Invitation to high school drama teachers and drama students to attend our Mainstage Show, Conjugal.
We are excited to invite you to a special invited dress rehearsal of our 2025 Mainstage Show Conjugal, written by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, directed by CDTPS faculty member Carmen Alvis on March 5, 2024, from 10am to 1pm at the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies(CDTPS), University of Toronto. The show will be performed by our fourth-year students at the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse located at 79 St. George Street in downtown Toronto, the central hub for our classes, gatherings and performances.
Governor General Award nominated playwright Donna-Michelle St. Bernard makes her academic debut with her play Conjugal. Inspired by events in Malawi, where a poet was incarcerated for criticizing the state, this play is part of St. Bernard’s career spanning project called The 54ology, that sees her writing a play for every country in Africa.
Director Carmen Alvis is a Turtle Mountain Michif (Métis) artist based in Tkarón:to with Chippewa, Irish and English ancestors. She is one of the leaders of lemonTree creations, manidoons collective, and AdHoc Assembly, and is on the board of the Dancers of Damelahamid. Read more about Carmen Alvis.
By attending our Mainstage Show, we would love for you and your senior year students to see the culmination of training, tutelage and experience CDTPS students gain during their four years within a world-class university. Our undergraduate program, with the option to gain a drama specialist, major or minor Bachelor of Arts degree, offers interdisciplinary courses and rigorous practical training. Along with courses in theatre and performance theory and history, dramatic literature, dramaturgy, technology, and practice-based lab courses, the CDTPS offers introductory and advanced studio courses in acting, production, design, directing, and playwriting. In 2025, we will also be moving into a newly renovated state-of-the-art facility in University College’s north wing with a contemporary rehearsal studio, reconfigurable black box theatre, comfortable student lounge areas, ultramodern seminar rooms and hoteling workspaces, and a highly sophisticated studio space for our BMO Lab for Creative Research in the Arts, Performance, Emerging Technologies and AI.
Additional program highlights include:
- Specialized education in the field of performance, emerging technologies and AI;
- International research and internationally renowned researchers;
- Faculty members who are active creators in the theatre industry;
- Professional networking and international opportunities;
- Five different streams that students can pursue individually or in combination (acting, directing, playwriting, production & design, performance & technology);
- Small classroom settings allowing for enhanced interaction between instructors and students;
- Opportunities for students to meet some of the best scholars and artists in the world;
- Workshops and talks with internationally renowned guest artists;
- International theatre trips and summer courses abroad; and
- Opportunities to get involved in campus theatre, the Hart House Drama Festival and the U of T Spotlight Playwriting competition.
Many of our students graduate with a diverse foundation having combined majors in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Sciences, including English, Women and Gender Studies, Cinema Studies, Sexual Diversity Studies, Art History, Classics, Religion, Anthropology, Canadian Studies, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Human Biology, Computer Science, Cognitive Science and more. There is no better place to get your start!
If you would like to attend this event, please respond on the following Invitation to Mainstage Show form, which will ask you to include the estimated number of students you plan to bring. As we have approximately 60 seats in the house, those who respond to this invitation by or before Feb. 3, 2025, will be accommodated on a first come first served basis.
Also, if you are interested in having one of our undergraduate students visit your school before the holidays to give a talk to your grade 12/upper year drama class about our undergraduate program, the experience of studying here and the application process, please let us know and we will do our best to make these arrangements. The visit would be about 30 minutes to an hour and, time permitting, our visiting student could host a few drama games with your class. If this would be of interest to you, or if you have any questions, please contact us by email at comms.cdtps@utoronto.ca or call 416-978-7987.
We hope to see you soon!
Kathleen Gallagher,
Director, Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies
Seika Boye,
Associate Director, Undergraduate, Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies