UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

About the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies

The Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies (CDTPS) offers broad, rich, and rigorous academic programs for undergraduate and graduate students. We are located in the downtown core of Toronto (St. George Campus), Canada’s largest city, the perfect place to experience and to become involved in all kinds of performances. The CDTPS is part ofthe University of Toronto, Canada’s largest university, with one of the best research libraries in North America and one of the finest faculties. There are three performance venues available for use by students and faculty in their creative and intellectual exploration, all supported by our technical and production staff. This is a place where you can meet some of the best scholars and artists in the world.

The CDTPS undergraduate program combines high standards of practical, professional theatre training with a broad, rich, and rigorous academic program. Our program offers courses in dramatic literature, dramaturgy, world theatre, and critical theory and history. We also offer practical streams in acting, production and design, and playwriting and directing. The program emphasizes the integration of academic and practical work in its holistic approach to classical and contemporary theatre and performance.

Drama specialist, major, and minor programs are designed to be flexible so that students can select courses from a range of disciplines that inform the study and practice of theatre. In all drama courses, class size is limited to ensure individual instruction.

The program’s mandate:

• Mounting courses on the historical, theoretical and practical aspects of drama, theatre and performance
• Integrating academic and practical dimensions of study in each course
• Involving undergraduates in the planning and execution of program activities
• Introducing students to the demands and expectations of a professional theatre career
• Fostering an environment that ensures individual growth as well as shared responsibility for the development of others

Our drama students gain a broad overview of the contours of drama, theatre, and performance studies and in-depth knowledge of specific regions, time periods and themes. The diverse research interests of our faculty allow our students to take courses on a variety of topics, from the history of Canadian Theatre to Comparative World Theatre to the Contemporary Avant-Garde.

Visit cdtps.utoronto.ca to learn more information about our programs.

As a professor of scenography, I worked on this project with six extraordinary, strong and independent young women, who largely motivated my choice of the plays for the Student Exhibition at PQ 2019.

In these times when gender roles are shifting and women are seemingly more empowered, I was interested in giving these young women an opportunity to experience and design a play with a strong female lead who captures women’s ability to transform, survive, and live in the most extreme circumstances. Students made a choice between Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht and Ruined by Lynn Nottage. Both plays take place during times of war and focus on questions of female existence in war conditions. Although distant from typical North American themes related to feminism and gender equality, both plays explore female sexuality, solidarity and gender related cultural norms in a way that is still relevant on a universal level.

3rd year designers for Ruined: Beka Morrison, Ceilidh Carberry, Grace Faria, and Abigail Esteireiro

4th year collaboarative design for Mother Courage: Lauren Lacey and Nicole Eun-Ju Bell