deandouglas05
Samantha Walters
My guest today is my good friend Samantha Walters. Sam is an actor who has worked professionally in Manitoba’s theatre and film industry and is also a Speech-Language Pathologist, which as you can imagine gave us a lot to talk about. In this episode, she shares her journey which is packed full of stories, experiences, and life-lessons. She has a 4 year Major in Theatre and Film from the University of Winnipeg where she focused on the Performance for Stage side of the program. At the end of her acting degree, she did Canada’s National Voice Intensive program which is six-weeks where you learn the power of voice and speech. At the time it was in Vancouver, now it is in Toronto and is designed for artists/actors etc. She also has a Masters degree of Clinical Science for Speech-Language Pathology which she received from the University of Western Ontario in London, On.
As a kid, Sam asked a lot of questions and was a curious child (which I believe is one of the strengths that has helped her continuously grow over the years and assist in carving out her path). She was involved in dance, gymnastics, figure skating, Girl Guides of Canada, swimming and was exposed to acting in grade 4. At only 16 years old, she decided to focus on her acting career and after auditioning for a documentary about the Vaughn Street Jail, made her first pay cheque of $1,500. She acted at the Manitoba Theatre Center and was part of the Back Stage Pass program which opened up more doors for her down the road. She was extremely proud to act in the ‘Immigration Stories’ play which was put on by Sarasvati Productions (I highly encourage listeners to check them out) and this idea is absolutely beautiful. Currently, she is working as an SLP and as an acting coach for youth at Expressions Film Studio in Winnipeg.
A few side-notes worth mentioning before we dive into the episode. First, the format for the podcast is very much a past-present-future look at my guests and for most of them, this is the first time in a long time they’ve had the opportunity to reminisce and share their story. The reason I’m pointing this out is we do at times bounce around in time-frames because certain key moments pop-up randomly during our conversation. I bring this up as Sam is goal oriented and a perfectionist so this bouncing around in time-frames causes her to at times wish she had prepared a timeline map of key-points she could use to help guide her story. I just wanted to say that for Sam, and other possible future guests that this Podcast allows for bouncing around and doesn’t have to be perfect. There are a lot of gems in this episode which I think people will find valuable…plus, we’ll do a round two. Second, my dog Oscar comes in and out of the interview a couple times (he doesn’t bark, just comes up to Sam to say hello so if you hear some panting than just hang in there, it doesn’t last long ha-ha) Lastly, I also should mention, when we recorded the episode I had totally forgot I had dinner plans so I had to cut our interview short towards the end. We could have continued talking for another two hours but had to wrap it up quickly so I apologize for the flow changing towards the end…Again, we’ll do a round two.
Without further ado, please enjoy my conversation with Samantha Walters.
Samantha Walters
My guest today is my good friend Samantha Walters. Sam is an actor who has worked professionally in Manitoba’s theatre and film industry and is also a Speech-Language Pathologist, which as you can imagine gave us a lot to talk about. In this episode, she shares her journey which is packed full of stories, experiences, and life-lessons. She has a 4 year Major in Theatre and Film from the University of Winnipeg where she focused on the Performance for Stage side of the program. At the end of her acting degree, she did Canada’s National Voice Intensive program which is six-weeks where you learn the power of voice and speech. At the time it was in Vancouver, now it is in Toronto and is designed for artists/actors etc. She also has a Masters degree of Clinical Science for Speech-Language Pathology which she received from the University of Western Ontario in London, On.
As a kid, Sam asked a lot of questions and was a curious child (which I believe is one of the strengths that has helped her continuously grow over the years and assist in carving out her path). She was involved in dance, gymnastics, figure skating, Girl Guides of Canada, swimming and was exposed to acting in grade 4. At only 16 years old, she decided to focus on her acting career and after auditioning for a documentary about the Vaughn Street Jail, made her first pay cheque of $1,500. She acted at the Manitoba Theatre Center and was part of the Back Stage Pass program which opened up more doors for her down the road. She was extremely proud to act in the ‘Immigration Stories’ play which was put on by Sarasvati Productions (I highly encourage listeners to check them out) and this idea is absolutely beautiful. Currently, she is working as an SLP and as an acting coach for youth at Expressions Film Studio in Winnipeg.
A few side-notes worth mentioning before we dive into the episode. First, the format for the podcast is very much a past-present-future look at my guests and for most of them, this is the first time in a long time they’ve had the opportunity to reminisce and share their story. The reason I’m pointing this out is we do at times bounce around in time-frames because certain key moments pop-up randomly during our conversation. I bring this up as Sam is goal oriented and a perfectionist so this bouncing around in time-frames causes her to at times wish she had prepared a timeline map of key-points she could use to help guide her story. I just wanted to say that for Sam, and other possible future guests that this Podcast allows for bouncing around and doesn’t have to be perfect. There are a lot of gems in this episode which I think people will find valuable…plus, we’ll do a round two. Second, my dog Oscar comes in and out of the interview a couple times (he doesn’t bark, just comes up to Sam to say hello so if you hear some panting than just hang in there, it doesn’t last long ha-ha) Lastly, I also should mention, when we recorded the episode I had totally forgot I had dinner plans so I had to cut our interview short towards the end. We could have continued talking for another two hours but had to wrap it up quickly so I apologize for the flow changing towards the end…Again, we’ll do a round two.
Without further ado, please enjoy my conversation with Samantha Walters.