*The Course Schedules below are subject to change pending enrolment pattern changes. Detailed course descriptions by instructors are added when available and are also subject to change.
**Please consult the Registrar's Time Table for mode of delivery for courses.
DRE121H5F Traditions of Theatre and Drama
DRE200H5F Canadian Theatre History
DRE201H5F Acting
DRE344H5F Studies in Theatre & Drama 1 (Modern & Contemporary African American Performance)
DRE346H5F Studies in Theatre & Drama 2 (Chekhov)
DRE347H5F Studies in Theatre & Drama 3 (Very, Very Contemporary Black Theatre)
DRE362H5F Playwrighting
DRE420H5F Studies in Theatre & Drama 3 (Brecht)
DRE122H5S Modern and Contemporary Theatre and Drama
DRE202H5S Intermediate Acting
DRE222H5S The Performance Text
DRE344H5S Studies in Theatre and Drama 1 (Contemporary Chinese Performance)
DRE356H5S Theory of Drama
DRE363H5S Workshop in Playwriting
DRE422H5S Senior Seminar 2 (Political Theatre)
Course Title: Traditions of Theatre and Drama
Course Code: DRE121H5F | Lecture MW 11-12 | Tutorials W 12-1, W 2-3
Instructor: Holger Syme
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Course Title: Modern and Contemporary Theatre and Drama
Course Code: DRE122H5S | Lecture MW 11-12 | Tutorials W 12-1, W 2-3
Instructor: Signy Lynch
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Course Title: Canadian Theatre History
Course Code: DRE200H5F | Lecture M 11-12, W 11-1
Instructor: Signy Lynch
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Detailed Description by Instructor:
This course will give an introduction to the histories and historiography of theatre in Canada, mainly in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, through focusing substantially, though not exclusively, on Toronto. We will investigate significant plays, institutions, companies, and individuals, and survey some of the trends, movements, and core ideas that have shaped the contemporary theatre scene in Canada. We will also critically examine the materials and methods used to construct Canadian theatre and performance histories, and explore and trouble the concept of ‘Canadian theatre’ itself. Readings will consist mostly of plays connected to the week's topic, and will be supplemented with engagement with other historical documents in class.
Selected Major Readings: Students will engage with a small number of articles, and eight plays. Some of the plays students will need to purchase, whereas others are available through an online database via the UofT library site.
First Three Texts/Authors to be Studied: A few primary source articles that will be provided to students
Method of Instruction: A combination of lecture, discussion, and participatory learning activities
Method of Evaluation: Small group presentation, research project (including final paper), take home test, participation
Does your course feature an assessed creative writing component? No
Course Title: Acting
Course Code: DRE201H5F | Lecture F 11-12 | PRA F 1-3, F 3-5
Instructor: Daniella Mooney
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Detailed Description by Instructor: A practical introduction to the art and craft of performance, intended for students with little or no previous experience or training. The course uses a range of acting exercises to teach critical thinking, active listening, specificity of action, intention of thought, and team building. Students will engage in text analysis, collective creation, storytelling, physical and vocal exercises, and character development, in the process cultivating skills transferable to their chosen career path. This course is ideally suited for any student seeking to enhance their interpersonal and presentation skills.
Selected Major Readings:
Rotté, Joanna. Acting with Adler. New York: Limelight Editions, 2020.
First Three Texts/Authors to be Studied:
Tannahill, Jordan. Theatre of the Unimpressed. Canada: Coach House Books, 2015.
Bowditch, Rachel; Casazza, Jeff; and Thornton, Annette, eds. Physical Dramaturgy: Perspectives from the Field. “The Search for Synecdoche: Insight into Pig Iron Theatre Company’s Physical Dramaturgy.” New York: Routledge, 2018.
Brook, Peter. The Empty Space. New York: Atheneum, 1968.
Method of Instruction:
This course uses theatre and performance as catalysts to cultivate empathy, curiosity, and awareness. Students will investigate perceived “otherness” through text analysis, character progression, and ensemble-based collaboration, while engaging in methods such as active listening, critically engaged conversation, experiential performance, reflection journals, in-class workshops, and ensemble work. With an emphasis on discovery and process over outcome, the class encourages exploration, play, journey and arc of growth as vital components of learning, leading to deeper self-realization, stronger connections with peers, and the ability to generate bold new narratives for both stage and world.
Method of Evaluation:
Assessment in this course will be based on a balance of participation and creative work based in supportive play and exploration. Ongoing participation makes up 20% of the grade, alongside regular physical and vocal explorations (20%). Students will complete a written Uta Hagen 9 Steps Analysis (10%) and maintain a Theatre as a Radical Act of Empathy journal due at the end of term (10%). The course also includes two major collaborative projects: Collective Creation One (20%) and Collective Creation Two (20%).
Does this course feature an assessed creative writing component? Yes
Course Title: Intermediate Acting
Course Code: DRE202H5S | Lecture F 11-12 | PRA F 1-3
Instructor: Autumn Smith
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Course Title: The Performance Text
Course Code: DRE222H5S | Lecture M 11-1, W 11-12
Instructor: Leticia Ridley
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Detailed Description by Instructor: The Performance Text introduces students to topics and techniques in dramaturgical analysis. We’ll explore the intersection between dramatic texts and theatrical performance. We will explore a range of texts to which we might be exposed as scholars, theatre practitioners, and audience members. We’ll approach textual analysis and performance through parallel methods: As scholars, we will read, reflect on, and write critically about texts and performances; as performers, we will explore a variety of dramatic techniques to create and stage critical interpretations. Every play is both a literary work and a blueprint for potential performances. They can be read closely like other texts. But reading plays also demands special skills. We’re not just reading what’s there, but for what could be there: the performance possibilities that might be realized onstage.
We will immerse ourselves in the dramaturgical process by reading plays, watching video excerpts of theatre productions, and engaging in activities related to selected texts. We will consider how the production history of selected texts and new dramaturgical choices contribute to the staging of plays. We will also probe dramaturgy’s role in reconfiguring the conventions of theatrical genre and assumptions about the possibilities offered by written text.
Selected Major Readings: TBD
First Three Texts/Authors to be Studied: TBD
Method of Instruction: Discussion, In-Class Activities, Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Reading Quizzes, Participation, Essay(s), Group Performance Project
Course Title: Studies in Theatre & Drama 1 (Contemporary Chinese Performance)
Course Code: DRE344H5F | Lecture W 3-5
Instructor: Eddie Feng
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Detailed Description by Instructor: This a course takes students through contemporary Chinese theatre, from the avant-garde movement of the 1980s to today's technologically mediated stage. Through the framework of intellectual currents (sichao), we consider how Chinese theatre has engaged with philosophical and socio-cultural concerns—ranging from questions of identity and collective memory, to the frictions between traditions shaped by Confucian (ru), Buddhist (shi), and Daoist (dao) thought and the complexities of postmodern life. Special attention is given to the key artists who propelled the move from spoken drama (huaju) to experimental theatre (juchang) in the postsocialist period. In doing so, we examine how Chinese theatre has become a space where Eastern and Western ideas meet, adapt, and transform in response to rapid political, social, and technological change.
Selected major readings: Zhuangzi, Mencius, The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch
First three texts / authors to be studied: Hu Shi, Gao Xingjian, Meng Jinghui
Method of instruction: Lectures, Seminar-style Discussions, Group Presentations, Stage Readings, and In-class Viewing of Performance Videos
Method of evaluation: Attendance and Participation, Presentation and Commentary, Reflections Pieces, and Final Project
Does your course feature an assessed creative writing component? No
Course Title: Studies in Theatre and Drama 1 (Out on Stage: Queer Theatre)
Course Code: DRE344H5S | Lecture W 1-3
Instructor: Leticia Ridley
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Detailed Description by Instructor: Out on Stage: Queer Theatre examines the roots, progressions, and current contours of queer theatre through dramatic literature. A central premise of this course is that the stage is a necessary space for queer political activism and identity to be expressed. To account for this genealogy, we will combine textual analysis of plays with a consideration of queer performance practice and production, keeping a keen awareness of the ever-shifting nature of the term ‘queer.’ As such, we will explore the range and genealogies of queerness in various political, social, and cultural contexts. Some questions we address are: What is queer? To be queer? To enact queer onstage? What does it mean to queer a text or read a play with a queer lens? How can we understand and critique queer representation in theatre?
Selected Major Readings: TBD
First Three Texts/Authors to be Studied: TBD
Method of Instruction: Discussion, In-Class Activities, Lecture
Method of Evaluation: Reading Quizzes, Midterm Essay, Final Creative Project
Course Title: Studies in Theatre & Drama 2 (Global Performance)
Course Code: DRE346HF | Lecture W 1-3
Instructor: Signy Lynch
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Detailed Description by Instructor:
This course seeks to provide students with the tools to understand performance in a variety of global contexts. We will forgo a focus on drama (i.e. play texts) to study a variety of contemporary and historic performance practices, forms, and materials. We will explore how these forms, practices, and materials both reflect and produce culture (in particular through their embodiment and construction of ideology and worldview). By focusing on key concepts and growing and changing artistic forms (as opposed to organizing our study by country or region), we will seek to avoid fixed understandings of culture, recognizing its hybridity and fluidity. We will undertake this work with an eye to the history and ethics of cultural exchange in a way that will allow students to situate both artistic works and their own understandings of them within an increasingly globalized theatre scene and sociopolitical context. Through this work, this course will also offer a theoretical framework for interpreting performing arts nationally, on the lands of so-called Canada.
Selected Major Readings: Course pack made of articles and videos available via the UTM library or other free sources.
First Three Texts/Authors to be Studied: TBD
Method of Instruction: A combination of lecture, discussion, and participatory learning activities.
Method of Evaluation: A mixture of written assignments including reading responses, a final, take-home test, and a creative or presentation-geared assignment (alternative accommodations available for this assignment)
Does your course feature an assessed creative writing component? No
Course Title: Studies in Theatre & Drama 3 (Very, Very Contemporary Black Theatre)
Course Code: DRE347HF | Lecture W 11-1
Instructor: Leticia Ridley
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Detailed Description by Instructor: VERY VERY CONTEMPORARY BLACK THEATRE will examine contemporary African American dramatic literature from the 2020s to the present, emphasizing recent work by emerging and established playwrights. Students will analyze how very recent contemporary theatrical works reflect and respond to social, political, and cultural realities. As Robin Bernstein offers, “African Americans have [used performance to] generate and transmit political analysis, share knowledge and wisdom, organize communities, and galvanize resistance.” Through the semester’s exploration, students will grapple with the dynamic nature of blackness while also considering how these intersect with queerness, gender, and diaspora. The course aims to promote discussion that bridges the stage with current events, explore how African American playwrights play with the form of the theatre, ask urgent questions, and evolve our understanding of ‘what is Black theatre?’
Selected Major Readings: TBD
First Three Texts/Authors to be Studied: Aleesha Harris, Jackie Sibbles Drury, Donja Love
Method of Instruction: Discussion, Lecture, and In-Class Activities
Method of Evaluation: Reading Quizzes, Participation, Midterm Essay, Final Project
Does your course feature an assessed creative writing component? No
Course Title: Theory of Drama
Course Code: DRE356H5S | Lecture M 3-5
Instructor: Martin Revermann
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Course Title: Playwriting
Course Code: DRE362H5F | Lecture F 1-4
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Course Title: Workshop in Playwriting
Course Code: DRE363H5S | Lecture F 1-4
Instructor: David Yee
Group n/a
Detailed Description by Instructor:
In the ever-expanding definition of what makes a theatre artist, the role of the playwright has been co-opted and redistributed among a sizable population of polymaths. Yet, there remains a fundamental, authorial position in the theatre for those who are writers of plays. For the former – the jack-of-all-trades theatre artist – a background in playwriting is an asset which informs one’s artistic practice and contributes to one’s degree of usefulness in the room. For the latter, a dedicated education in the art and business of being a writer is something not many are afforded… which may be the reason that fundamental role is increasingly harder to fill. This course is intended to guide students through the process of creating and revising a performance text, with a focus on in-class dramaturgical discussions of student-written work. Through in-class exercises and out-of-class writing assignments, students will learn practical methodologies to approach and revise new work. Each student will receive two workshops of their written work and submit revisions for assessment. Students should be prepared to write and to have their written work read aloud by others and discussed.
Selected major readings:
Faiz Ahmed Faiz, The Rebel's Silhouette
Khalil Gibran, The Prophet
Joan Didion, The White Album
First three texts / authors to be studied:
Faiz Ahmed Faiz, The Rebel's Silhouette
Khalil Gibran, The Prophet
Joan Didion, The White Album
Method of instruction: Lecture, seminar discussion, tutorial, student presentations, creative writing projects
Method of evaluation: Seminar participation, student presentations, creative writing projects
Does your course feature an assessed creative writing component? Yes
Course Title: Studies in Theatre & Drama 3 (Brecht)
Course Code: DRE420HF | Lecture M 11-1
Instructor: Martin Revermann
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Course Title: Senior Seminar 2
Course Code: DRE422H5S | Lecture W 1-3
Instructor: Signy Lynch
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Detailed Description by Instructor:
This course will serve as an introduction to political theatre. Throughout the semester we will collectively explore what political theatre is or might mean, key debates about it for theatre artists and scholars (particularly surrounding its effectiveness or lack thereof), and how to make political art in a world in crisis.
As a fourth-year seminar, this class invites students to take ownership of the material, immerse themselves in its debates and discussions, and even to create some pieces of political theatre themselves (although alternative accommodations are possible for those who don’t wish to do this). Rather than dedicating the term to a historical overview of the subject, we will focus on some key twentieth century practitioners and then quickly transition into a more contemporary examination of theatre pieces, practices, movements, and discourses, both within Canada and beyond.
Selected Major Readings: We will read and watch some works of political theatre and engage with theory on the subject by both scholars and theatre practitioners.
First Three Texts/Authors to be Studied: TBD
Method of Instruction: Primarily participatory learning activities and discussion, alongside some mini-lectures.
Method of Evaluation: A mixture of shorter written assignments, an in-class performance and/or presentation (alternative accommodations available for this assignment), and final project.
Does your course feature an assessed creative writing component? No