Theatre Studies
Questions?
Program Director
Dr. M.J Kidnie
mjkidnie@uwo.ca
519.661.2111 x85830
Arts & Humanities Academic Counselling
arts@uwo.ca
519.661.3043
Previous Courses Offered & Course Outlines
2023 Spring/Summer
Intersession (June 5-17)
3206F - Shakespeare in Performance
An historical, theoretical, and analytical introduction to Shakespeare's plays in performance. This course focuses on specific problems related to past productions and to those in the current Stratford Festival season. Class usually meets for three hours a day, six afternoons a week (Mon-Sat, Sun off), and usually includes attendance at Shakespeare productions. THEATRE STUDIES 3206F RUNS CONCURRENTLY WITH THEATRE STUDIES 3207F. Intersession only. 0.5 course
| Spring/Summer | 3206F / 600 | Stratford Festival | Instructor: tba | Syllabus |
3207F - Voice and Text in the Theatre (co-requisite TS3206F)
A workshop in which students will experience, with simple, practical exercises, the ways in which Festival actors develop and maintain their voices and explore various aspects of the text they are performing. Class usually meets for three hours a day, six mornings a week (Mon-Sat, Sun off). Taught by Stratford Festival staff. THEATRE STUDIES 3207F RUNS CONCURRENTLY WITH THEATRE STUDIES 3206F. STUDENTS TAKING THEATRE STUDIES 3207F MUST ALSO BE REGISTERED IN THEATRE STUDIES 3206F. Intersession only. 0.5 course
| Spring/Summer | 3207F / 600 | Stratford Festival | M. Farrell / T. Welham | Syllabus |
2022-23 FALL/WINTER
2000-2999 Level Courses
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. 0.5 course
| Fall 2022 | 2201F / 001 | M.J. Kidnie | DRAFT Syllabus  |
2202G - Performance Beyond Theatres
Performance isn’t just for actors at the theatre; we are all performing, all over the place, all the time! Since the 1960s, scholars and makers of theatre have been researching a vast array of performances of “everyday life,” from church services to hockey games to the way you flirt when you’re out at the bar. Performance Studies is the discipline dedicated to thinking about how performance works outside the four walls of the theatre; Applied Theatre is the discipline that helps artists and scholars to bring the pedagogical benefits of performance into the community, to support social justice, advocate for change, or activate (and celebrate!) our differences. Performance Beyond Theatres is the course that will introduce you to the many ways we might usefully conceive of theatre and performance as not just an art of the stage, but an art by and for us all. 0.5 course
| Winter 2023 | 2202G / 001 | K. Solga | Syllabus  |
2204G - Forms and Genres: The Greeks to Shakespeare
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
| Winter 2023 | 2204G / 001 | J. Devereux | Syllabus |
2212F - Adapting Across Page, Stage, and Screen NEW! (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
| Fall 2022 | 2212F / 001 | A. Pero | Syllabus  |
3000-3999 Level Courses
ARTHUM 3200E - Knowledge Creation Through Performance INTERDISCIPLINARY COURSE
This is a pilot course led by award-winning teacher Kim Solga. It will introduce students from across campus to embodied, relational, arts-based methodologies as they help drive research and innovation in a wide range of fields.
Playwrights teaching medical students. Applied performance scholars training cops to intervene more safely in mental health crisis situations. Tech labs staffed with artists and engineers side by side. Composers helping high school kids create a record of their lived environments. And lots more.
Our class will be small (maximum 20 students!) to ensure an optimal learning environment. The fall term will be guest-speaker led: learn from experts already applying interdisciplinary models in all kinds of ways, both virtual and IRL. In our winter term, a customized CEL placement will let you bring your particular expertise to a partner in London’s arts and culture community, putting your own interdisciplinary engagement into practice! Assessments will include lots of options for letting your creative juices flow, and lots of reflection on how we learn, and what that means for our future as lifelong learners.
Find out how your discipline intersects with arts-based ways of making, doing, and thinking. Discover where in your own work you can learn to play! For more information or to join an orientation session, please contact Amala Poli: apoli@uwo.ca. 1.0 course
| Fall/Winter | ARTHUM 3200E / 001 | K. Solga | Syllabus |
3208F - Table Work
Students will close-read parts in plays in order to analyze a script's vocal patterning, experiment with the pacing of a scene in terms of breath, silences, and "beats", shape interpretations of character, tone, and motivation, and debate what constitutes textual "clues" to performance. 0.5 course
| Fall 2022 | 3208F / 001 | D. Leyshon | Syllabus |
3209G - Indigenous Theatre and Performance
This course examines Indigenous drama and performance practices, combining an attention to aesthetic traditions, Indigenous storytelling and innovation with an awareness of the cultural and political contexts shaping dramatic texts and performances. 0.5 course
| Winter 2023 | 3209G / 001 | P. Wakeham | Syllabus |
4000-4999 Level Courses
4216F - Reviewing Performance
This course explores the function of modern arts reviewing. We will study the form across several media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and think critically about the place of long-form review criticism in contemporary culture. Students should expect to write multiple reviews over the course of the semester. 0.5 course
| Fall 2022 | 4216F / 001 | T. Graham | 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 | Consent form |
2022 Spring/Summer
Intersession (May 5-18)
3206F - Shakespeare in Performance
An historical, theoretical, and analytical introduction to Shakespeare's plays in performance. This course focuses on specific problems related to past productions and to those in the current Stratford Festival season. Class meets for three hours a day, five afternoons a week, and includes attendance at Shakespeare productions. THEATRE STUDIES 3206F RUNS CONCURRENTLY WITH THEATRE STUDIES 3207F. Intersession only. 0.5 course
| Spring/Summer | 3206F / 600 | Stratford Festival | tba | Syllabus |
3207F - Voice and Text in the Theatre (co-requisite TS3206F)
A workshop in which students will experience, with simple, practical exercises, the ways in which Festival actors develop and maintain their voices and explore various aspects of the text they are performing. The class meets for three hours, four mornings a week. Taught by Stratford Festival staff. THEATRE STUDIES 3207F RUNS CONCURRENTLY WITH THEATRE STUDIES 3206F. STUDENTS TAKING THEATRE STUDIES 3207F MUST ALSO BE REGISTERED IN THEATRE STUDIES 3206F. Intersession only. 0.5 course
| Spring/Summer | 3207F / 600 | Stratford Festival | tba | Syllabus |
2021-22 FALL/WINTER
2000-2999 Level Courses
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.
| Fall 2021 | 2201F / 001 | M. Kidnie | Syllabus |
2202G - Performance Beyond Theatres
Performance isn’t just for actors at the theatre; we are all performing, all over the place, all the time! Since the 1960s, scholars and makers of theatre have been researching a vast array of performances of “everyday life,” from church services to hockey games to the way you flirt when you’re out at the bar. Performance Studies is the discipline dedicated to thinking about how performance works outside the four walls of the theatre; Applied Theatre is the discipline that helps artists and scholars to bring the pedagogical benefits of performance into the community, to support social justice, advocate for change, or activate (and celebrate!) our differences. Performance Beyond Theatres is the course that will introduce you to the many ways we might usefully conceive of theatre and performance as not just an art of the stage, but an art by and for us all.
Again this year we’ve partnered with City Studio London, an amazing initiative that links Western and Fanshawe students with City of London projects to better the lives of all Londoners. Our class’s City partner, Kinga Koltun, works on London’s Community Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, and our peers in Dr Leora Swartzman’s Psych3895E: Social Science in the Community will be our partners in performative crime, helping us to make our class a truly interdisciplinary experience.
Note that your fearless leader Kim (Professor Kim Solga) is Western’s current Arts and Humanities Teaching Fellow, and our class will be part of her research into interdisciplinary teaching in the arts. Before we begin our work, you’ll be offered detailed information about the research and about data Kim will be collecting and you’ll have the opportunity to consent, or choose not to consent, to participate as a research subject. (Whether or not you consent will have no bearing at all on your ability to be in the class!)
| Winter 2022 | 2202G / 001 | K. Solga | Syllabus |
2205G - Forms and Genres: The Modern Context
This course traces developments in playwriting, acting, and playhouse design from the Restoration to the present day. This introductory course will explore the theatrical innovations and political interventions of the work of such dramatists as Aphra Behn, George Lillo, Ibsen, Brecht, Pinter, Caryl Churchill, and Sarah Kane.
| Winter 2022 | 2205G / 001 | J. Devereux | Syllabus |
3000-3999 Level Courses
3210A - Performing Arts Management, Marketing, and Curation
An introduction to performing arts management and curation. Students will study best practices for management, recruitment, marketing and audience development, learn to use social media effectively for these purposes, and explore challenges facing artistic directors developing repertory.
| Fall 2021 | 3210A / 001 | G. Ramos | Syllabus |
3211G - In Your Skin: Sexualities and Performance (cross-listed with GSWS 3345G)
Gender and sexuality. Intersectional experiences of gender identity. Trans, non-binary, queer lives. This is an unprecedented moment in modern history: these once-taboo topics are not only being spoken about openly, in the social mainstream, but are being taken up and explored with rigour, kindness, and hot, sweaty desire in all manner of theatrical and performance forms. In Your Skin introduces students to the past and present of sex and gender performatives on Western (that is: European and trans-American) stages. We will meet the trailblazers, learn about the ways in which contemporary artists are pushing the boundaries of gender representation on stage today, and we’ll pay particular attention in the intersections among sexual and gender identities and experiences of race, Indigeneity, class, and ability on and off stage.
Your fearless leader, Professor Kim Solga, has been thinking, reading, and writing about gender, sexuality, and performance for literally her entire career. She is the author of two books on the topic, 2009’s Violence Against Women in Early Modern Performance and 2015’s Theatre & Feminism – and yet this is the first time she’s been able to teach a class wholly dedicated to the topic. She is super excited and hopes you are too!
| Winter 2022 | 3211G / 001 | K. Solga | Syllabus |
3951F - Special Topics in Theatre Studies: Post-Pandemic Theatre
COVID is over; what did we learn? How has the landscape of theatre and performance making, and viewing, shifted as a result of this crisis? This class will explore these questions as it looks back at COVID/lockdown landmark work, and ahead to new post-pandemic performances.
| Fall 2021 | 3951F / 001 | T. Graham | Syllabus |
2021 Spring/Summer
*Click on the section number found in the second column to view/download the course outline.
Intersession (May 3-15 ONLINE)
| Course # | Course Outline | Course Title & Description | Instructor |
| 3206G | 600 | Shakespeare in Performance An historical, theoretical, and analytical introduction to Shakespeare's plays in performance. This course focuses on specific problems related to past productions and to those in the current Stratford Festival season. Class usually meets for three hours a day, six afternoons a week (Mon-Sat, Sun off), and usually includes attendance at Shakespeare productions. THEATRE STUDIES 3206G RUNS CONCURRENTLY WITH THEATRE STUDIES 3207G |
J. Taucar |
| 3207G | 600 | Voice and Text in the Theatre A workshop in which students will experience, with simple, practical exercises, the ways in which Festival actors develop and maintain their voices and explore various aspects of the text they are performing. Taught by voice, text, and dialect coaches from Stratford Festival. Class usually meets for three hours a day, six mornings a week (Mon-Sat, Sun off). THEATRE STUDIES 3207G RUNS CONCURRENTLY WITH THEATRE STUDIES 3206G. STUDENTS TAKING THEATRE STUDIES 3207G MUST ALSO BE REGISTERED IN THEATRE STUDIES 3206G. |
M. Farrell & T. Welham |
2020-21 FALL/WINTER
The Registrar is using the phrase “Distance Studies/Online” on the Timetable to designate any course that is not fully in-person. Below is a fuller explanation of English and Writing Studies course delivery modes. Check individual course syllabi for delivery details.
In-Person: As long as the university considers face-to-face instruction with proper social distancing measures safe, these courses will be taught in-person in a classroom on campus with strict adherence to public health protocols.
Synchronous Online: These courses will offer an online component in which students will participate at the same time (synchronously). Some or all lectures, tutorials, film screenings, discussion groups or tests will require mandatory attendance during scheduled online meeting times. Other components of the course may be offered asynchronously, (i.e., with no requirement for attendance at a designated time). Consult individual course outlines for details.
First year courses have both on-line and in-person tutorials.
As long as the university considers face-to-face instruction with proper social distancing measures safe, the designated in-person component will be offered in a classroom on campus with strict adherence to public health protocols. Students may choose in-person or on-line delivery mode when they register.
Asynchronous Online: In this course type, all teaching activities will take place online with no timeslot assigned (asynchronously). You may access the course material any time you wish; there are no mandatory synchronous activities at a specified time during the week.
Blended: There are a small number of courses that were designed for both in-person and online delivery. Blended courses have both face-to-face and online instruction.
Students who are not available to attend classes on campus should not choose courses with a required in-person component. If students become unable to attend in-person classes they should consult with their course instructor and seek accommodations.
*Click on the section number found in the second column to view/download the course outline.
| Course # | Course Outline | Course Title & Description | Instructor |
| 2201F | 001 | 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. |
J. Devereux |
| 2202F | 001 | Performance Beyond Theatres This course introduces students in the Theatre Studies major and minor to the interdisciplinary field of Performance Studies, which gathers knowledge and practices from anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, literary studies, and more. Performance Studies investigates the performative nature of everyday life, examining such phenomena as walking and moving in the city, sports events, religious services, political protests, and the development of neighbourhood cultures (for example, gentrification practices). The goal of TS2202 is to help students understand how performance structures everyday interactions in the public sphere and shapes the ways in which our citizenship is actualized; it is an example of "performance as a public practice", something that has grown ever more urgent to explore with the arrival of COVID-19. In Fall 2021, TS2202 will partner once again with City Studio London – and with students in Psychology 3895, Social Science in the Community – as we create performance actions both live and online to support the City of London’s anti-oppression and anti-racism mandates. To view past work and learn more about City Studio, visit https://citystudiolondon.ca/projects-list/bystander-intervention-toolkit-for-discrimination-harassment. |
K. Solga |
| 2204F | 001 | Forms and Genres: The Greeks to Shakespeare 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. |
J. Devereux |
| 3209G | 001 | Indigenous Theatre and Performance This course examines Indigenous drama and performance practices, combining an attention to aesthetic traditions, Indigenous storytelling and innovation with an awareness of the cultural and political contexts shaping dramatic texts and performances. |
P. Wakeham |
| 3581G | 001 | Toronto: Culture and Performance (cross-listed with English Studies 3581G and Arts & Humanities 3390G) How does the theatre that appears on Toronto’s stages reflect, extend, challenge and question the City of Toronto’s global-city aspirations? This is just one of a host of questions we’ll be asking in this exciting new course, as we see live theatre of all kinds, talk with actors, directors, and reviewers, and explore the city’s contemporary theatre ecology through readings drawn from performance studies as well as urban studies. Students can expect to make at least four class trips into the city to see live performance, and to read a handful of scripts from the city’s most recent theatre seasons alongside some contextual materials. COVID-19 update: in the event we are not able to travel to Toronto for live theatre events, we will instead view a series of Toronto-based performances online; students can also look forward to virtual visits from artists and culture workers in the sector, including those from Toronto, Stratford, and London, ON. In the event live theatre and travel are not permitted, students will also be refunded their supplementary course fee of $150 |
K. Solga |
| 3900G | 001 | Destination Theatre Experiential learning - part of the course is in a classroom setting; the other part is a trip to London, England or New York, NY during Intersession 2021. This is a capstone course in the Theatre Studies Major and Minor program. This half-course equivalent offers undergraduates the opportunity to learn about contemporary theatre and performance in a major international city. A two-week intensive learning experience in London, England is included as a core component of the course, and our study abroad will incorporate guest lectures, tours, post-performance discussion, and practice-based learning alongside theatre outings. See more details here. Application required. |
K. Solga |
2020 Spring/Summer
*Click on the section number found in the second column to view/download the course outline.
Intersession (May 4-16 ONLINE)
| Course # | Course Outline | Course Title & Description | Instructor |
| 3206G | 600 | Shakespeare in Performance This course provides the opportunity for both academic and experiential learning about four of Shakespeare's plays: Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III and All's Well That Ends Well. Students will participate in intensive classroom study and discussion; talk backs and Q&As with cast members after shows; and classroom visits from renowned actors in the Stratford Festival Company. Shakespeare in Performance will examine the Shakespeare plays being performed at the Stratford Festival this season in terms of stage history, performance choices, changing reception and social contexts. We will consider how Shakespeare, as Ben Jonson suggested, was "not of an age, but for all time" by looking at ways in which his plays continue to be relevant in our own era even as they are continually transformed and mediated through the lens of our understanding of theatre and the world. Class meets for three hours a day, six afternoons a week (Mon-Sat, Sun off), and includes attendance at Shakespeare productions. THEATRE STUDIES 3206G RUNS CONCURRENTLY WITH THEATRE STUDIES 3207G. Intersession only. |
J. Devereux |
| 3207G | 600 | Voice and Text in the Theatre This intensive immersion will be led by members of the Festival’s coaching team and will focus on acting the language of Shakespeare. The work will be practical in its philosophy and its application, wholly designed to give the aspiring actor a handful of tools with which to explore, personalize and perform Shakespeare’s text. The work takes the form of two major sections, both integral to each other. First, the student will experiment with practical tools to decipher Shakespeare’s language and make it their own. Meanwhile, exercises in voice will encourage and enable the actor to develop those facets of their instrument that allow them to further access, experience and communicate Shakespeare’s language. Students come to the course from varying levels of acting training. Previous acting experience and/or experience with Shakespeare is not necessarily a path to success in the course. Process, Progress and a corresponding commitment to the work are valued overPerfection. Taught by voice, text, and dialect coaches from Stratford Festival. Class meets for three hours a day, six mornings a week (Mon-Sat, Sun off). THEATRE STUDIES 3207G RUNS CONCURRENTLY WITH THEATRE STUDIES 3206G. STUDENTS TAKING THEATRE STUDIES 3207G MUST ALSO BE REGISTERED IN THEATRE STUDIES 3206G. Intersession only. |
T. Wilhem & M. Farrell |
2019-20 FALL/WINTER
*Click on the section number found in the second column to view/download the course outline.
| Course # | Course Outline | Course Title & Description | Instructor |
| 2201F | 001 | 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. |
M.J. Kidnie |
| 2202G | 001 | Performance Beyond Theatres In this course we think about how performance impacts our everyday lives: how we perform for one another, at school, at home, at work, and on the street; how public figures perform for us (think politicians, celebs, sports stars); and how alternative performance practices can be used to change the shape of our social worlds (protests! marches! parades and carnivals!). We will read a selection of essays from The Performance Studies Reader, 3rd edition, your required text for this course; it’s not cheap but it’s the only book you’ll need to buy, and we’ll use it every week. We’ll also watch a lot of stuff on film and online, and you can look forward to a fantastic field trip to Nuit Blanche in Toronto, the all-night arts festival that takes place the last weekend in September. Finally, you’ll have the opportunity to make a performance action of your own for your final project, and to create video or audio blogs to report on your research findings. We’ll do some writing too... but if you’re a creative soul and like to use a lot of different media to express yourself, this is definitely the course for you! |
K. Solga |
| 2205G | 001 | Forms and Genres: The Modern Context This course traces developments in playwriting, acting, and playhouse design from the Restoration to the present day. This introductory course will explore the theatrical innovations and political interventions of the work of such dramatists as Aphra Behn, George Lillo, Ibsen, Brecht, Pinter, Caryl Churchill, and Sarah Kane. |
J. Devereux |
| 3205F | 001 | History of Performance Theory Theatre is as old as the hills – and for as long as it’s been around, it’s been a source of controversy! What does it mean to represent our world on stage? What does it mean to show “real life” as an embodied story in front of a live audience? Who decides what’s “real life”, anyway? And how many different ways are there to stage “the real world”? This class takes you on a tour of the history of theatre and performance theory, asking along the way why this theory has always been so political, so risky, so emotionally charged. Before reading week we will visit the hot topics of centuries past, and after the break we’ll read a handful of contemporary theorists who are continuing age-old lines of inquiry in new and exciting ways. Your text is Theatre/Theory/Theatre, edited by Daniel Gerould, but from it we will decide together, in week one, which authors we’d like to read. (No, really!) Work by contemporary theorists will be provided to you free of charge as PDF files; again, we’ll decide together, from a curated short-list, what we’d like to read. In addition to reading one or two theory texts per week, you’ll also have the chance to watch performance work on film and online that will illustrate some of the key ideas we will explore. |
K. Solga |
| 3581F | 001 | Toronto: Culture and Performance (cross-listed with English Studies 3581F and Arts & Humanities 3390F) How does the theatre that appears on Toronto’s stages reflect, extend, challenge and question the City of Toronto’s global-city aspirations? This is just one of a host of questions we’ll be asking in this exciting new course, as we travel to Toronto regularly to see live theatre of all kinds, talk with actors, directors, and reviewers, and explore the city’s contemporary theatre ecology through readings drawn from performance studies as well as urban studies. Students can expect to make at least four class trips into the city to see live performance, and to read a handful of scripts from the city’s most recent theatre seasons alongside some contextual materials. |
K. Solga |
| 3900G | 001 | Destination Theatre Experiential learning - part of the course is in a classroom setting; the other part is a trip to London, England during Intersession 2020. This is a capstone course in the Theatre Studies Major and Minor program. This half-course equivalent offers undergraduates the opportunity to learn about contemporary theatre and performance in a major international city. A two-week intensive learning experience in London, England is included as a core component of the course, and our study abroad will incorporate guest lectures, tours, post-performance discussion, and practice-based learning alongside theatre outings. See more details here. Application required. |
K. Solga |
2019 Spring/Summer
*Click on the section number found in the second column to view/download the course outline.
Intersession (May 5-17)
| Course # | Course Outline | Course Title & Description | Instructor |
| 3206G | 600 | Shakespeare in Performance | M. Beckman |
| 3207G | 600 | Voice and Text in the Theatre | C. MacKinnon & P. deJong |
2018-19 FALL/WINTER
*Click on the section number found in the second column to view/download the course outline.
| Course # | Course Outline | Course Title & Description | Instructor |
| 2201G | 001 | 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. |
M.J. Kidnie |
| 2202F | 001 | Performance Beyond Theatres In this course we think about how performance impacts our everyday lives: how we perform for one another, at school, at home, at work, and on the street; how public figures perform for us (think politicians, celebs, sports stars); and how alternative performance practices can be used to change the shape of our social worlds (protests! marches! parades and carnivals!). We will read a selection of essays from The Performance Studies Reader, 3rd edition, your required text for this course; it’s not cheap but it’s the only book you’ll need to buy, and we’ll use it every week. We’ll also watch a lot of stuff on film and online, and you can look forward to a fantastic field trip to Nuit Blanche in Toronto, the all-night arts festival that takes place the last weekend in September. Finally, you’ll have the opportunity to make a performance action of your own for your final project, and to create video or audio blogs to report on your research findings. We’ll do some writing too... but if you’re a creative soul and like to use a lot of different media to express yourself, this is definitely the course for you! |
K. Solga |
| 2204G | 001 | Forms and Genres: The Greeks to Shakespeare 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. |
J. Devereux |
| 3205G | 001 | History of Performance Theory Theatre is as old as the hills – and for as long as it’s been around, it’s been a source of controversy! What does it mean to represent our world on stage? What does it mean to show “real life” as an embodied story in front of a live audience? Who decides what’s “real life”, anyway? And how many different ways are there to stage “the real world”? This class takes you on a tour of the history of theatre and performance theory, asking along the way why this theory has always been so political, so risky, so emotionally charged. Before reading week we will visit the hot topics of centuries past, and after the break we’ll read a handful of contemporary theorists who are continuing age-old lines of inquiry in new and exciting ways. Your text is Theatre/Theory/Theatre, edited by Daniel Gerould, but from it we will decide together, in week one, which authors we’d like to read. (No, really!) Work by contemporary theorists will be provided to you free of charge as PDF files; again, we’ll decide together, from a curated short-list, what we’d like to read. In addition to reading one or two theory texts per week, you’ll also have the chance to watch performance work on film and online that will illustrate some of the key ideas we will explore. |
K. Solga |
| 3327A | DR 001 | Remediated Shakespeare (cross-listed with English Studies 3327A) (NEW!) Be creative! This intensive hands-on study of four Shakespeare plays gives you the opportunity to explore the drama from the inside out. Students edit their own texts, stage short live performances, and transfer their work to digital media. |
M.J. Kidnie |
| 3581F | 001 | Toronto: Culture and Performance (cross-listed with English Studies 3581F and Arts & Humanities 3393F) (NEW!) How does the theatre that appears on Toronto’s stages reflect, extend, challenge and question the City of Toronto’s global-city aspirations? This is just one of a host of questions we’ll be asking in this exciting new course, as we travel to Toronto regularly to see live theatre of all kinds, talk with actors, directors, and reviewers, and explore the city’s contemporary theatre ecology through readings drawn from performance studies as well as urban studies. Students can expect to make at least four class trips into the city to see live performance, and to read a handful of scripts from the city’s most recent theatre seasons alongside some contextual materials. |
K. Solga |
| 3900G | 001 | Destination Theatre Experiential learning - part of the course is in a classroom setting; the other part is a trip to London, England during Intersession 2019. This is a capstone course in the new Theatre Studies Major and Minor program. This half-course equivalent offers undergraduates the opportunity to learn about contemporary theatre and performance in a major international city. A two-week intensive learning experience in London, England is included as a core component of the course, and our study abroad will incorporate guest lectures, tours, post-performance discussion, and practice-based learning alongside theatre outings. Application required. |
J. Devereux |
2018 Spring/Summer
*Click on the section number found in the second column to view/download the course outline.
Summer Day (July 16 - August 3)
| Course # | Course Outline | Course Title & Description | Instructor |
| 3206G | 600 | Shakespeare and Performance | J. Devereux |
| 3207G | 600 | Voice and Text in the Theatre | tba |
2017-18 FALL/WINTER
*Click on the section number found in the second column to view/download the course outline.
| Course # | Course Outline | Course Title & Description | Instructor |
| 2041F | 001 | Fall Theatre Production - Macbeth | J. Devereux |
| 2201F | 001 | Understanding Performance | M.J. Kidnie |
| 2202G | 001 | Performance Beyond Theatres | K. Solga |
| 2203E | 001 | Forms and Genres of Theatre | |
| 3205G | 001 | History of Performance Theory | K. Solga |
| 3208G | 001 | Table Work (cross-listed with Arts & Humanities 3392G) | J. Devereux |
| 3209F | 001 | Indigenous Theatre and Performance | P. Wakeham |
| 3900G | 001 | Destination Theatre - London, UK | M.J. Kidnie |
2017 Spring/Summer
*Click on the section number found in the second column to view/download the course outline.
Summer Day (July 24 - August 11)
| Course # | Course Outline | Course Title & Description | Instructor |
| 3206G | 600 | Shakespeare and Performance | J. Devereux |
| 3207G | 600 | Voice and Text in the Theatre | MacKinnon/Watson |
2016-17 FALL/WINTER
*Click on the section number found in the second column to view/download the course outline.
| Course # | Course Outline | Course Title & Description | Instructor |
| 2041F | 001 |
Fall Theatre Production - Q1 Hamlet | J. Devereux |
| 2201F | 001 | Understanding Performance | J. Devereux |
| 2202F | 001 | Performance Beyond Theatres | K. Solga |
| 2203E | 001 | Forms and Genres of Theatre | J. Purkis |
| 3205G | 001 | History of Performance Theory | K. Solga |
| 3208G | 001 | Table Work | M. Longtin |
| 3210B | 001 | Performing Arts Management, Marketing & Curation | tba |
| 3900G | 001 | Destination Theatre - London, UK | K. Solga |
2016 Spring/Summer
*Click on the section number found in the second column to view/download the course outline.
Summer Day (July 25 - August 12)
| Course # | Course Outline | Course Title & Description | Instructor |
| 3206G | 600 | Shakespeare and Performance | A. Bretz |
| 3207G | 600 | Voice and Text in the Theatre | Gooderham/Watson |
2015-16 FALL/WINTER
*Click on the section number found in the second column to view/download the course outline.
2015 Spring/Summer
*Click on the section number found in the second column to view/download the course outline.
Summer Day (July 27 - August 14)
| Course # | Course Outline | Course Title & Description | Instructor |
| 3206G | 600 | Shakespeare and Performance | n/a |
| 3207G | 600 | Voice and Text in the Theatre | MacKinnon/Watson |
2014-15 FALL/WINTER
*Click on the section number found in the second column to view/download the course outline.
