0:03  
You're listening to the actor's journal with Julia Knope.  In the dressing room is buzzing with chatter as actors and actresses prepare for their last show. There's calm yelling, nerves, and lots of laughter. Welcome to Ryerson community theater, also known as RCT. This group begins rehearsals after winter break in preparation for their annual show in March. Members are made up of mostly students who have a passion for acting, but who are choosing another career path because of the monetary nature of the business.

0:43  
Okay, fine. 6:15 but be ready. 

0:47  
This is our last warm up.

0:50  
The last show! Bring it all out guys. Is it no more stuff all that all that emotion you've been holding in? Now's the time to really feel it. Okay, guys. All right.

1:01  
Brian Chu, the artistic director tries to warm up the actors voices by leading them through fun vocal activities. 

1:08  
You know, you know you need. She sells seashells by the seashore. She sells seashells by the seashore.

1:24  
Brian is fun and energetic,But acting is something he takes very seriously which he began doing as an at risk youth.

1:33  
The very first memory I have of acting is, I was in a some school skit, I was in grade 1,2,3? I don't remember. But I remember in the moment, I was like, if I was, if I was really on stage, I would be, I would be really worried about my mark. And the teacher came up to me and said, you know, Brian, that was really great. I could tell that you were worried about your marks. And I was like, Okay, thank you. So I guess I was little when I first clicked that acting isn't just talking, talking heads on stage. But I think where the real shift was, was, I was part of a summer group called Shakexperience. It's, it's for at risk youth. But I think that experience when I really understood what it was to have to go on a stage kind of discipline. Where it's not just oh, look at me, look at me, I'm so great. But really, we're acting as an art form, and not just as something fun to do or think funny, or something silly to do. And our friends.

2:27  
Despite his love of acting, Brian enrolled in Computer Engineering.

2:36  
So I didn't go to theater school for a couple reasons. So the first reason was, I talked to my mother, and she's so she's fantastic. She's wonderful, very supportive. She said, Brian, if you want to go to theater school, you can. But please don't go to theater school, so there was that. I also spoke to a couple of my friends of the time in the industry, my mentor, and they all told me actually that they didn't regret it, they were glad that they did acting, they can live without acting. But if they could do something else, they would do something else. And that if I can do something that might end up with me, not homeless on the street, I should try that first. Because, according to them, you can always get in front of a camera and act, but you can't always get in front of a circuit board and solder.

3:21  
Brian says acting has provided a creative outlet for when stresses from family and school have become too overwhelming.

3:30  
About two years ago, I think I was having a really hard time in engineering, I think, I think I really wasn't enjoying it at all. I think I really didn't, it didn't click for me. But having that emotional outlet, that artistic outlet that non-engineering force in my life has helped me get through that helped me get through that rough patch. I think acting and RCT has been a way for me to step away from some of the more, I guess you might call them hard, objective stresses in my life.

4:02  
Theater is Brian's main passion, but because of his fear of not making enough money, he will remain on his path to becoming an engineer.

4:10  
My passion is definitely theater. I definitely love theater. It's something that I don't think I could live without. But I also have a passion for food as well, and shelter and clothes. So there's all it's all you know, you got to balance these passions. Every time you every time you do anything, you gotta really balance what what you like the most. So I definitely would say that theater, the arts, performing is a great part of my life today. I want to keep as I go forward. But seriously, I think there is the it's always in my mind still that I would pursue this as career. But of course right now, my current directory is definitely not really aligned to that right now. How I plan to pursue acting after school is probably more along the lines of community theaters. I still take acting classes and it's always a process of evolution, right. In terms of my career, I probably will end up working at a computer engineering firm.

5:02  
anine Fernandez is a general manager of RCT, as well as a director and she's also enrolled in child and youth care full time at Ryerson. Like Brian, she won't pursue acting because of the money making aspect of the business.

5:17  
I'm very interested in the idea of drama therapy for children and youth. So I think that theatre is a really great opportunity for expression. And that's something that we miss a lot of the times and children and youth are dealing with difficulties and I'd love to be able to make it more accessible. Where horses are a lot of work. I'd like to thank my actors, we're having some fun, but they shouldn't have been. I think I have a really crazy calendar app where I'm just scheduling things all the time. So it's really important for me that I don't miss any of those notifications. Basically, I have to schedule out fun time, which doesn't sound fun, but once I do it it's worth it.

5:56  
Janine says both she and the group have grown since she began her involvement.

6:03  
I think RCT has grown in a lot of ways and I'd like to think that I have as well. It's really been wonderful stepping into the shoes of writer and director and being able to also general manage at the same time. I think RCT is an ongoing community and it's a network that you never really leave so once you you're a part of it, you're a part of it forever. And that's a really great opportunity to have in your life. 

6:24  
Greg's dragging. {laughter}

6:28  
All of these different people from different parts of life, different walks, different programs, they don't know each other. They come together for four or five days for performances and they make something. They make something that they all share and as a whole.