As an introduction to graduate-level theatre and performance history and historiography, this course will teach students how to do theatre and performance history. It will combine consideration of selected topics and case studies with methodological awareness of the problems and questions that arise in the writing of such histories. The course will endeavor to present theatre and performance history as a subject that encompasses dramatic literature, material culture, embodiment, visual culture—and even how history can itself be understood as drama. Emphasis will be directed towards learning how to contextualize and situate sources within their historical and cultural frameworks.

Instructor: Francesco Gagliardi

Time: Fall, Wednesday, 2-5pm
Location: Walden Room, UP103

This course provides an experiential learning opportunity to MA students by allowing them to pursue a practice-based project of their design under the supervision of a faculty member and with feedback from their cohort. Major components of the course are the discussion and application of various models of integrating critical analysis into practice, the introduction of different modes of research-based and critical creative practice, the development of students’ individual projects toward a workshop-oriented presentation, and the practice of peer critique.

Instructor: Francesco Gagliardi

Time: Winter, Thursday, 10am-1pm
Location: Luella Massey Theatre

This course provides introduction to the overlapping fields of drama, theatre and performance studies at the graduate level. Engaging the key texts in these fields, the course also addresses recent scholarship and artworks. It may include playtexts, performance texts, and theory, and develops and refines critical reading and analysis of this material. The course also models how scholars in the three fields use case studies to integrate analysis with theory. It builds a foundation for scholarly inquiry by incorporating local, national and international scholarship, and examines interrelationships of scholarly and artistic works.

Instructor: T. Nikki Cesare Schotzko

Time: Fall, Thursdays, 10am–1pm
Location: Walden Room, UP103

This course carves out dedicated space for students to pursue and complete a Masters Research Project. Within this course students will learn how to effectively and appropriately engage in Praxis-Based research and acquire a comprehensive understanding of how artistic practice might be curated and utilized as an effective method of inquiry and/or how artistic praxis might be used as a medium through which to communicate and disseminate research findings. By the conclusion of the course, students will have developed an artistic project that is accompanied by a written component through which they reflect upon the creative work and its positioning within the larger research project and the arts-based/research as practice field within DTPS.

Students will be guided through these processes: developing a research question; curating appropriate research methods; and thinking through ethical questions in research, artistic creation, and spectatorship as they create their capstone project.

Instructor: Jill Carter
Time: Winter, Wednesday, 5-8pm
Location: LCR

Sources and Concepts of Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies I is the first of a two-part cycle of foundational PhD-level semester courses in international histories of intellectual and creative ideas that inform drama, theatre, and performance studies. The courses invite students to examine the most significant dramatic and theatrical developments—in both theories and practices—across cultures. They focus on the historically, methodologically and theoretically informed analyses of dramatic texts, theatre productions, and performances with reference to their formal and stylistic choices, performative significance, cultural systems and conventions, and historical contexts. The courses provide ways of integrating culture-specific theory/criticism/ideas into a comprehensive understanding of world drama, theatre, and performance. This cycle may not use a fixed structure. According to the course instructor’s pedagogical approach and academic expertise, the courses may be organized along chronology, around themes, with a focus on geography, or with a combination of the previous perspectives.

Instructor: Izuu Nwankwọ

Time: Fall, Friday, 10am-1pm
Location: Luella Massey

Sources and Concepts of Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies II is the second of a two-part cycle of foundational PhD-level semester courses in international histories of intellectual and creative ideas that inform drama, theatre, and performance studies. The courses invite students to examine the most significant dramatic and theatrical developments—in both theories and practices—across cultures. They focus on the historically, methodologically and theoretically informed analyses of dramatic texts, theatre productions, and performances with reference to their formal and stylistic choices, performative significance, cultural systems and conventions, and historical contexts. The courses provide ways of integrating culture-specific theory/criticism/ideas into a comprehensive understanding of world drama, theatre, and performance. This cycle may not use a fixed structure. According to the course instructor’s pedagogical approach and academic expertise, the courses may be organized along chronology, around themes, with a focus on geography, or with a combination of the previous perspectives.

Instructor: T. Nikki Cesare Schotzko

Time: Winter, Wednesday, 2-5pm
Location: Walden Room, UP103

Modelling New Scholarship is a PhD-only seminar focusing on the practice of professional scholarship in drama, theatre, and performance studies. In the course, students cultivate the research, writing, and presentation skills necessary for success in graduate school and the professional sphere. It serves as an introduction to some of the most current scholarship in the field, and develops the tools—analysis, historiography, theory—required both to engage with and to produce original work. Students will examine how scholars translate their research into original contributions to the field: from dissertation chapters, to conference presentations, to journal articles, and monographs. Students will also gain an overview of the profession, including relevant organizations, conferences, and journals, and learn how to gear their writing toward a particular audience. The seminar also considers the ways in which scholarship in drama, theatre, and performance studies both intersects with, and distinguishes itself from, other disciplines, including cultural studies, history, ethnography, and literary studies. The course may include a public humanities and/or community-based component.

Instructor: Barry Freeman

Time: Fall, Monday 10am-1pm
Location: Front & Long Rooms

This course is designed to acquaint students with contemporary approaches and issues in teaching and learning as they pertain to the interdisciplinary field of drama, theatre and performance studies. Emphasis will be on the theory and practice of knowledge construction and transmission. By the end of the course, students will have developed a stronger understanding of the history of pedagogy in the field, considered important theoretical paradigms in relation to their practical applications, been introduced to Indigenous and non-Western perspectives on teaching and learning, developed and experimented with specific teaching techniques appropriate to their individual professional goals, and positioned their own values and practice in relation to a community of learning, producing a statement of teaching philosophy.

Instructor: Kathleen Gallagher

Time: Winter, Monday, 10am–1pm
Location: Walden Room, UP103

This course has three components: (1) students prepare for and compose their dissertation proposal; (2) methodological training through which students further develop their research skills pertaining to their specific dissertation projects; and (3) logistical guidance as the students fulfil language requirements, secure a supervisor, and compile a supervisory committee. This course is CR/NCR.

Instructor: Doug Eacho

Time: Fall, Thursday 10am-1pm
Location: Front & Long Rooms

Concentrating upon the in-depth knowledge and practice of playwriting with an emphasis on advanced style and technique of writing. Students develop their own  work through in-class exercises, one major written assignment, and the final public presentation.

Selection is based on an portfolio submission. Applications will open in mid September. Apply online by November 10th. https://drama-apply.chass.utoronto.ca/login 

Instructor: Djanet Sears
Time: Winter, Monday 5-8pm
Location: Playhouse, UP 200

A continuation of DRM331H1 Dramaturgy, deepening the critical exploration of more specific and/or specialized aspects of dramaturgy, such as digital dramaturgy, new media dramaturgy, intercultural and transcultural dramaturgy. Students in this course will also work closely with the MainStage production, providing dramaturgical assistance to the director.

Instructor: T. Nikki Cesare Schotzko
Time: Winter, Friday 10am-1pm
Location: Walden Room, UP 103

Description to come. 

Instructor: Izuu Nwankwọ
Time: Winter, Monday, 3-5pm
Location: Walden Room, UP 103

This course introduces students to independent research-creation in the field of contemporary digital performance. Readings and invited guests will expose students to innovative practices in theatres and online platforms, and outline current political and academic debates around liveness, copyright, and social media. Students will pursue research on a contemporary artist who is integrating the performing arts with computational media, and create a performance piece responding to issues raised by their research.

Instructor: Sarah Bey-Cheng
Time: Winter, Wednesday 2-5pm
Location: Luella Massey Theatre GM1

This interdisciplinary graduate course explores the collision between the arts and technologies with all of its creative potential, unintentional collateral damage, compelling attraction, and complex social implications. It brings together scholars, artists, and students from Drama/Theatre, Visual Studies, Comparative Literature Music, Engineering, and Computer Science who are already excited by and engaged in this intersection. For students coming from an arts background the course offers direct experience of emerging technologies and chance to explore their applications to their research. For students with a technology background, the course provides the opportunity to integrate their research into an art-based, publicly presented project. The course exposes all of the students to rigorous interdisciplinary practices and their conceptual, practical and theoretical challenges through group discussions, concept generation, practical experimentation and research, and engagement with visiting artists. The course will culminate in a collaborative performance project.

Please note: entry into this course requires an interview. Contact Prof. Rokeby at david.rokeby@utoronto.ca.

Instructor: David Rokeby
Time: Winter, Tuesday,  3-5pm
Location: Walden Room, UP 103

Syllabus

Both practice-based and theoretical, this course will explore questions about how and why theatre works as pedagogy, as research methodology, and as embodied text. Students will look at examples from education and research contexts, as well as explore questions about theatre and performance in theatre-making spaces and other social contexts. Modalities of theatre pedagogy, theatre research methodologies, playreading, and spectatorship will animate the ideas of the course where students will be invited to engage in exploratory and creative practices, analyses of readings, and pedagogical leadership in the class.

Instructor: Kathleen Gallagher
Time: Fall, Thursdays 2–5pm
Location: Luella Massey Theatre GM1