janine pearson

Janine was born and raised on a farm in southern Saskatchewan (Treaty 4 territory) where much of her character was influenced by the prairie and its settler people. In recognizing the original caretakers of that land, the Cree, Assiniboine and Saulteaux First Nations, Janine wishes to participate in building bridges that acknowledge our broken treaty relationships. She obtained a Bachelor of Music in singing performance and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting from the University of Regina. She also earned an Associate Diploma in singing performance from the Western Board of Music at the University of Alberta. She then traveled to Germany to study at the Humboldt-Institut, after which she enjoyed a brief but successful career as a singer and actor before meeting some life changing vocal difficulties. Like so many great teachers, these personal struggles gave birth to a journey that changed the course of her life. In her quest to find a marriage between the singing and the speaking voice, Janine enrolled in the ADVS programme at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (London, England), where she studied with master teachers David Carey, Meribeth Bunch-Dayme, Cicely Berry and Patsy Rodenburg. After graduating with a ‘first’ from RCSSD, Patsy Rodenburg recommended Janine to newly appointed Artistic Director David William at the Stratford Festival in Ontario. She joined the coaching team, where she assisted, apprenticed with, and was mentored by Ann Skinner, Michael Mawson, and Bernard Hopkins. Through these great artists Janine learned a respect for the student: to listen, to see and in the end, to guide rather than impose.