2201F - Understanding Performance
This course will equip students with the primary tools necessary to conduct basic performance analysis. From costumes to lighting and sound effects to textual alterations, students will learn to analyze a production while exploring the social, political, and aesthetic meanings of the required texts. We will study six plays and see live theatre at the Stratford Festival (Richard II and Rent), at the Grand Theatre in London (Kim’s Convenience), and at the Crow’s Theatre in Toronto (Bad Roads). Students will have the opportunity to rehearse and perform a scene and to devise a production concept for a scene from another play on the course. 0.5 course

Fall 2023

2201F / 001

DRAFT Syllabus

2202G - Performance Beyond Theatres
Performance Beyond Theatres introduces students to the fields of performance studies and applied theatre, two disciplines that explore the power of theatre and performance to work for social and political justice. We will examine a wide range of performances in everyday life (think sports, politics, Starbucks, and much more…), and we’ll meet some inspiring theatre practitioners working with equity-owed communities to uplift their voices and tell their stories to a wide audience. Students will have the chance to make a final performance project about a social or political topic meaningful to them, either on their own or in groups. 0.5 course

2205G - Forms and Genres: The Modern Context
This course will introduce students to the range of plays and theatre practices that shaped the first two millennia of theatre. Landmark texts will be studied in the context of the diverse theatre spaces, festivals, and political cultures in which the drama first came into being. 0.5 course

2212F - Adapting Across Page, Stage, and Screen (cross-listed with Film 2212F and English 2112F)
How does the shape an artwork takes contribute to its aesthetic and political power? When artworks flex across form and media how do their messages change? What did Marshall McLuhan mean when he said “the medium is the message”? How do genre and form shape social and political discourse? In this course, students explore these questions and more as they investigate texts that assume multiple cultural forms and represent a diversity of perspectives. 0.5 course

3211G - In Your Skin: Sexualities and Performance (cross-listed with GSWS 3331G)
This course examines the relationship between sexuality and performance. Students will examine play texts and performance and study such topics as drag, transgendered roles and representation, and the role of gender and sexuality in the interpretation of a text or performance. 0.5 course

3327B - Remediated Shakespeare (cross-listed with English 3327B)
This half-course will explore four major plays through a range of media including early and later print, staged performance, film, and live stream. Study of Shakespeare as text and performance will include students annotating, editing and staging scenes, and creating websites and/or blogs to reflect on their acts of making. 0.5 course

3581F - Toronto: Culture and Performance (cross-listed with English 3581F and ARTHUM 3390F)
In Toronto: Culture and Performance we explore the GTA’s contemporary theatre ecology as a city-making enterprise. We ask: how does performance help to build a city, to enable its communities to tell their stories, and to work towards the decolonization of our shared, lived spaces? We will see live performance, watch cool stuff on the internet, meet artists and creators, and explore the many provocative and empowering ways cities and their theatre and performance landscapes intertwine. 0.5 course

Fall 2023

3581F / 001

Syllabus

3900G - Destination Theatre APPLICATION REQUIRED
This course provides students with the opportunity to develop their drama education more deeply through the experience of theatre abroad, in cities such as New York and London, England. Students' attendance at live performance will be complemented with daily lectures, and tours of theatres, archives, and relevant historical sites. Full course details. 0.5 course

3951F - Special Topics in Theatre Studies: South Western Ontario Theatre - CANCELLED
The class will look at the history of the Grand Theatre, Blyth Festival Theatre, and Stratford Festival, specifically focused on questions of nationalism, post/de-colonial theatre, and women. 0.5 course

3952G - Special Topics in Theatre Studies: Performing Antigones (cross-listed with Classical Studies 3904G and ARTHUM 3390G)
In this course we explore the story of Antigone from Sophocles’ production at the City Dionysia in fifth-century BCE Athens to re-performances on the contemporary world stage. This course has two equally important goals. The first goal is to explore Sophocles’ Antigone in the historical context of 5^th century Athens. The second goal is to investigate why and how the story of Antigone has been re-told and performed and how we might envision it continuing to be re-told and performed in our contemporary world. We begin the course with an intensive study of the text of Sophocles’ Antigone. In the first eight weeks, we focus on critically reading and discussing the play, act by act considering topics including the historical context, the performance context, stagging, embodiment, and character development, as well as addressing the overarching themes of the play. In the final four weeks of the course, we explore the many Antigones that have been performed on the contemporary world stage including performances in Canada, Japan, Turkey, Taiwan, Ireland, and many more. 0.5 course

Winter 2024

3952G / 001

Syllabus

4999E - Thesis Project
Individual instruction in the selection of a topic, preparation of materials, and creation of a thesis project with a focus on theatre or performance studies. The outcome may be a written piece of research or a performance-creation project. Students who wish to take this course must apply to the Program Director, Theatre Studies. This course is restricted to students with an 80% or above average and who have completed at least 1.0 course(s) from Theatre Studies 3000-4999 or approved substitutions. See Theatre Studies 4999E - Thesis Project for details. 1.0 course

Fall/Winter

4999E / 001

Various

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