Empower a Gifted Student
Our Goal: Get into the Act!
The Ottawa School of Speech & Drama Scholarship and Bursary Program goal is simple: no student should be denied access to drama arts education due to a lack of financial means. With their ongoing involvement and support, our generous donors play a vital role in helping us meet this objective.
Help us train the best and brightest!
The Ottawa School of Speech & Drama Scholarship and Bursary Program enables us to attract the best and brightest from across the National Capital Region. As a result, the OSSD galvanizes its leadership role in setting standards of excellence in drama arts education. This standard of excellence also extends to our programs for children and youth and to adults, giving them the life skills to excel.
Help to enable drama students today become accomplished actors tomorrow
The Ottawa School of Speech & Drama is an educational centre for drama arts providing the community with the opportunity let their imagination soar! It is a place to explore creativity and to learn the tools needed to express thoughts and ideas. All of our professionally-led classes help to build self confidence and develop a love of literature and the spoken word in a supportive environment.
Who Scholarships and Bursaries can help
Scholarships and bursaries make a great difference to the talented students enrolled in the Children & Youth and Adult Programs, where students from all walks of life come to find an outlet for creative expression and skills-based training.
The Pre-Professional Program at OSSD is also Ottawa’s best program for career-minded actors. The emphasis with all of OSSD’s programs is creative thinking. Whether you are an adult hoping to improve your presentation skills at work, an enthusiastic student training for the big time or a young student who needs focused interaction, OSSD is the place to learn those special skills. Vocal production, movement, and language are a few of the skills that OSSD has seen transform the lives of students.
Who benefits?
Scholarships and bursaries assist candidates in any one of the following three areas:
- The Children & Youth Program, including Summer and March Break Camps, offers enriching programs for every age group. Courses are themed in the following categories; Discovering Drama, Acting, Musical Theatre and Stage Craft. These programs help children enhance their communications skills, which are linked to literacy, and their ability to work creatively and collaboratively.
The OSSD also has an ongoing relationship with the Ottawa Children’s Aid Society. If the CAS finds that one of their children could benefit from our programming, that child is enrolled our one of our classes at a nominal cost. Your contribution can help more deserving children learn the life skills they need to excel!
- The Adult Program offers a wide range of courses for everyone from the novice to the professional. Actor/instructors offer instruction in wide range of creative expression from Acting for the Camera and Improvisation to Finding Your Voice and Playwriting workshops. The adult program is also a great way to improve presentation skills at work.
- The Pre-Professional Program provides a professionally-based curriculum that develops skills and training for a career in acting. The primary emphasis in the program is on embedding the basic skills that an actor relies on to work successfully in the profession. What makes OSSD’s program unique is a commitment to help students find their own artistic voice. The program is recognized by the Ministry of Human Resources & Social Development.
- Scholarships: allocated on the basis of merit
- Bursaries: awarded on the basis of demonstrated financial need
There are two different types of scholarships and bursaries available.
- Endowed: funded by a permanent gift to the Ottawa School of Speech & Drama. The full amount (the principle) of the gift is invested and the accrued interest on the principle is awarded to one or more students per year.
- Annual: created through a gift to the Ottawa School of Speech & Drama on an annual basis. The whole amount is awarded to one or more students in that year.
- Scholarships: allocated on the basis of a merit
- Bursaries: awarded on the basis of demonstrated financial need
- Disciplines: All disciplines offered at OSSD
Gifts of any amount made in honour or in memory of a loved one are gratefully accepted. All gifts are directed to either our General Scholarship or General Bursary Fund.
Alternatively, you may wish to create a named fund in honour or in memory of your loved one. The minimum pledge level required to establish a named fund is $1,000. This sum may be built up over a maximum period of four years. A named fund creates a legacy in honour of your friend or relative while helping young, aspiring performers for years to come. Your gift will be honoured every year at a presentation of OSSD’s annual Awards Night, held every June at the Studio Theatre at the National Arts Centre. This awards night is OSSD’s opportunity to focus on the many talented students who, over the past year, have worked very hard to achieve their goals and it’s an opportunity to award them with the gifts that donors like you have given over the years.
● OSSD Pre-Professional Scholarships and bursaries (link to list of s and b’s)
● OSSD Adult Program Scholarships and Bursaries (link)
● OSSD Children & Youth Scholarships and Bursaries (link)
Donate to the Dick Maloney Scholarship Award
For over forty years, legendary Ottawa native Dick Maloney has entertained audiences throughout Canada and the United States. His diverse career includes many local successful radio and television series, hundreds of nightclub appearances, ten best-selling recordings, and numerous collaborations with leading Canadian artists such as Peter Appleyard. Currently, Dick is host of the popular Sunday morning program “Sentimental Journey” on Rogers-owned Oldies 1310 Radio.
The Dick Maloney Scholarship Award recognizes Dick’s life-long contribution to the entertainment industry in Ottawa and beyond. Created in 2006, the Award will be presented each spring at OSSD Annual Awards Ceremony to a promising musical theatre student who displays qualities similar to those that have helped Dick build such an enduring musical career.
These qualities include originality, passion and a commitment to musical exploration.
The Dick Maloney Scholarship Award recipients will be selected by the Artistic Director of OSSD in consultation with the Musical Theatre Instructors at the school.
Contributions to the Dick Maloney Scholarship Award can be made by downloading the attached donation form.
Dick Maloney Scholarship Donation Form
Send by Fax: (613) 567-4240
Send by Mail:
Ottawa School of Speech and Drama
294 Picton Avenue
Ottawa, ON K1Z 8P8
The Ottawa School of Speech & Drama is a registered charity (#14067 9754-RR0001). All donations over $10.00 will receive a charitable receipt.
For more information on the Dick Maloney Scholarship Award, or OSSD’s other giving opportunities, please contact , OSSD Development, at (613) 567-6788 or by email at fundraising@ossd.ca
Get your friends and family in on the ACT. Support OSSD!