The CBC Actors Conservatory is recognized thoughout the industry as a vital hub for spotting and supporting exciting and original on-screen talent. This full-time creative and professional experience, which is programmed by the Canadian Film Centre, has launched close to 100 actors since it began and allows actors to expand their skills while empowering them to navigate career and marketplace opportunities. Each "CLOSE UP" showcases actors in a dramatic, character-driven scene. All CLOSE UPs are professionally produced and edited for a Canadian Film Centre Industry Showcase in the spring.

Shona Struthers (They/She/He) Shona is a multi-disciplinary artist, being an actor, sound designer, combatant, technician, and fight coordinator. They are a UBC Acting graduate, Intermediate FDC Actor Combatant, Advanced BADC Actor Combatant, former Pacific Theatre apprentice, Affair of Honor Creative Associate & Company Member, Run N Gun Best Ensemble Winner, a many-hat-wearer. They believe that honest collaboration is the artist's lifeblood, and love stories that use metaphor to dive into the spiritual and truthful side of humanity.

Sawyer, a frenetic, lonely, suicidal person, arrives in purgatory and learns to reach out and show their full ever-changing self to their Afterlife Attendant (Spirit of Acceptance), and through their acceptance, asks for companionship in their reincarnation.