Program Summary

The Theatre Studies program at the University of Guelph cultivates critical thinkers, theatre artists, and creative performance makers engaged with our media saturated world.

Our interdisciplinary curriculum, taught by leading academics and practitioners, synchronizes practical classes with critical and historical studies connecting performance to our everyday lives. Students explore a range of approaches balanced between performance and production including: writing for performance, site-specific devising, acting and directing, puppetry, scenography, and digital performance creation. Collaborative thinking and artistic entrepreneurship culminate in a student-led ensemble final year production. Our recently renovated performance facilities give students a professional quality sandbox in which to play and learn; reimagined performance spaces—including virtual ones—foster student innovation. As the disciplines of performance and theatre evolve, our program welcomes new technologies, methods, and languages to provide dynamic and unique educational experiences.  

About the Program

Become a well-rounded theatre creator– Examine performance from various perspectives within a series of variable topic courses. Many of these courses have performances and allow you to explore acting, directing, design, and technical theatre.

Drama Student Federation – Join our community of theatre and participate in events such as the One Act Festivals, Movie Nights, Theatre Workshops, and much more! Drama Student Federation. [1]

Renowned faculty – Our faculty includes award-winning scholars and theatre practitioners, and our proximity to the lively theatre scene enables us to bring celebrated practitioners and scholars to campus as guest lectures and to incorporate into theatre productions.

Ensemble Capstone course - form your own theatre company  -  As a Theatre Major, in the final semester of the degree, students are enrolled in a capstone course callled THST*4280 Ensemble Project. In this course, students collaborate with their peers to create their own production using all the skills they have attained in the degree. You will explore the organizational structure, fundraising, publicity exercises, casting, designing, dramaturgy, directing, and mounting a production.

New performance, production and teaching spaces – With the anticipated completion of November 2021, you will have an updated black-box theatre, a new costume shop, and more. Mackinnon renovation updates [2].

Flexibility – As the Theatre program is housed within the Bachelor of Arts, you have the flexibility to Major  (8.50 credits), Minor (5.00 credits), or select an Area of Concentration (5.00 credits – General Program). Undergraduate Calendar [3].

In Your First Year... you will take several introductory THST courses that will set you up to succeed.

Fall

• THST*1040 Introduction to Performance - an integrated approach to the disciplines and subject areas that constitute Theatre Studies at the university level, including the work of playwrights, directors, designers, actors and technicians in creating productions, and the scholarly study of theatrical history, theory, and dramatic literature. You will attend several performances as part of this course! In the past students have visited performances in Toronto, Stratford, London and Niagara-on-the-Lake.
• Generally, students will study 4 additional courses. To assist with your BA degree requirements, we recommend you complete two courses from the humanities and two courses from the social sciences.

Winter

• THST*1190 Theatre Workshop I - provides a fundamental introduction to the processes of theatrical production, with practical application and study of the analytic, creative, and technical skills that bring an idea to life on the stage. Students will learn how to analyze a play script from the perspective of the director, actor, designer, and technician and will also be introduced to the fundamentals of theatre technology, scene study and production decision-making.
• THST*1270 Theatre Research I - introduces you to scholarly research and writing in the discipline of Theatre Studies through variable-topic theoretical inquiry and secondary research. Emphasis will be placed the application of theory to analysis, the use of evidence, the development of a research question, and the practice of scholarly writing.
• Three additional courses – which may be towards your distribution requirements, and/or utilized towards another specialization (minor, double major or area of concentration.
   

MAJOR/MINOR REQUIREMENTS [4]

Visit Us!

We welcome you to campus and would be happy to meet with you. We recommend you consider participating in events or tours offered by Admission Services [5]. If you are interested in setting an appointment with a Theatre Studies faculty member, please e-mail theatre.advisors@uoguelph.ca [6].