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About Blackbox Academy · Saskatoon

Training for
presence, confidence,
and better human work.

Blackbox Academy uses acting, improv, story, and communication training to build presence, confidence, adaptability, creativity, and connection. For kids, teens, adults, private clients, and teams.

All ages
Kids, teens, adults, teams, and organizations
Live practice
Acting, improv, story, voice, and communication
Real transfer
Confidence, presence, adaptability, and connection
Blackbox Academy class in session
Blackbox Academy performance training moment
Blackbox Academy improv class moment
Blackbox Academy students practicing performance skills
For the love of the craft.
Craft in class. Confidence in life.

Practice here. Carry it everywhere.

The visible work is acting, improv, communication, and story. The deeper result is better listening, faster recovery, stronger connection, and more presence in life.

Presence Notice more. Listen better. React cleaner.
Confidence Be seen without needing to pretend first.
Connection Create better moments at home, at work, and on stage.
What changes Not just performance.
01PresenceStay available when it matters.
02CommunicationListen, respond, clarify, connect.
03AdaptabilityRecover faster when plans change.
04ConfidenceMove before certainty.
Our mission

Performance education
worth showing up for.

To help more people experience what performance training can unlock.

Performance training is creative, social, physical, and alive. Students make choices under pressure, listen before responding, take useful risks, and become more comfortable being seen.

Although performance education is not therapy, it can be incredibly useful in everyday life. The same tools help on stage, in school, at work, in leadership, in relationships, and in difficult conversations.

The Blackbox Standard

Simple practice. High transfer.

Clear enough for beginners, deep enough for artists, and useful enough to follow people into real life.

01 Make it active Learn by doing, not collecting ideas.
02 Make it human Improve attention, timing, empathy, and trust.
03 Make it repeatable Practice skills until they work under pressure.
Why it works

Training that travels with you.

A simple model for what the work builds: listening, choice, adaptability, and connection.

Performance
Training
Listen Receive before reacting.
Choose Act before certainty.
Adapt Change without freezing.
Connect Build trust in real time.
Our story

Built in Saskatoon. Useful everywhere.

After more than a decade training and performing in Vancouver, I kept noticing how few performance education options existed in Saskatoon.

At the same time, with Vancouver’s film industry completely booming, I could register for twenty different classes on any night of the week.

The demand for content around the world continues to increase. More streaming services, more social media, more consumption. Because of that, there is a real pull for qualified, well-trained performers and storytellers to help fulfill that need.

Which means an equally large opportunity for those who are keen, skilled, and ready.

Over time, the mission got bigger than acting education alone. Blackbox became a place to use performance training as a practical route into confidence, communication, creativity, adaptability, leadership, and a better quality of life.

Graham Chabot, Founder
Our catalyst

The partnership that made it real.

As you quickly learn in our story classes, the catalyst is the part of the story when a character crosses a threshold into a ‘new world,’ where they must face new challenges on the way to reach their desire.

Blackbox Academy existed as an idea for years. The partnership with Kristin turned it into something real: a space to create, play, train, and grow.

To help more people experience what performance training can unlock.

Meet the team

Artists who still do the work.

The value of the training depends on who leads it. Our instructors bring current performance experience into grounded, welcoming, useful teaching.

Graham Chabot portrait Kristin and Graham, founders of Blackbox Academy Graham Chabot directing a Blackbox class
Founder & Artistic Director

Graham Chabot

After 15 years training and working in Vancouver, Graham returned to Saskatoon to bring that level of performance education home. His background spans film, TV, stage, voice, comedy, directing, and improv.

Film & TV Improv Voice Directing
Kristin Proskow portrait Kristin Proskow in performance Kristin Proskow on stage
Founder & Creative Director

Kristin Proskow

Kristin studied acting and comedy in Vancouver and spent nearly a decade acting, improvising, and stage managing at Jubilations Dinner Theatre. She specializes in improv, character, movement, and all-ages teaching.

Improv Character Sketch Movement
Jeff Evans-Todd portrait Jeff Evans-Todd on set outdoors Jeff Evans-Todd screen performance still
Instructor & Team Member

Jeff Evans-Todd

Jeff began training in Vancouver in 2011 and soon after worked professionally in voice, film, and television. He taught at Vancouver Acting School and Vancouver Young Actors School from 2013 to 2024.

Film & TV Voice Auditions Teaching
Why it matters

The value shows up after class.

Performance training should not only make people braver in class. It should change how they handle conversations, pressure, choices, and connection.

01

Confidence without pretending

Practice being seen without faking confidence.

02

Communication under pressure

Listen, respond, clarify, and stay present when the script disappears.

03

Creative risk with recovery

Recover faster, stay generous, and keep building.

04

Better moments everywhere

Groups improve when people become better listeners and braver collaborators.

Blackbox is built on a simple transfer. What begins as craft becomes confidence, composure, and communication everywhere else.
The Blackbox Method

A practice for usable range.

Bring people into the present, give them useful structure, ask for clear choices, and carry the result into real life.

01

Set the conditions

Supportive enough to take risks. Focused enough to improve.

02

Put the skill in motion

Confidence, listening, story, and communication are practiced on their feet.

03

Make the choice visible

Students see their habits under pressure, then practice stronger choices.

04

Carry it out of class

The result is not only a better scene. It is a better way of showing up.

A good class should change the week.

That is the standard. The work should be enjoyable, but it should also change how people listen, speak, collaborate, handle pressure, and recover.

welcome.

Start where
you are.

Join a class, book coaching, or bring Blackbox into your workplace. The work starts in practice and follows you back into life.