Graduate Courses
The following Graduate Courses are being offered in 2026-2027.
[View previous years' graduate courses here.]
DRAMA 601/401: Methods and Tools of Research
Dr. Selena Couture | FRIDAY 1:00-3:50 PM
Course Description: This course will guide students in recognizing theatre and performance research methods in existing works related to their area of specialty in order to develop, justify and plan their own research project. Students will learn how to work with the tools that enable fruitful research in libraries, archives, special collections and performance-specific data-bases and bibliographies. We will also follow the trajectory of research to analyze a variety of academic dissemination forums. Assignments include oral presentations, reviews, and academic papers. DR 401 / 601 prepares students to write their thesis proposal and culminates with a presentation at the honours /grad symposium.
DRAMA 609/406: Contemporary Approaches to Dramatic and Theatrical Theories (cross-listed with 406)
Dr. Donia Mounsef | TUESDAY 12:00-2:50 PM
Course Description: Drama 609 is a study in the major modern and contemporary critical theories from the early 20th century to the 21st century as they apply to theatre and performance: from structuralism, to post-structuralism, deconstruction, gender and sexuality studies, cultural studies, postcolonial and critical race theories, etc. The course charts principal methods of modern and contemporary criticism including semiotics, psychoanalysis, materialism, feminism, deconstruction, postmodernism, visual culture, gender, queer and trans theories, ideological and cultural materialism, Indigenous approaches, ethnic, diaspora, post-colonial and critical race theories, media theory and performance, etc. Focusing on major points of contact between contemporary critical theory and theatre/performance studies, we will examine these different ways of reading, seeing, thinking and writing about theatre in order to shed light on key concepts such as performance/performativity, interculturalism, intertextuality, metatheatre, post-dramatic, simulacra, hybridity, dialogism, intersectionality, intermediality, indigeneity, and decolonization, etc.
DRAMA 621 A01: Gender, Sex, and Desire in Performance (cross-listing with 505 A01– Advanced Topics in Theatre Studies)
Dr. Donia Mounsef | MONDAY 12:00-2:50 PM
Course Description: This course examines the provocative relationship between gender, sexuality, desire and the stage. It interrogates how gender, femininity, masculinity, femaleness, maleness, queer and trans identities are constructed in theatre and how they are unsettled in performance. We will survey text-based as well as post-dramatic forms of performance and explore shifting definitions of sex and gender in contemporary performance. We will examine how social constructs about gender and sexuality have been promulgated or contested in theatre within both mainstream and avant-garde performance. Questions such as: Is gender a performance practice? How does performance dismantle heteronormative and patriarchal expectations and foregrounds the fluidity of gender/sexuality? What effects do censorship and obscenity laws have on performing sexuality? Will be debated. Concepts such as camp, drag, trans-performance, gender and spectatorship, dis-identification, the gaze, body politics, intersectional feminism, censorship, obscenity and pornography will be considered. A variety of critical approaches to the representation of gender and sexuality in play texts and on stage are explored: queer theory, gay and lesbian studies, postcolonial and Indigenous approaches, cultural studies, and trans theory, etc.
DRAMA 621 A02: Planetary Theatre & Performance Ecologies (505 not added yet)
Dr. Selena Couture | WEDNESDAY 1:00-3:50 PM
Course Description: Beginning by situating ourselves and our studies/practices both locally and nationally, this course addresses the current climate crisis with what theatre scholar Una Chaudhuri has called an “atmospheric consciousness.” This approach will enable engagement with how Canadian-based theatre and performance scholars / artists address the “planetary” in historical and contemporary practices. While rooted in a Canadian context, the seminar is designed to respond to the decline in international/multilateral governmental cooperation by refusing a re-entrenchment of national borders, and instead a turning to the interconnectedness of all beings and earth systems or a “planetary” approach to theatre and performance. Course materials are a combination of critical theory, play texts, performance attendance, recorded media as well as historical sources.
TDes 578: Drawing for the Theatre (online)
Prof. Colin Winslow | SATURDAY 9:00-11:50 AM – all year
Course Description: Drawing for the theatre designer has exercises in exploring line, form, shadow and highlight. The course is specifically created for the Theatre Designer. Looking at the body, the costume, architecture and landscape are all part of this course. Normally open to Designers but other graduate students may request admission. Permission of their Program Coordinator is required.
DRAMA 683: Essentials of Directing
Prof. David Kennedy | THURSDAY 9:00-11:50 AM
Course Description: An introduction to the fundamentals of the directorial process, with a primary emphasis on interpreting text in pre-production and rehearsal. Specific topics covered include understanding how plays work on the stage, unlocking dramatic action, researching text and image, the evolution of a directorial point of view, rehearsal strategies, working with actors, staging and composition, and developing effective leadership skills. Required for students enrolled in MFA Directing; open to others solely with the permission of the instructor and the student’s Program Coordinator.
DRAMA 617: Production Dramaturgy
Dr. Dana Tanner-Kennedy | TUESDAY 1:00-3:50 PM
Course Description: A dramaturg brings a unique blend of historical and critical expertise, highly sensitive people-skills, and a capacity for wildly imaginative research to the process of making theatre. This course will explore three dimensions of the dramaturg’s role: the dramaturg and the text; the dramaturg and the production; and the dramaturg and the public. Students will hone their abilities to generate close readings of text; understand collaborative relationships with members of the production team; and develop inventive outreach initiatives to bridge the production and its audience. Emphasis is placed on the dramaturg as a vital creative force in the pre-production and production process as well as in the theatre profession at large. Using two different texts as case studies, we will develop a methodology for approaching work as a production dramaturg. This is primarily a practice-based course in which students will develop a methodology for approaching work as a dramaturg.
TDes 675: History of Decor and Dress
Prof. Victoria Zimski | MONDAY & FRIDAY 10:00-11:50 AM
Course Description: Given the interdisciplinary scope of this course, graduate students from other departments are strongly encouraged to register. This intensive course is a survey of style as displayed in dress, architecture, and decorative art from the Northern Renaissance to the present day. The course provides an overview of the historic cultures which have exerted prominent and sustained influence over the styles of design in the West. Using extensive primary source documentation, the course will examine the progression and elaboration of major styles, within the framework of the social and political forces which shaped them. The course is highly visual and infuses visual literacy as a core instrument that will deepen the understanding of the pervasive power of style and image, while also equipping students with the appropriate terminology to critically discuss and analyze dress, architecture and interior design.
DRAMA 622: Theory and Practice of Adaptation
Dr. Stefano Muneroni | WEDNESDAY 12:00-2:50 PM
Course Description: Students will learn about the most current theories of adaptation and how to apply them to a variety of plays and performances, operas, ballets, films, and comic books. Some of the topics covered in class include dramaturgical and translational strategies, socio-political objectives of intracultural and cross-cultural adaptations, the challenges of transposing a dramatic work into a different genre, the political (in)correctness of intercultural adaptations, and the use of cultural frames to create meaningful intertextual connections between the source text and the target culture. Some of the texts examined include David Henry Hwang’s M Butterfly, Brad Fraser’s Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love, Mary Zimmermann’s The Odyssey, the manga adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear, Charles Mee’s Big Love, and various cinematic and theatrical adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. As their final project, the students are encouraged to start working on an adaptation of their own choice.
DRAMA 684: Approaches to Staging the Contemporary Play
Prof. Kevin Sutley | MONDAY 12:00-2:50 PM
Course Description: A deeper exploration of the steps taken in preparing for the production of a full-length contemporary play in association with artists and collaborators from other disciplines. Specific topics covered include intrinsic and extrinsic text analysis; developing a production concept; pitching artistic directors and granting organizations; collaborating with designers and the integration of set, costume, lighting, and sound into the creative process; casting; working within the practical production environment; and developing effective working methods. Prerequisite: DRAMA 683. Required for students enrolled in MFA Directing; open to others solely with the permission of the instructor and the student’s Program Coordinator.