The Canadian Film Centre is establishing an Actor’s Conservatory, the nation’s first training program for working actors. Announced at the CFC’s annual barbeque on Sunday, the initiative will offer as many as eight professional performers the opportunity to hone their skills through a variety of intensive workshops.

The CFC will invite established actors, directors, writers and producers to deliver master classes exploring their particular expertise through the lens of the acting process.

Earlier on the weekend, the CFC also unveiled a copro training program with the U.K. and received a $2.5-million investment from the Ontario government.

The aim of the conservatory is to broaden and strengthen Canada’s acting pool with the ultimate goal of building a Canadian star system. It launches in the fall of 2009.

‘Over the last 20 years, CFC productions and our alumni’s work has given emerging actors a launching pad for their skills. The addition of an actor’s conservatory is a natural extension and complement to CFC’s training activities,’ said CFC executive director Slawko Klymkiw.

Among the program’s offerings are courses in the technical side of screen-acting; empowering the voice and body for the screen; refining critical on-screen skills; project development and advanced scene study; and connecting with the creative process and business considerations of film and TV. The participants will build a body of produced on-screen work in a variety of formats to showcase their talent.

The CFC Actor’s Conservatory is backed by Canwest Global and the Brian Linehan Charitable Foundation. Michael Levine, the entertainment lawyer and executor of Linehan’s estate and a trustee of the foundation, suggested the program was precisely the cause the late television presenter would support.

‘Brian Linehan understood the value of star power and treated Canadian artists of exceptional merit with the same dignity and respect afforded to international stars. He dreamed that, like the CFC’s programs for emerging writers, producers and directors, we could create first-class training, work and promotional opportunities for emerging acting talent at home,’ he said.