*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
DRE300H5F Exploring Puppetry in Performance
DRE346H5F Studies in Theatre & Drama 2 (Chekhov)
DRE362H5F Playwrighting
DRE420H5F Studies in Theatre & Drama 3 (Brecht)
DRS121Y5 Acting 1
DRE122H5S Modern and Contemporary Theatre and Drama
DRE202H5S Intermediate Acting
DRE222H5S The Performance Text
DRE223H5S Shakespeare in the Theatre
DRE305H5S Topics in Indigenous Performance (Native Feminisms)
DRE358H5S The Audience and the Theatre
DRE363H5S Workshop in Playwriting
DRE422H5S Senior Seminar 2 (Political Theatre)
DRS122Y5 Acting 2
Course Title: Traditions of Theatre and Drama
Course Code: DRE121H5F | Lecture MW 11-12 | Tutorials W 12-1, W 2-3, W 3-4
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
Course Title: Acting
Course Code: DRE201H5F | Lecture F 11-12 | PRA F 1-3, F 3-5
Instructor: Daniella Vinitski 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 Stella Adler Script 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: TBD
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Course Title: The Performance Text
Course Code: DRE222H5S | Lecture M 10-12, W 10-11
Instructor: Leticia Ridley
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Course Title: Shakespeare in the Theatre
Course Code: DRE223H5S
Instructor: Holger Syme
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Course Title: Exploring Puppetry in Performance
Course Code: DRE300H5F
Instructor: Lawrence Switzky
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Detailed Description by Instructor: This course offers a practice-informed introduction to the puppetry arts. Students will learn how (and why) puppetry works by making and operating several types of puppetry, including shadow, glove, string, rod, body, and tabletop puppets, object and material performance, giant puppetry, and toy theatre. We’ll learn to be better puppeteers by watching and analyzing puppetry performances and applying their discoveries to our own creative practices.
Puppetry is an ancient and transcultural art and we’ll consider a global sweep of puppetry performance traditions along with contemporary experiments. Across them all, we’ll focus on the core principles of creating “puppet life”—clarity, weight, breath, timing, and focus, among others. We’ll also explore the puppet’s possibilities as a philosophical instrument and the kinds of stories that puppets are particularly well-suited to tell, alongside human actors or on their own terms.
This is a performance-intensive class that encourages play and collaboration. Students should expect to take part in regular exercises in puppetry acting, improvisation, design, and construction, and to present their work-in-progress at most sessions.
Selected Major Readings:
Puppetry is primarily a visual and performing art, so we’ll watch a lot of puppetry on film, most of it in class together—clips as well as full-scale productions. These will include examples from groups like Blind Summit, Bread and Puppet Theatre, Great Small Works, Handspring Puppet Company, Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo, Improbable Theatre, Manual Cinema, The Old Trout Puppet Workshop, Puppetmongers, Royal de Luxe, Sogolon Puppet Theater, and Ukwanda Puppetry Arts, as well as many individual artists.
The readings for this course will mostly consist of short essays on puppetry that we’ll test and apply through performance.
First Texts/Authors to be Studied:
Stephen Kaplin, “A Puppet Tree: A Model for the Field of Puppet Theatre”
Basil Jones, “Puppetry, Authorship, and the Ur-Narrative”
Steve Tillis, “The Actor Occluded: Puppet Theatre and Acting Theory”
Claudia Orenstein, “A Puppet Being and a Puppet Doing”
Peter Schumann, “The Radicality of the Puppet Theatre”
Method of Instruction:
Lecture
Discussion
Improvisation
Informal show and tell sessions
Performance analysis
Performance exercises
Puppet fabrication
Storyboarding
Method of Evaluation:
Participation in exercises and improvisations
Analytical and reflective podcasts (“puppetcasts”)
In-class presentations
In-class performances
Periodic puppet slams
Does your course feature an assessed creative writing component?
Yes, as well as assessed creative fabrication with materials
Course Title: Topics in Indigenous Performance (Native Feminisms)
Course Code: DRE305H5S | Lecture M 1-3
Instructor: Maria Hupfield
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Course Title: Studies in Theatre & Drama 2 (Global Performance)
Course Code: DRE346HF | Lecture W 11-1
Instructor: Leticia Ridley
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Course Title: The Audience and the Theatre
Course Code: DRE358H5S | Lecture W 1-3
Instructor: Signy Lynch
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: TBD
Group n/a
Course Title: Senior Seminar
Course Code: DRE420HF | Lecture M 11-1
Instructor: Jacob Gallagher-Ross
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Course Title: Senior Seminar "The American Musical on Screen: Culture, Ideology, and Performance"
Course Code: DRE422H5S | Lecture W 11-1
Instructor: Leticia Ridley
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Detailed Description by Instructor:: The musical has seen a surge in film adaptations in the last decade, despite a general feeling (believable or not) that musicals stand on the fringes of popular culture. While this sentiment might be in question, musicals still dominate our imagination, from the classic adaptation of Oklahoma! to Disney animated films such as Encanto; it is clear that musicals are a staple of culture. Musicals are supposed to make us feel good, which leads musical theater scholar Graham Renyk to frame them as “happy objects.” These “happy objects” are thus supposed to generate affective experiences of pleasure, despite content that is deemed serious and tragic. In the course, students will be asked to question the “American musical” by examining how the feelings it produces and the envisioning of a utopian society are complicated by gender, nationality, class, ethnicity, race, disability, and other factors. By focusing on musicals adapted into film, we examine what is “lost” and “gained” in the utopian proposals of the American musical.
Course Title: Acting 1
Course Code: DRS121Y5 | Lecture TBD
Instructors: Adam Paolozza (Acting), Leslie Wright (Crew), Melinda Little (Movement), Heather Hill (Voice)
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.
Group n/a
Detailed Description by Instructor (Movement): The actor’s body is their instrument. In this course, using movement exploration and guided
improvisation, students will begin to develop a sense of their bodies and how this awareness
relates to the creative process of being an actor.
Selected Major Readings (Optional):
Bertherat, Thérèse & Bernstein, Carol. The Body Has Its Reasons. Rochester, VT: Healing Arts
Press, 1989.
Calais-Germain, Blandine. Anatomy of Movement. Seattle, WA: Eastland Press, 2007.
Franklin, Eric. Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 1996
Method of Instruction:
In Studio Explorations
Questioning
Collaborative Learning
Discussion
Does this course feature an assessed creative writing component? No
Course Title: Acting 2
Course Code: DRS122Y5 | Lecture TBD
Instructor: TBD
For the UTM calendar description of this course, click here.