The Ottawa School of Speech & Drama was founded by Natalie Stern in 1988 and has demonstrated significant growth since its inception. The School began by teaching Speech and Drama courses, aimed at developing effective vocal skills and dramatic awareness and culminating in examinations through the International Examination Board, Trinity College London, England.
The School moved into a two-studio location at 111 Pretoria Avenue in 1986. In 1990, a summer arts camp, The Young Actors’ Space, was added to the programming. This camp operates for seven weeks each summer at Arts Court and continues to flourish, enabling the School to offer year round activities.
Over the years OSSD has expanded programming to include courses in Acting, Creative Drama, Musical Theatre, Shakespeare, Auditioning Techniques, Improvisation, Voice, Movement, Playwriting and Collective Creations. OSSD students learn specific skills such as vocal production, singing, movement, dance, sight-reading, language arts, text analysis, scene study, character development and aspects of technical theatre.
In 1995 the School became a not-for-profit registered charity. Amanda Lewis was hired as Artistic Director in August, 2003.
In August 2005, OSSD moved into a brand new facility at 294 Picton Ave. in the beautiful neighborhood of Westboro. Housed with three state of the art studios the new space allowed the School to expand its programming further and offer more services to the community.