creative expression with their communities and the world.

Location

Classes will take place at

The Lantern, 35 Barnes Road, St. John’s.

This session, we are aiming to do our class performances in a theatre with full lights and sound!

Venue for class shows TBD.

Dates + Classtimes

Classes will begin mid-September 2025 and will run weekly until the last week of November/first week of December, 2025. There will be no classes on holidays.

In order to accommodate as many families as possible, specific dates and times will be organized based on availability provided to us in pre-enrollment forms. Class days and times will always be consistent (e.g. Mondays at 4pm) and age-appropriate.

Class shows take place on a Saturday morning between the last week of November and second week of December.

Cost

$280 per student, taxes included.

When a class is confirmed, a $50 non-refundable deposit will be required to secure a spot. The remainder must be paid before the first class.

All fees are to be paid by EMT to dreamsandbonestheatre@gmail.com.

Trial classes are available upon request.

The price of theatre rental and technicians is included in the class price, based on a projected number registrants. The aim is for the class show to be free for all friends and family to attend. However, this depends on the total number of registered students for the session and the size and cost of the theatre we rent. If paid tickets are required to help with production costs, they will be kept as low as possible.