A foundational studio course introducing students to the technical dimensions of theatre creation with emphasis on design and production processes. Students explore the material elements that bring performance to life through hands-on engagement with production technologies, design principles, and technical problem-solving. Through studio-based workshops and collaborative projects, students develop introductory skills in scenic construction, lighting, sound, costumes, and props while examining how these technical elements express genre, style, theme, and narrative structure. Students research and analyze influential dramatic works and develop original production designs that address contemporary issues such as race, gender, and sustainability. This required course establishes essential technical vocabulary, conceptual frameworks, and practical skills needed for both acting and production streams, with particular emphasis on how technical choices impact storytelling and audience experience.
Prior experience in theatre-making is not required.
THPERF 101Theatre and Performance Fundamentals0.50 units
This foundational course introduces students to theatre through three integrated pillars: dramaturgy (historical context, critical investigation, theory), performance (acting techniques, creation, embodiment), and production and design (stagecraft and scenography). Designed for both theatre majors seeking essential foundations and students from all disciplines, the course develops critical thinking, artistic research practices, creative problem-solving, and collaborative abilities applicable across fields.
A foundational studio course introducing students to the creative processes of performance across a range of contexts. Students develop core performance skills through embodied practice, collaborative creation, and critical reflection. The course emphasizes physical awareness, vocal expressivity, textual analysis, and ensemble building while exploring the relationship between performance and identity. Through progressive exercises, improvisation, scene work, and performance projects, students cultivate presence, authenticity, and creative risk-taking. This required course serves as the entry point to further specialization, establishing the groundwork for understanding performance as a mode of meaning-making and social engagement.
THPERF 112Introduction to Black Arts, Culture, and Literature0.50 units
This course examines the evolution and development of Black Peoples' artistic, cultural, and literary experiences from a global perspective including art and design, theatre and performance, literature, music, spoken word, and other modes of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practice. Coursework is designed to immerse students in analyzing Black art, culture, and literature through intersectional, feminist, and queer lenses. The course is designed for both thinkers and creators. Students will engage in the course material through readings, viewings, and field trips around film, comics, anime, popular culture events, plus the visual and performing arts.
THPERF 149Introduction to Critical Design Practices0.50 units
How does design help us think? This studio course introduces students to practice-based methods for generating knowledge. Topics may include prototyping, performance as research, material thinking, multi-modal representation, and experience design. Students will test and explore how we learn differently through creative practices.
This workshop course in performance studies explores performance as a way of knowing. It investigates performance as artistic practice and as a means of understanding historical, social, and cultural practices, including drama/theatre texts, poetry, narratives, and texts of everyday life.
Building upon foundations from THPERF 100 and COMMST 102/THPERF 102, this studio course advances students' performance skills through increasingly challenging material and expanded creative exploration. Students deepen their physical and vocal expressivity while engaging with diverse acting approaches and performance styles that complexify their understanding of character development and textual interpretation. Through scene study, ensemble exercises, and collaborative projects, students cultivate artistic confidence and discover their individual creative voice. The course emphasizes the development of versatile performers who can navigate multiple performance contexts while beginning to identify their artistic interests and pathways toward advanced specialization.
This course explores the genealogies and historical development of Black performance created in regions such as North America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. Students will examine the influences of key artists and theorists. Students will be challenged to apply historical, political, and cultural contexts to the analysis of audio, text-based, and/or audio-visual materials. This course expands students' concepts of Black performance to include performative modes such as performance poetry, TV shows, music, and podcasts.
THPERF 233Staging Science: Embodying Knowledge Expression in the Sciences0.50 units
This course explores the vital intersections between science and theatre, from the anatomical theatres of the 1700s to the rigour of laboratory experimentation to contemporary high-stakes science communication. Students develop practical, collaborative, and embodied performance skills while investigating how theatrical processes shape scientific knowledge production and public understanding. Object texts may include plays, genres of science writing, and performance theory. Through staging and assembling performances, students experiment with how media - materials, bodies, technologies, and spatial relationships - matter for making and expressing knowledge, ultimately cultivating dramaturgical approaches that bridge scientific and artistic modes of inquiry.
THPERF 239Introduction to Modern Arab and Muslim Drama0.50 units
This course offers a comprehensive exploration of modern Arab and Muslim drama, providing students with a deep understanding of its various contexts, genres, evolutions, themes, and aesthetic nuances. Moreover, students will actively engage in the transformative practice of Theatre of the Oppressed, where they will merge their creative skills with scholarly knowledge. Collaborating in groups, they will create and perform Forum plays that serve as reflections on pertinent socio-political issues explored in the course. This blend of theoretical exploration and practical application ensures a holistic and immersive learning experience, fostering critical thinking, empathy, and artistic expression.
This course offers Theatre and Performance students an opportunity to contribute as crew members on mainstage productions within the school, working within a specific technical area to realize the scenic, lighting, costume, sound, and projection elements that audiences will experience. Through extensive hands-on practice in wardrobe, carpentry, scenic painting, lighting, sound, and video projection, students integrate theoretical knowledge with the practical demands of live performance. The course requires a significant time commitment as students participate in design meetings, technical rehearsals, and fabrication sessions where they build and install elements for performance. All coursework is completed in person with minimal take-home assignments.
Building on THPERF 243, this course deepens students' technical theatre skills through more advanced crew work on mainstage productions within the school. Students advance their practical expertise within their chosen technical area while taking on increased responsibility in the production process. Through ongoing participation in design meetings, technical rehearsals, and fabrication sessions, students refine their skills and develop greater independence in realizing performance elements. All coursework is completed in person with minimal take-home assignments.
This studio course provides a foundational introduction to the elements and processes of performance design. Students explore the fundamental principles of scenic, lighting, costume, sound, and projection design through hands-on projects and critical analysis. Emphasis is placed on developing visual literacy, understanding the elements of design and principles of composition, and learning scenographic thinking as a means of understanding performance creation across theatre, dance, opera, and performance art.
THPERF 248Project Management in the Arts0.50 units
This course introduces students to principles of project management relevant in a broad range of contexts including theatre, dance, film, and digital media production. Students explore arts management concepts such as budgeting, communication, scheduling, leadership, problem-solving, and conflict resolution. Concepts are applied in case studies that accommodate individual student interests.
This course offers a broad exploration of theatre and performance practices across time and cultures, examining the evolution of major genres, styles, and traditions with contextual emphasis on Western theatrical developments. From ancient rituals to contemporary expressions, students will investigate how diverse performance forms emerge from and respond to their historical, social, and cultural environments. The course balances the study of significant theatrical movements, texts, and artists with critical approaches to historical research and interpretation. By engaging with influential works and scholarly perspectives, students will develop a nuanced understanding of how performance has been created, documented, and reimagined throughout history, while considering the complex relationship between theatrical traditions and the societies that produce them.
This course explores how gender is performed on the stage and in the media. Key performances and performers are studied from the perspectives of critical feminist theory and performance studies. Students consider how performances can create, affirm, and disrupt how society understands and performs gender.
THPERF 290Special Topics in Theatre and Performance0.50 units
Selected topics in theatre and performance at the introductory and intermediate level. Content varies based on faculty expertise, visiting artists, and student interest. Topics may include emerging trends in performance creation, specialized design techniques, contemporary theatre practices, theatre and performance studies, or interdisciplinary approaches to theatrical work.
An integrated course exploring diverse approaches to creating original performance across multiple contexts and media. Students study, apply, and critique a range of collaborative creation methodologies, with special attention to site-specific performance and place-making through the body, language, space, and technology. The course emphasizes the relationship between creative processes and the significance of works in their communities, examining how performance can respond to, challenge, and transform social contexts. Through hands-on projects, students develop skills in collaborative leadership, interdisciplinary research, and critical analysis of artistic processes.
THPERF 306Production and Performance Practicum0.50 units
This intermediate-level practicum course engages students in predominantly hands-on theatrical practice across performance, design, and production specializations through substantial leadership roles in the program's theatre productions. Building upon foundational coursework, students work alongside faculty, staff, and visiting artists to develop professional-level competencies in industry-standard practices. Across multiple practicum enrolments, students may explore different aspects of theatre creation, including performance, acting, directing, design, technical stagecraft, management, dramaturgy, and publicity, with each production offering distinct content and specialized focus areas that bridge academic learning with professional theatrical work.
THPERF 307Production and Performance Practicum0.50 units
This intermediate-level practicum course engages students in predominantly hands-on theatrical practice across performance, design, and production specializations through substantial leadership roles in the program's theatre productions. Building upon foundational coursework, students work alongside faculty, staff, and visiting artists to develop professional-level competencies in industry-standard practices. Across multiple practicum enrolments, students may explore different aspects of theatre creation, including performance, acting, directing, design, technical stagecraft, management, dramaturgy, and publicity, with each production offering distinct content and specialized focus areas that bridge academic learning with professional theatrical work.
THPERF 316Production and Performance Practicum1.00 units
This intermediate-level practicum course engages students in predominantly hands-on theatrical practice across performance, design, and production specializations through substantial leadership roles in the program's theatre productions. Building upon foundational coursework, students work alongside faculty, staff, and visiting artists to develop professional-level competencies in industry-standard practices. Across multiple practicum enrolments, students may explore different aspects of theatre creation, including performance, acting, directing, design, technical stagecraft, management, dramaturgy, and publicity, with each production offering distinct content and specialized focus areas that bridge academic learning with professional theatrical work.
THPERF 317Production and Performance Practicum1.00 units
This intermediate-level practicum course engages students in predominantly hands-on theatrical practice across performance, design, and production specializations through substantial leadership roles in the program's theatre productions. Building upon foundational coursework, students work alongside faculty, staff, and visiting artists to develop professional-level competencies in industry-standard practices. Across multiple practicum enrolments, students may explore different aspects of theatre creation, including performance, acting, directing, design, technical stagecraft, management, dramaturgy, and publicity, with each production offering distinct content and specialized focus areas that bridge academic learning with professional theatrical work.
This intensive studio course challenges students with complex technique development and creative exploration through demanding classical and contemporary material. Students refine advanced physical and vocal skills while tackling challenging texts that require artistic maturity and technical precision. The course emphasizes integration of multiple performance approaches as students develop their distinctive artistic voice through advanced scene study, physical theatre techniques, and collaborative devising processes. Students push artistic boundaries through challenging solo and ensemble work that explores the full range of their developing abilities.
Building on design fundamentals, this intermediate studio course engages students in collaborative, project-based design practice. Students work independently and as a team to develop complete design concepts for theatre and performance works and integrated digital media projects that draw upon contemporary scenographic methods. The course emphasizes professional design processes, research methodologies, and the creation of design presentations for real-world production contexts. Students explore how design intersects with social issues and contemporary performance practices.
THPERF 364Shakespeare in Performance at the Stratford Festival0.50 units
A historical, theoretical, and analytical introduction to Shakespeare's plays in performance, both on stage and screen, this course focuses on specific problems and decisive issues of past productions and of those in the current Stratford Festival season.
The course is offered as part of a consortium with faculty from five universities.
Students are required to arrange their own transportation to Stratford.
THPERF 367Voice and Text at the Stratford Festival0.50 units
Taught by faculty and Stratford Festival coaches, this practical course invites students to explore acting techniques and exercises to develop their stage voice with a particular focus on Shakespeare's plays. This is a block course that meets in Stratford for two weeks in May, and may be taken with ENGL 364/THPERF 364, as the two courses are offered at complementary times.
The course is offered as part of a consortium with faculty from five universities.
Students are required to arrange their own transportation to Stratford.
Students explore the interchange between performance design and sustainability. Emphasis will be placed on ecological and systems thinking as students engage with theoretical and practical projects throughout the term.
This course offers a practical and applied examination of how various forms of performance may bring about an experience of political conscientization because creating a performance can be considered a process of political enlightenment and engagement.
THPERF 377Indigenous Performance in Context0.50 units
This course introduces students to the knowledge systems and performance history woven into the practices of First Peoples on Turtle Island and beyond. Through examination of performance genres ranging from Longhouse, Renewal, and Powwow ceremonies to Western theatre, pop music, and Wild West shows, students will gain understanding of the current Indigenous performance landscape through discussion and critique of design and production history as well as contemporary script analysis. This course engages students in Indigenous Ways of Knowing and helps them develop alternative approaches to research with particular attention to sustainable and holistic practices of performance making and design presentation. The class content will pay particular attention to traditions of the host nations (Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe) when possible.
This course explores how critical race and performance studies illuminate 20th- and 21st-century theatre and performance. Students investigate the historical, political, and cultural contexts that inform the creation and presentation of performance works involving race, examining how theatre-making can resist or perpetuate structures of oppression and colonization. Through embodied research practices and critical analysis, students explore how racial concepts find expression through performative communication and scenography. Applying intersectional and decolonial approaches, students develop skills to create equitable, accessible, and anti-oppressive performance experiences while building capacity to communicate effectively across diverse artistic contexts and navigate complex creative territories with care and self-awareness.
This course explores design for material-world experiences that incorporate virtual, augmented, and/or extended reality technologies. Emphasis is placed on the relationships among different modes of perception and how they affect our understanding of the real and the virtual.
A workshop that explores the history, dramatic literature, and performance of Black theatre artists. Students will explore the relationship of Black theatre to artistic and public life. Special attention may be given to specific issues, periods, locations, and genealogies of Black theatre. Students will create performance pieces.
THPERF 390Advanced Special Topics in Theatre and Performance0.50 units
Selected topics in theatre and performance at the advanced level. Topics may include emerging trends in performance creation, specialized design techniques, contemporary theatre practices, theatre and performance studies, or interdisciplinary approaches to theatrical work. Content varies based on faculty expertise, visiting artists, and student interest.
THPERF 400Advanced Production and Performance Practicum1.00 units
This course serves as the culminating experience for Theatre and Performance majors. Students work at an advanced, independent level with faculty, staff, and visiting artists to create and reflect upon a major, collaborative performance project. As core members of the creative team, students engage in all areas of project creation, including research, conception, writing, direction, design, performance, production, stage management, production management, publicity, dramaturgy, critique, and documentation.
The topic from at least one of the prerequisite courses must align with the topic for this course.
Prerequisites
Complete all of the following
Must have completed at least 1 of the following:
THPERF306 - Production and Performance Practicum (0.50)
THPERF307 - Production and Performance Practicum (0.50)
THPERF316 - Production and Performance Practicum (1.00)
THPERF317 - Production and Performance Practicum (1.00)
THPERF 406Production and Performance Practicum0.50 units
This advanced-level practicum course engages students in predominantly hands-on theatrical practice across performance, design, and production specializations through substantial leadership roles in the program's theatre productions. Building upon intermediate practicum experience, students work alongside faculty, staff, and visiting artists to develop professional-level competencies in industry-standard practices. Across multiple practicum enrolments, students may explore different aspects of theatre creation, including performance, acting, directing, design, technical stagecraft, management, dramaturgy, and publicity, with each production offering distinct content and specialized focus areas that bridge academic learning with professional theatrical work.
Prerequisites
Must have completed at least 1 of the following:
THPERF306 - Production and Performance Practicum (0.50)
THPERF307 - Production and Performance Practicum (0.50)
THPERF316 - Production and Performance Practicum (1.00)
THPERF317 - Production and Performance Practicum (1.00)
THPERF 407Production and Performance Practicum0.50 units
This advanced-level practicum course engages students in predominantly hands-on theatrical practice across performance, design, and production specializations through substantial leadership roles in the program's theatre productions. Building upon intermediate practicum experience, students work alongside faculty, staff, and visiting artists to develop professional-level competencies in industry-standard practices. Across multiple practicum enrolments, students may explore different aspects of theatre creation, including performance, acting, directing, design, technical stagecraft, management, dramaturgy, and publicity, with each production offering distinct content and specialized focus areas that bridge academic learning with professional theatrical work.
Prerequisites
Must have completed at least 1 of the following:
THPERF306 - Production and Performance Practicum (0.50)
THPERF307 - Production and Performance Practicum (0.50)
THPERF316 - Production and Performance Practicum (1.00)
THPERF317 - Production and Performance Practicum (1.00)
THPERF 416Production and Performance Practicum1.00 units
This advanced-level practicum course engages students in predominantly hands-on theatrical practice across performance, design, and production specializations through substantial leadership roles in the program's theatre productions. Building upon intermediate practicum experience, students work alongside faculty, staff, and visiting artists to develop professional-level competencies in industry-standard practices. Across multiple practicum enrolments, students may explore different aspects of theatre creation, including performance, acting, directing, design, technical stagecraft, management, dramaturgy, and publicity, with each production offering distinct content and specialized focus areas that bridge academic learning with professional theatrical work.
Prerequisites
Must have completed at least 1 of the following:
THPERF306 - Production and Performance Practicum (0.50)
THPERF307 - Production and Performance Practicum (0.50)
THPERF316 - Production and Performance Practicum (1.00)
THPERF317 - Production and Performance Practicum (1.00)
THPERF 417Production and Performance Practicum1.00 units
This advanced-level practicum course engages students in predominantly hands-on theatrical practice across performance, design, and production specializations through substantial leadership roles in the program's theatre productions. Building upon intermediate practicum experience, students work alongside faculty, staff, and visiting artists to develop professional-level competencies in industry-standard practices. Across multiple practicum enrolments, students may explore different aspects of theatre creation, including performance, acting, directing, design, technical stagecraft, management, dramaturgy, and publicity, with each production offering distinct content and specialized focus areas that bridge academic learning with professional theatrical work.
Prerequisites
Must have completed at least 1 of the following:
THPERF306 - Production and Performance Practicum (0.50)
THPERF307 - Production and Performance Practicum (0.50)
THPERF316 - Production and Performance Practicum (1.00)
THPERF317 - Production and Performance Practicum (1.00)
THPERF 440Performative Inquiry and Practice0.50 units
This course explores how to create, perform, and analyze performance texts, here defined as including drama/theatre texts, poetry, narratives, and the texts of everyday life. Through readings and creative investigation, students will explore the links between the participant, the researcher, the site, and the impulse of inquiry.
This course is designed to give the student an opportunity to complete a comprehensive presentation in their major area of concentration. Second part of THPERF/COMMST 499A.