Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies

 

OUAC CODE:

  • Theatre & Drama Studies: TMT
  • Theatre, Drama & Performance Studies: TMH

Theatre, Drama & Performance is the study of the relationship between the artists who create written texts intended for production, the artists who turn scripts into performances, and the audiences who experience the resulting theatrical event. Theatre is both the event itself, and the acts of creation involved in producing that event.

PROGRAMS AND SPECIALIZATIONS
U of T Mississauga offers two programs that focus on the dramatic arts:

  • Theatre & Drama Studies
  • Theatre, Drama & Performance Studies

Theatre & Drama Studies, offered jointly with Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, involves the study of plays, actors, theatres, designers and audiences from the classical Greek stage to the most modern experimental performance. We give students the opportunity to earn a two-year (equivalent) conservatory diploma in professional actor-training from Sheridan within a specialist degree in theatre history, theory and literature from U of T. This high-powered combination program prepares students for a career on the stage or behind the scenes in the professional theatre world, or for drama teaching at the high school or university level.

Theatre, Drama & Performance Studies (TDPS) integrates creative and scholarly approaches to theatre through a common emphasis on dramaturgy. In addition to specific courses in developmental and production dramaturgy, the TDPS program includes courses that examine theatre history, dramatic literature, critical theory, playwriting, devising, and intermedial performance, among others. TDPS provides students with first-rate academic experience and credentials, while offering them ample opportunities for creative application of acquired knowledge and skills through practical components and practice-based research projects. All courses are taken at U of T Mississauga.

WHY CHOOSE U OF T MISSISSAUGA FOR THEATRE & DRAMA STUDIES?

Professional training

  • An intensive program in which students get both
  • on-stage and behind-the-scenes training
  • Combines courses in history and theory with
  • courses in theatre practice
  • Studio courses are taught at Sheridan by instructors in its well-established and highly-professional complex of Theatre programs


Extensive, hands-on experience

  • Theatre & Drama Studies students participate in a season of five productions each year at our state-of-the-art Erindale Studio Theatre.
  • First- and second-year students are involved backstage or front of house – working with props, lighting, sound, or as ushers.
  • Third- and fourth-year students act and can be dance, fight, or music captains.
  • Each senior student is cast in at least two roles
  • per year.
  • Third-year students perform in The Junior Project, which is performed individually and is based on the actor’s greatest acting challenges. It is performed in front of the entire program, critiqued by a panel of judges and makes up a major component of their final grade.
  • Senior students receive one-on-one tutorial time with faculty to polish performance pieces.
  • Students learn set production through carpentry workshops and participate in prop, costume, lighting and sound labs.


Extensive collection of costumes, props and equipment

  • Approximately 300 costumes used per season
  • One of the largest sound effects collections in Canada


On-Campus Theatres

  • Erindale Studio Theatre: Can be converted into all theatre types (black box, in the round) — and is used by local and touring professional theatre, dance and music groups.
  • Multimedia Studio Theatre at U of T Mississauga is used as classroom and auxiliary production space.


AFFILIATED STUDENT CLUBS
All students in both Theatre & Drama and Performance, Theatre & Drama Studies have the opportunity to participate in the Drama Club as well as the On the Fringe festival in which they can produce, direct and/or act.

WHAT HIGH SCHOOL PREPARATION DO I NEED?

  • Six Grade 12 U or M courses, including English (ENG4U).*
  • Audition required for Theatre & Drama Studies.
  • No audition required for Theatre, Drama & Performance Studies.


*This refers to courses from the Ontario Curriculum.
We will accept equivalent courses from other academic systems. For details, visit www.adm.utoronto.ca/adm.

AUDITION REQUIREMENTS
The audition assesses current acting skills by having applicants perform:

  • two contrasting, prepared monologues: one from a classical play (Shakespeare preferred); and one from a full-length, 20th-century play by an established playwright (Canadian preferred).
  • one verse of any song (unaccompanied)
  • one on-the-spot improvisation

Specific instructions regarding the development and presentation of these items will be forwarded to eligible applicants when they make their audition appointment.

WHAT COURSES DO I TAKE?

U of T Mississauga courses

  • DRE/ENG121H5: Traditions of Theatre & Drama
  • DRE/ENG122H5: Modern and Contemporary Theatre and Drama
  • Theatre, Drama, and Performance students only take U of T Mississauga courses

Sheridan courses

  • DRS121H5: Acting 1
  • DRS121H5: Acting 2

Other upper-year courses include:

  • DRE200H5: Canadian Theatre History
  • DRE352H5: Stage to Screen
  • DRE362H5: Playwriting


AFTER GRADUATION
With follow-up study, graduates have the following career options: professional acting, directing, writing, set design; postgraduate research, criticism and scholarship; community recreation; theatre criticism, arts journalism; and secondary school or university drama teaching.


FOR MORE INFORMATION
Dianne Robertson
Undergraduate Advisor
905-828-5201
dianne.robertson@utoronto.ca
www.utm.utoronto.ca/academic/theatre