By Jennifer Lo
Other than the incredible talent she has shown in her theater performances, Bryn Cowan also has the natural gift of writing. A grade eleven student, Bryn has won a medal in every Collingwood public speaking competition since grade four and won the well-deserved Aurora Prize in grade eight. In the previous year, Bryn was enrolled in English 10 Enriched and was showcased during 2016’s public speaking day as the gold medalist for the After Dinner Speech category for her speech “Air Jamaica”, which earned a huge positive response from the audience.
Born in Calgary, Bryn moved to Vancouver and joined the Collingwood community in grade four. From the age of ten, Bryn found love in dancing and participated in many dance shows and musicals with various dance companies. As she slowly expanded her passion from dancing in musicals to acting in theater plays, Bryn became familiar with the world of writing through playwright scripts and soon fell in love with literature. An award-winning public speaker every year since grade two, Bryn won the gold medal in seven of those years and was showcased twice in front of the whole school for her notable performance.
Bryn admits that it was her love for acting that fostered her love for literature. To her, writing is an alternative way to express herself besides acting. “My love for writing – especially screen-writing - developed after my love for acting, which is what introduced me to the world behind the actual acting”, she smiles. “My favourite form of literature would be creative writing, which is why I love writing scripts for plays because then I can create brand new characters out of nothing. When I write scripts for a play, I take on the perspective of a character and it becomes myself, and I am no longer the writer, but the character. Just like acting, there are layers below layers to what is going on within a character, and it is so interesting for me to develop that character and find different ways to portray their personalities. But what’s more in writing than in acting is that rather than just finding out ways to express the feelings of one character, a writer must know all of her characters in depth. She must also be in full control of what is going on in a scenario, and think from the characters’ point of view and rather from the writer’s point of view to find out how a particular character will solve a specific problem.”
Concerning her philosophies on art, Bryn expresses that all forms of art build on top of each other to create “new” art. “Literature, for example, is a basis for the things that I love”, she shares. “Writing is like a foundation for the final product. When I write, say a script for a new film, I can just see the characters coming to life in my mind, and when I write them down, they come to life and it’s like drawing out a black-and-white photo. The only thing is that colour can be added to this photo, and more elaborate things can also be done after that to make this photo more perfect. My point is, to some people, writing can be the final product, but for me, it is an intermediate for another grander possibility. It is the same with other artworks – any art can be seen as derived from other forms of art. You can’t understand one specific piece of art if you do not understand the additional artworks concealed behind it – a painting, for example, can be inspired from a musical masterpiece. To be able to produce a good piece of artwork, there must be some inner influences from other art masterpieces.”
On top of her love for literature, Bryn is also a divine dancer and has been passionate about various forms of dances – such as tap, musical theatre, and hip-hop – since a very young age. She has had training in the One Dance Creative Art Center since 2010 and has been featured in various dance shows since 2012. Bryn is also a brilliant actor who has had major accomplishments in the theater. She has starred in eight plays since 2013 and after many auditions, headshots, and interviews, Bryn was accepted into the ultra-competitive business of the Pacific Artist Management Inc. and was assigned two agents for her to be “professionally represented”. Moreover, in the summer of 2016, Bryn was accepted into a month-long program at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles in 2016 and worked with many active professionals in the industry to perfect her skills in acting. Other than her passion for acting, dancing, and literature, Bryn also sings, draws, paints, and participates in a variety of sports such as skiing, running, paddle boarding, and swimming.
When asked about what advice she would give to budding artists, Bryn encourages young artists to have faith and be bold: “Nothing will just come your way and fall into your arms – you have to try really hard and persevere if you really want something. Be a self-advocator! Don’t be afraid of stepping out because then you have a chance of bathing in opportunities. In other words – make yourself known if others don’t know you.”
In the future, Bryn hopes to pursue a career in performance art and screenwriting. In addition to acting, Bryn also wishes to be able to direct and produce her own films. It is an immense pleasure for our community to have such a versatile student. We look forward to further masterpieces by Bryn and we wish her the best of luck!
Other than the incredible talent she has shown in her theater performances, Bryn Cowan also has the natural gift of writing. A grade eleven student, Bryn has won a medal in every Collingwood public speaking competition since grade four and won the well-deserved Aurora Prize in grade eight. In the previous year, Bryn was enrolled in English 10 Enriched and was showcased during 2016’s public speaking day as the gold medalist for the After Dinner Speech category for her speech “Air Jamaica”, which earned a huge positive response from the audience.
Born in Calgary, Bryn moved to Vancouver and joined the Collingwood community in grade four. From the age of ten, Bryn found love in dancing and participated in many dance shows and musicals with various dance companies. As she slowly expanded her passion from dancing in musicals to acting in theater plays, Bryn became familiar with the world of writing through playwright scripts and soon fell in love with literature. An award-winning public speaker every year since grade two, Bryn won the gold medal in seven of those years and was showcased twice in front of the whole school for her notable performance.
Bryn admits that it was her love for acting that fostered her love for literature. To her, writing is an alternative way to express herself besides acting. “My love for writing – especially screen-writing - developed after my love for acting, which is what introduced me to the world behind the actual acting”, she smiles. “My favourite form of literature would be creative writing, which is why I love writing scripts for plays because then I can create brand new characters out of nothing. When I write scripts for a play, I take on the perspective of a character and it becomes myself, and I am no longer the writer, but the character. Just like acting, there are layers below layers to what is going on within a character, and it is so interesting for me to develop that character and find different ways to portray their personalities. But what’s more in writing than in acting is that rather than just finding out ways to express the feelings of one character, a writer must know all of her characters in depth. She must also be in full control of what is going on in a scenario, and think from the characters’ point of view and rather from the writer’s point of view to find out how a particular character will solve a specific problem.”
Concerning her philosophies on art, Bryn expresses that all forms of art build on top of each other to create “new” art. “Literature, for example, is a basis for the things that I love”, she shares. “Writing is like a foundation for the final product. When I write, say a script for a new film, I can just see the characters coming to life in my mind, and when I write them down, they come to life and it’s like drawing out a black-and-white photo. The only thing is that colour can be added to this photo, and more elaborate things can also be done after that to make this photo more perfect. My point is, to some people, writing can be the final product, but for me, it is an intermediate for another grander possibility. It is the same with other artworks – any art can be seen as derived from other forms of art. You can’t understand one specific piece of art if you do not understand the additional artworks concealed behind it – a painting, for example, can be inspired from a musical masterpiece. To be able to produce a good piece of artwork, there must be some inner influences from other art masterpieces.”
On top of her love for literature, Bryn is also a divine dancer and has been passionate about various forms of dances – such as tap, musical theatre, and hip-hop – since a very young age. She has had training in the One Dance Creative Art Center since 2010 and has been featured in various dance shows since 2012. Bryn is also a brilliant actor who has had major accomplishments in the theater. She has starred in eight plays since 2013 and after many auditions, headshots, and interviews, Bryn was accepted into the ultra-competitive business of the Pacific Artist Management Inc. and was assigned two agents for her to be “professionally represented”. Moreover, in the summer of 2016, Bryn was accepted into a month-long program at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles in 2016 and worked with many active professionals in the industry to perfect her skills in acting. Other than her passion for acting, dancing, and literature, Bryn also sings, draws, paints, and participates in a variety of sports such as skiing, running, paddle boarding, and swimming.
When asked about what advice she would give to budding artists, Bryn encourages young artists to have faith and be bold: “Nothing will just come your way and fall into your arms – you have to try really hard and persevere if you really want something. Be a self-advocator! Don’t be afraid of stepping out because then you have a chance of bathing in opportunities. In other words – make yourself known if others don’t know you.”
In the future, Bryn hopes to pursue a career in performance art and screenwriting. In addition to acting, Bryn also wishes to be able to direct and produce her own films. It is an immense pleasure for our community to have such a versatile student. We look forward to further masterpieces by Bryn and we wish her the best of luck!
Air Jamaica
Written By Bryn Cowan
Welcome aboard Air Jamaica. Please pay attention, or at least pretend to, while we outline the safety features of this aircraft. For your convenience there are not many safety features so it's not gonna take very long. My name is Ruby Jones and if you got any questions you know who not to ask.
There is an informational pamphlet in the seat pocket, which is hopefully still in front of you. Attached to the back of that there is a mandatory waiver that you all are gonna have to sign before the flight. To summarize, because we know that no one is gonna read it, it just says nobody’s gonna get sued if the plane goes down. We will be collecting them before take off.
But tonnes of your travel agents called me yesterday to notify me that you are scared of flying. That’s crazy, there is nothing to be worried about. We got a pretty good safety record. I mean I just bought a new fire extinguisher yesterday...because we used up our last one a couple days ago. It’s nothing you gotta be concerned about or anything, it was only a small fire. I can assure you it not gonna happen again anytime soon, I repaired the engine myself. But if you are still nervous any time during the flight, feel free to step outside.
We are proud to announce the introduction of our new inflight menu. We finally got enough funding for a second hand kettle, and an easy bake oven. So we will be offer a wide variety of deluxe menu items such as kraft dinner, ramen noodles, and instant oatmeal. But for the few returning customers we do have, don’t fear, there are some returning favourites such as beef jerky and dehydrated banana skin. We also serve a complimentary instant coffee for only $7.99.
The plane does sometimes tend to have some trouble getting off the ground because of the overall weight of the plane. So we will be restricting the inflight menu until we are up in the air. Especially you 64B, you can just hold off until we land that would be great. Thank you for your cooperation.
At this time we would please ask you to turn off all mobile phones and electronics. Airplane mode is not acceptable. What?!?! Well I’m not sure why, but the phones just don’t register this as an airplane. We will notify you when it is again safe to use these devices, which is gonna be when we land. But your probably not going to get any service in Kingston Jamaica.
Seat Belts can be found at about every other seat, so we recommend a buddy buddy system with the person seated next to you. The seat belt is gonna go over both of you and fassen tight and low across your hips, just like the man in 12C is wearing his fanny pack. Toursits. When the seatbelt sign is off you are free to move about the cabin. Though that can sometimes cause the plane to lose its balance. Please stand at your own risk. To release the seat belt you can give a good yank to the red tab, if it doesn't work, just remain seated. From time to time the seat belts can get stuck so please notify staff if this happens to you but we probably won’t be able to do anything about it. (I mean we only had like 20 minutes of training)
If the cabin pressure drops, an air mask should fall from the compartment above you. At least most of them did last time. What you gotta do is stop screaming, let go of your neighbor, and place it ovr you mouth and nose. To activate the system simply insert a dollar 25 for the first minute and another 50 cents every 5 minutes after that. Breath normally. If the oxygen dosen’t start flowing through the system or you don’t have any pocket change handy, you can always break open one of the windows and stick you head out.
If the plane starts going down there are no “official” emergency exits but there is a wiggly window at the back of the plane on the right hand side that you might be able to kick out with your left foot. So if you are seated next to that emergency exit I would suggest you try and trade with somebody.
There are no flotation devices aboard this aircraft, so in case of an emergency landing on water you're gonna wanna grab a hold of the biggest person you can find. Right now you can take a moment to find the one nearest to you. 64B is probably a safest bet no matter where you are seated on the plane.
There is no smoking of any kind aboard this aircraft. No marijuana, cannabis, weed, pot, grass, dope, joints, hay, rope, blunts, buds, hash or 420. If we catch you smoking even a small little joint you gonna be kicked off the plane,(I don’t care how far across the ocean we are). It’s also gonna be a $3000 fine and if you wanted to pay that for your airfare you should a picked a different airline.
We have many forms of live inflight entertainment, here at air jamaica. Today I’m gonna be reenacting scenes from Titanic for your enjoyment. And if you all don’t know Jack is gonna go, he lets go hard. There will also be bob marley sing alongs periodically throughout the flight. And I found a bottle of wine back in the cockpit that we are gonna be raffling off to lucky seat number 83B! 83B you and me are gonna have a little chat after the demo’s done.
Our first song is gonna be… “Buffalo soldier, in the heart of america…..” come I know you know the words.
but really So please sit back, relax and enjoy the flight. We thank you for flying Air Jamaica. (and if you’re a little slow and haven’t clued in yet) Your safety is not our top priority. Let’s be real if the plane starts going down I’m gonna be the only one I’m worried about.
Thank Y’all and enjoy the flight…
Written By Bryn Cowan
Welcome aboard Air Jamaica. Please pay attention, or at least pretend to, while we outline the safety features of this aircraft. For your convenience there are not many safety features so it's not gonna take very long. My name is Ruby Jones and if you got any questions you know who not to ask.
There is an informational pamphlet in the seat pocket, which is hopefully still in front of you. Attached to the back of that there is a mandatory waiver that you all are gonna have to sign before the flight. To summarize, because we know that no one is gonna read it, it just says nobody’s gonna get sued if the plane goes down. We will be collecting them before take off.
But tonnes of your travel agents called me yesterday to notify me that you are scared of flying. That’s crazy, there is nothing to be worried about. We got a pretty good safety record. I mean I just bought a new fire extinguisher yesterday...because we used up our last one a couple days ago. It’s nothing you gotta be concerned about or anything, it was only a small fire. I can assure you it not gonna happen again anytime soon, I repaired the engine myself. But if you are still nervous any time during the flight, feel free to step outside.
We are proud to announce the introduction of our new inflight menu. We finally got enough funding for a second hand kettle, and an easy bake oven. So we will be offer a wide variety of deluxe menu items such as kraft dinner, ramen noodles, and instant oatmeal. But for the few returning customers we do have, don’t fear, there are some returning favourites such as beef jerky and dehydrated banana skin. We also serve a complimentary instant coffee for only $7.99.
The plane does sometimes tend to have some trouble getting off the ground because of the overall weight of the plane. So we will be restricting the inflight menu until we are up in the air. Especially you 64B, you can just hold off until we land that would be great. Thank you for your cooperation.
At this time we would please ask you to turn off all mobile phones and electronics. Airplane mode is not acceptable. What?!?! Well I’m not sure why, but the phones just don’t register this as an airplane. We will notify you when it is again safe to use these devices, which is gonna be when we land. But your probably not going to get any service in Kingston Jamaica.
Seat Belts can be found at about every other seat, so we recommend a buddy buddy system with the person seated next to you. The seat belt is gonna go over both of you and fassen tight and low across your hips, just like the man in 12C is wearing his fanny pack. Toursits. When the seatbelt sign is off you are free to move about the cabin. Though that can sometimes cause the plane to lose its balance. Please stand at your own risk. To release the seat belt you can give a good yank to the red tab, if it doesn't work, just remain seated. From time to time the seat belts can get stuck so please notify staff if this happens to you but we probably won’t be able to do anything about it. (I mean we only had like 20 minutes of training)
If the cabin pressure drops, an air mask should fall from the compartment above you. At least most of them did last time. What you gotta do is stop screaming, let go of your neighbor, and place it ovr you mouth and nose. To activate the system simply insert a dollar 25 for the first minute and another 50 cents every 5 minutes after that. Breath normally. If the oxygen dosen’t start flowing through the system or you don’t have any pocket change handy, you can always break open one of the windows and stick you head out.
If the plane starts going down there are no “official” emergency exits but there is a wiggly window at the back of the plane on the right hand side that you might be able to kick out with your left foot. So if you are seated next to that emergency exit I would suggest you try and trade with somebody.
There are no flotation devices aboard this aircraft, so in case of an emergency landing on water you're gonna wanna grab a hold of the biggest person you can find. Right now you can take a moment to find the one nearest to you. 64B is probably a safest bet no matter where you are seated on the plane.
There is no smoking of any kind aboard this aircraft. No marijuana, cannabis, weed, pot, grass, dope, joints, hay, rope, blunts, buds, hash or 420. If we catch you smoking even a small little joint you gonna be kicked off the plane,(I don’t care how far across the ocean we are). It’s also gonna be a $3000 fine and if you wanted to pay that for your airfare you should a picked a different airline.
We have many forms of live inflight entertainment, here at air jamaica. Today I’m gonna be reenacting scenes from Titanic for your enjoyment. And if you all don’t know Jack is gonna go, he lets go hard. There will also be bob marley sing alongs periodically throughout the flight. And I found a bottle of wine back in the cockpit that we are gonna be raffling off to lucky seat number 83B! 83B you and me are gonna have a little chat after the demo’s done.
Our first song is gonna be… “Buffalo soldier, in the heart of america…..” come I know you know the words.
but really So please sit back, relax and enjoy the flight. We thank you for flying Air Jamaica. (and if you’re a little slow and haven’t clued in yet) Your safety is not our top priority. Let’s be real if the plane starts going down I’m gonna be the only one I’m worried about.
Thank Y’all and enjoy the flight…
Blue Honey
Written By Bryn Cowan
Written By Bryn Cowan