We specialize in drama, theatre and acting programs for kids. We have offered summer camps, classes and workshops continuously since 1994, all across Toronto, the GTA and southwest Ontario. Tens of thousands of children have attended. We are dedicated to what we do; we listen to our families; and we are proud of our record of success.

GBTC started as a project of the two founders: Charles and Lily Small. As they explain it: “When our kids were young, they were always involved in drama. We lived in Winnipeg and they attended a wonderful community-based program while we were there. When we moved to southwest Ontario in 1994, we looked for a similar program they could participate in, and were disappointed to find that there were few options. We decided to organize our own program from the ground up, with community help, and GBTC just grew from there.”

We aim to foster a supportive, enriching, cooperative environment, in which children with a wide range of capacities and talents, from a wide range of backgrounds, and with all levels of experience, from beginners onward, can join in and benefit. We aim to provide a service within the community by stimulating cooperation and social skills and building imagination and creativity. Great Big Theatre Company is a non-profit and a registered charity with a mandate for the promotion of arts and drama education through educational programs and productions. We strive to make it possible for every child who is interested to attend.

The following are some of the benefits we aim at:

You can find out more about the benefits of drama here

We are very selective in our choice of instructors, workshops teachers and camp leaders. All staff are college or university trained. The ability to provide a safe, welcoming environment is of course indispensable. Our instructors come from a wide range of backgrounds and bring many different skills with them. We look for background in arts and drama, and we also look for personal qualities: the ability to build relationships with kids; leadership; initiative; imagination; organization; energy; enthusiasm; caring; dedication; and an ability to inspire. We are pleased that parents, over the years, have had wonderful things to say about our staff. Years down the road, kids still have great recollections of the special staff people they remember. We often have campers who are second-generation: kids who attended when they were young and now send their own kids to the camp and class programs. We value our staff, and we are appreciative of the enormous contribution they make to our programs. We are pleased that many of them return to work with us year after year.

We place the highest priority on the safety of campers. Safety training, safety protocols and safety procedures are emphasized in our staff training. All staff have Vulnerable Sector Checks. All have valid First Aid / CPR training, are trained in our incident reporting procedures, and review the status of campers and facilities throughout the camp day to advise on any concerns. We have offered camps continuously since 1994 and we regularly review and refine our policies and procedures to ensure that from the start of camp to the end, all children are secure and protected.

With respect to camp content and agenda;  we work to ensure that our camps provide a safe, welcoming and inclusive space for children of all backgrounds, free from expressions of violence, hatred or aggression. At times, during both improvisational games / exercises and script-based activities, children may be generating their own ideas for characters and scenes.  It is important, we believe, to allow children the space for imagination while also ensuring that their creative expressions are appropriate, and respectful of others. 

Great Big Theatre Company has over thirty years of experience developing a program that is as effective as we can make it. We have a strong focus on theatre as a social, cooperative, inclusive and non-competitive activity, in which every child can participate, and through which all can benefit by working and learning together.

We work with a ratio of between 6:1 and 8:1. There may also be camp assistants present who are high-school level volunteers or co-operative students; these are not included as part of our ratios.

GBTC's camps follow a defined schedule and agenda which is posted at the camp and which the staff is trained to follow. There are activity periods of 30 minutes to 45 minutes devoted to each item on the agenda, whether it be a play, monologue, rap, poetry, work on sets and backdrops, improvisation, theatre games, musical numbers or movement choreography. There is a warm-up and cool-down period at the start and end of the day, a 30-minute lunch period followed by a break for outdoor activities, and snack breaks in the morning and afternoon.

Prepacked lunch (refrigeration and microwave will likely not be available), a couple of snacks, sunhat, water bottle, change of t-shirt if they will be doing outdoor water play (normally on a Wednesday). Mask, if you are asking your child to wear a mask; and also a change of masks. We will not, however, remind the children to wear masks, and, unless there is a public health emergency, we are not requiring masks for either staff or campers. Campers should wear comfortable clothes that allow for ease of movement.

Summer registration for Great Big Theatre Company's camps is generally online by November of the preceding year. Many parents register early to benefit from our early-registration and multiple-week discounts. It is impossible to predict in advance for any particular week / location when or if it will fill up. If a camp week / location is still shown in the session selection options, that means it is still available. If you need to know how many spaces remain (for example, if you would like to register multiple siblings or a group of friends), you can always give us a call. The online camp registration screens also show the number of remaining available spaces when a camp is starting to approach capacity. If a camp is full when you try to register, you can add your name to the waitlist for that week / location. If a space becomes available, you will automatically receive an email, and you will then have 24 hours to register before that space is offered to the next family on the list. If you have questions about how many are on a waitlist, you can call us to find out.

Rather than seeing theatre as a process of memorizing lines and scripts, we emphasize working with the body, expressions, emotions, and movements, so that dramatic skill becomes something that can be developed even through a single spoken line, or the acting out of a particular gesture. In other words, it is the acquired skill and sensitivity that is important, not the length of the piece or the number of lines.

Older groups (age 9 and up) do work with scripts, and reading is an important skill for working with these. That being said, for students who do not relate well to reading, it is possible to find and develop roles that place a greater emphasis on movement, physicality, and expression of character in non-verbal ways. For those 8 and younger, reading is not generally a requirement; the roles and characters and story-telling exercises can be related to well without the need for written scripts.

Often, with both younger and older groups, students at GBTC's camps are encouraged to develop their own scripts, characters and stories. They will also work with pre-existing scripts from many different sources. Materials for the younger groups often come from legends, fairy tales, folk tales and traditional stories. For the older groups, we work with contemporary scripts, spoofs of traditional fairy-tale themes, adaptations of traditional material such as Shakespeare, as well as comedy and adventure-themed stories. We select scripts based on their level of challenge, the age-appropriateness of the materials, their interest level and their ability to accommodate, so far as possible, equal roles for all participants.

There is no process of “auditioning” within camps, classes and workshops, since there are no larger or smaller roles. All will participate on an equal basis as much as possible. The participants will generally select the roles themselves based on their own interests and inclinations. Sometimes roles can be shared between participants.

The camp content will be different each week – different plays, musical numbers, etc. The end-of-week performance will therefore vary from week to week. Many campers attend for multiple weeks during the summer. Before selecting plays for each week, staff will check with the campers attending to ensure the play they are considering is not one that they have performed in a previous camp week.

No. The camp content will be different for each week and location, but all of the camps operate with a standardized agenda and curriculum. You can choose whichever location is most convenient.

Most (but not all) of the activities at the camps are within particular age groupings. Not all, because we do feel that on occasion it is a good idea to mix the age groups together. Sometimes there are things that kids of different age groups can usefully learn from each other. Within each camp, there may be two or three different groupings. Typical groupings may be 6-8-year-olds, 9-11-year-olds, 12-14-year-olds, or else 6-8-year-olds, 9-year-olds and up. The exact cutoff points will vary from camp to camp depending on age distribution and numbers. If your child is 6 or 7, they will be with the youngest group. If they are 13 or 14, they will be with the oldest group.

If you want to get an idea of the age ranges for the week / location you are considering registering for, you can call GBTC at 1 866 864 4282 or 905 628 9747. Keep in mind that these vary as registrations progress and that we may not have a clear picture of the full range of ages until just before the start of camp. We try to ensure that if there is a very wide gap (three years or more) between one registered camper and the next oldest (or youngest), we notify parents in advance and allow them the option to change camp location or week, or else receive a refund or credit.

This can vary from week to week and camp to camp. There is generally a good mixture of boys and girls at Great Big Theatre Company's camps. If you want to get an idea of the distribution for the week / location you are considering, you can call us at 1 866 864 4282 or 905 628 9747. Keep in mind that this will change as registrations progress and that we may not have a clear picture of the full range of ages until just before the start of camp. Last-minute changes of plans may also affect this. In addition, we no longer require that genders be listed on the registration documents (there is an option for “Prefer not to say”), so we may not always be able to provide an exact ratio.

At Great Big Theatre Company, we make our best efforts to ensure that each child’s needs are accommodated, wherever possible. Our camper-to-staff ratio enables us to provide quality attention to our campers, and we have had good success working with children with physical mobility issues, perceptual deficiencies, learning disabilites, Down’s Syndrome, anxiety disorders, ADD / ADHD / ODD and autism spectrum disorders.

However, every child is different. We strongly recommend that parents contact us by phone at time of registration to discuss their child’s particular needs and history. It is also important that any issues, medical etc., including allergies, be noted on the registration form, in the space provided, so the instructor will be aware of them at the start of classes. If the space on the registration form is insufficient, please write your notes and include them in an e-mail, and we will forward these to the class instructor and / or camp staff, as appropriate.

If your child has a full-time support worker in their school classroom, it is likely that they will also need a support worker in our programs; however, since we do not receive funding that would allow us to offer the services of individualized support workers, this is something families will need to arrange for on their own, or with the support of other outside agencies, if they are able to do so.

For camps: it is also a good idea to arrive a bit early on the first day, so that both you and your child can meet the staff and you can make them aware in person of any concerns.

Each camp environment has a mobile device for communications; please ask the staff for the camp phone number and call in directly if you would like to follow up on your child’s integration into the camp. Please also be sure, if at all possible, to remain within reach on your own phone, during the day, if we need to reach you to discuss a concern.

We will work with parents to ensure that a child’s particular needs are met wherever this is possible for us. There are cases where our program might not be a good fit for a child, or where we are not able to meet a child’s needs within the scope of our available resources. If this is the case, and the child would not benefit from continued participation, we will provide a full refund for all remaining classes or camp days.

Our programs are offered in a variety of locations, including schools, churches and community centres. Many of these offer accessible facilities, but some, at this point in time, do not, or have only limited accessibility. If this is a requirement for you, please contact us in advance to verify the accessibility status of the location(s) at which you are interested in registering your child. Please note also that there may be rare occasions where, on a particular day, the originally scheduled location may not be available to us due to last-minute changes or prior commitments. In these case, we make arrangements for the classes to be held at an alternate location in the vicinity. However, we are not able to guarantee the accessibility status of these alternate locations. Since arrangements must sometimes be made with short notice, we will generally not be able to provide, prior to registration, information on when these alternate locations will be required or where they will be.

Many of the locations are air conditioned in full or in part. Others are not; however, these are generally facilities at which we have offered camps for a number of years, and where we have assured ourselves that because of windows, circulation, construction, etc., the indoor temperatures do not become excessive. Please call us if you would like to inquire about any particular location.

Our staff will not administer medication, and your children will need to have their medication with them and be aware on their own of when they need to take it. Staff will not be responsible for reminders. Most of our staff will be familiar with epipen usage; however, they do vary to some extent, and it would be a good idea to arrive a bit early on the first day to satisfy yourself that staff will be familiar with your child’s particular style and its use.

At Great Big Theatre Company, we do our best to create an environment in which everyone can thrive and blossom and express themselves. Most kids adapt to the camp beautifully, and difficulties at the camp are, thankfully, not common. By the nature of camp, each week presents a different and wondrous mixture of kids with different needs, backgrounds, talents, challenges and capabilities. While we ask parents to tell us in advance about characteristics we should know about, what happens when we bring kids together in a new situation is still often unpredictable.

The camp staff is trained in identifying concerns and being proactive regarding them. We encourage staff to communicate with us on a regular basis, day by day through the course of the week, especially where they have become aware of potential issues.

There may still be questions and concerns that arise. Please know that we are available to talk to, day or evening or weekend, at 1 866 864 4282 or 905 628 9747. You can also send emails but phone calls will generally be quickest. We will reach out to staff and do our best to resolve any issues.

If there is a concern, please, before calling us, gather as much information as you can from your child; also, please let us know as early in the camp week as possible. If it is a Monday-to-Friday camp, please feel free to reach out to us on Monday evening. We are generally successful in resolving most concerns.

For reasons of privacy and safety, we are not able to accommodate drop-in visits. Please call us at 1 866 864 4282 or 905 628 9747; we are always happy to answer any questions about the program that you may have.

We do welcome parents to observe briefly. The best time for this would be at the start of the day. We have found that the children’s responses are generally more stereotyped with parental presence. Exploring new dramatic expressions at times may cause self-consciousness for some and the presence of outside observers may be an inhibiting factor, both for your own child and for other kids present. We feel it is fair to give the students ample privacy and secure conditions in order to explore their potential in this regard. If you have any question as to whether your child is adapting well and integrating with the group, please call us during the day and we will be in touch with the staff. You will definitely have a chance to see (and admire!) your child’s work and their creative development at the end-of-week performance.

Although some of our class and camp locations will have a stage within the facility, a stage is not a requirement for mastery of those skills that we consider important to develop. A floored stage area is always defined within our classes. For the camps, if the location does not have a built-in stage, we work with flats and risers to create a defined stage area with a performance area as well as wings for exit and entrance.

GBTC provides properties and costume pieces for all of the campers. We try to keep these simple, since the the focus is on building skills rather than on the externals of the show. There are no added charges for costumes, etc. Some parents might want to augment what is available for the performance with items they may have at home. We welcome this; but it is not a requirement. We feel it should not be incumbent on the guardian to purchase material other than what is provided. If you do supply your child with additional costume items, etc., please remember to pick these up after the final presentation.

Each of GBTC's end-of-week presentations will take place at the same location at which the camps are held, normally at 3:30 pm on the Friday of the camp week. If there is any change to this schedule, you will be notified by staff.

Photos or videos may not be taken in GBTC camp / class settings, including outdoors, except by authorized GBTC administration and staff, as indicated in the terms of the GBTC photo release included in our registration waivers. An exception will be made for photos / videos of an individual child only, if these are taken by a parent, guardian or member of the immediate family. For final performances of camp groups and classes: those in attendance are permitted to take photos and / or videos of the performance, and of participants in it, solely for their own use and for distribution to immediate family and friends. Those videos are not to be posted publicly on web pages or social media unless prior approval is obtained from all those included in the photo / video, or their parents / guardians.

Some of our students have continued on to be performers in local shows and productions or in films. Some have become GBTC spring & summer Theatre Camp Counselors-In-Training, as well as, throughout and after college or university, becoming part of GBTC’s professional staff. Through our programs, they will have developed their skills in public speaking, self-presentation and creativity. This will serve them well in whatever field of endeavour they pursue. We also have students who are on the roster of talent agencies with which GBTC maintains working relationships, and have gone on to work in professional theatre, local film productions, and commercials.

We welcome volunteers for both March Break and summer camps. We ask that volunteers be minimum age 15, and that they be available for at least one full week of camp, Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm, or as close to the full week as possible. Volunteers will act as as assistants in supervising games, camp rehearsals, musical numbers and outdoor activities. High-school students can meet their volunteering and / or co-op student requirements through assisting with camps. You can apply online to volunteer using this link

There are no offsite field trips. For some locations, outdoor activities will take place at a nearby park or green space rather than on the grounds of the facility. This should be within ten minutes or so walking distance. In those case, campers will proceed as a group to and from the location, under staff supervision.

There is no bus transport option available at the moment.

GBTC is entirely non-denominational and has no religious affiliation. We rent space in churches, as well as in schools and community centres, based on what is available and convenient for our programming. We do ensure that our scripts, musical numbers, etc. are ethically grounded and do not include content that could be considered questionable or age-inappropriate, by general community standards.

We welcome recent immigrants to our programs. However, you should be aware that scripts, stories, monologues, raps and poetry all have a strong verbal content, in addition to the element of movement. For games, also, since they may involve creating characters and having them interact, they will need a minimum level of comfort with the language. This is also the case for understanding and following instructions.

It can sometimes make the children feel comfortable when attending an unfamiliar camp if they have friends around on the first day. However, it is not necessary to register with friends. We make an effort throughout the camp week and especially on the first day to ensure that the kids know everyone in the group, and are comfortable with everyone present. We do this by assigning circle games, group exercises, and pairings in which the kids work both with those they already know and those the staff will assign them to. By the end of the week, this helps to create a closely bonded camp group. (Please remember, though, that if you do refer friends to the camps, you will receive a $ 10.00 credit on your account, and they will benefit from a $ 10.00 discount.)

Many parents send their kids to our programs precisely because they have noticed that the children are shy in groups and they hope to make them more confident and outgoing. Our programs often work very well in this respect. We aim to create a supportive and non-competitive environment where everyone participates equally. Each child is valued and each individual’s input is listened to. Much of the growth in confidence and self-presentation skills comes through games, in which children participate as a group while improvising responses and developing characters. Because these are presented as games, and because they are fun and playful, they will often begin to “come out of their shells” before they even recognize that they are doing it.

Yes, we do. You can find out more about it here

We try to ensure that all families who would like their children to participate are able to have them attend. However, we are not able to offer subsidies for every week and location. You will find the list of eligible weeks / locations at the link noted above. The list for the next summer’s camps should be available online roughly in February. Eligible weeks and locations may change, so it is best to apply early. It is generally easier for us to provide subsidies for summer camp than for March Break or Fall-Winter-Spring classes, though those sometimes are possible as well. It is best to call us or send an email to inquire.

If you do wish to apply, we will ask for some documentation to determine whether you are eligible.

Subsidies are normally 50 % of the listed cost of registration. We may on occasion be able to provide subsidies of more than 50 %, in particular cases. Ask us if you believe that 50 % might not be sufficient.

Yes ! We offer early registration discounts, social referral discounts, multiple-week discounts and low-income discounts. You can find more information on all of these elsewhere on our site, or you can call us at 1 866 864 4282 or 905 628 9747 for more information.

Social skills and the ability to work in groups, cooperate and collaborate are always required. Drama is essentially a group activity and it will help build those skills. Planning and participating in a production also demands order and organization, which are indispensible in science. And of course, scientific advances often come about through the activity of creative imagination.

Sports requires teamwork, and working together for the benefit of all. Drama helps kids to learn teamwork. Every child can also benefit from learning to work and play together with those of differing abilities and interests. Drama develops verbal and self-presentation skills, which are required in any school and academic work, and contributes to general literacy. It will also help kids to learn that, although they themselves may excel in activities requiring strength and athletic skills, some kids may have other talents that are equally to be valued -- agility, coordination, imagination, flexibility, and so on.

Weather permitting, there are always outdoor activities at the camp, to provide a break and a change of focus. Our outdoor activities involve guided non-competitive games and sports. These take place, generally, for between thirty minutes and one hour, right after lunch. Depending on the weather and the dynamics of the group, some of the drama activities may also take place outdoors.

Campers are asked not to bring their phones / devices / game consoles along with them. If they do bring them, they are asked to leave them in a container at the front desk of the camp and retrieve them at the end of the day (Note that we are not responsible for the safety of devices left in this way, so it would generally be preferable not to bring them along).

While we do include technology at the camp, and many camps are equipped with sound, speakers, microphones, and lighting systems, we try to ensure that the focus, for the campers, remains primarily on person-to-person interaction.

We can offer a customized LIT program for qualified campers. An applicant would need to be at least 14 years old, have attended the camp in previous years, and be interested in developing leadership skills to allow them to volunteer with Great Big Theatre Company camps in subsequent years. LIT applicants would need to register and would pay 50 % of the camp fee. LIT will prepare students for instructional and leadership roles within GBTC or with other camps, classes and programs. If you have a child who is interested, please call us at 1 866 864 4282 or 905 628 9747.

For the security of all those attending class, we ask that you sign your children in and out on a regular basis, with signature and time. We ask for your cooperation in completing this procedure, which will also be facilitated if students arrive at class promptly, so far as possible. Please remember, in particular, to sign in and out at the final camp day or class, before and after the performance, since this is sometimes easily overlooked. If your child will be picked up by someone other than the person who is dropping them off, please inform the instructor of this at the start of the day and also make a note to this effect on your sign-in sheet. If you are giving your child permission to sign himself or herself in or out, we must have a signed letter to that effect at the start of camp – or, preferably, by email in advance of camp.

Please, so far as possible, try to arrive on time. We try to begin our classes and camps at the scheduled time, and if students are late, it is disruptive to the environment. It is also difficult to work on prepared group pieces when students with particular roles are missing or late. For this reason also, please try to be in attendance at all of the camp days / classes, if possible. Notify us by phone or e-mail in advance if you will need to miss a day of camp, or a class.

Please also arrange to have your child picked up promptly after the scheduled class time.

Extended hours registration is available at an additional cost, for camps, of $ 4.00 per half-hour / per camper / per day. Early dropoff is available starting at 7:30 am and late pickup up to 5:30 pm. You will need to, if at all possible, reserve these hours in advance on our web site.

If you have not reserved extended hours, you can drop off your child as early as 15 minutes before the scheduled camp start, and pick up as late as 15 minutes after the end of the day, without incurring any penalty or needing to reserve extended care.

Please be aware that our staff may have other scheduled commitments and may be unable to stay after hours to provide for and supervise students who have been scheduled to be picked up after class, and whose caregivers have not arrived. In many cases, also, our personnel are not authorized to have access to locations where classes or camps are held after a specified time. For these reasons, it causes considerable inconvenience when students are picked up late. In some cases, it may be difficult or impossible to arrange for emergency supervision.

If you become aware that it is going to be difficult for you to arrange pickup after class or camps on a particular day, please notify us as soon as you can.

In this case, please phone us at 1 866 864 4282 or 905 628 9747. For security, we will ask to verify your request by having you send us an email, using the email address you used to register, and including in it the information on who it is who you are authorizing for pickup.

For security reasons, the locations at which we operate limit the times at which access doors may be unlocked. If you arrive outside of this time window, you may have difficulty gaining access. There are generally buzzers provided which will allow you to “ring in”. We will also be able to reach the staff directly via text or phone call. You can reach us on our toll-free number at 1 866 864 4282 or at 905 628 9747 to ask to be admitted.

Call us at 1 866 864 4282 or 905 628 9747 and we will notify the staff on site. They may need to unlock for you.

If a child misses one camp day, they should still be able to attend for the rest of the week and participate in the end-of-week performance. Please be aware that if at all possible, the child should attend on the first day (normally the Monday) to facilitate bonding with the group. Please notify us in advance regarding missed days. If two or more days will be missed, it is probably best to reschedule for a different week.

If it is the performance day or performance class that the child will need to miss, they can still participate in the camp, but the staff should be made aware that they need to make adjustments to role assignments for the performance day.

If the child is not able to return to the camp due to illness, we will arrange credit for the unused portion of the session toward a replacement program.

Yes. Each camp will differ in content (plays, musical numbers, etc.) and will have a different end-of-week performance. Provided there is still space available in the camp group for which you would like to register, you can of course attend for an additional week. Please note, however, that your savings will be greater if you register using the early-registration discounts; also, as the summer progresses, the availability of multiple-week discounts and low-income subsidies will also be more limited.