Theatre Studies
Questions?
Program Director
Dr. M.J Kidnie
mjkidnie@uwo.ca
519.661.2111 x85830
Arts & Humanities Academic Counselling
arts@uwo.ca
519.661.3043
Theatre Studies Courses
featured courses
See Western Academic Timetable for course delivery details.
FALL/WINTER 2024-25 COURSES (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
1000 Level Courses
1020B - Performance Everywhere NEW!
This course introduces students to concepts in Theatre Studies. The course emphasizes hands-on and experiential learning. 0.5 course
Winter 2025 | 1020B / 001 | M. Kidnie | Syllabus |
2000-2999 Level Courses
2201F - Understanding Performance
This course will equip students with the primary tools necessary to conduct basic performance analysis. From costumes to lighting and sound effects to textual alterations, students will learn to analyze a production while exploring the social, political, and aesthetic meanings of the required texts. We will study six plays and see live theatre at the Stratford Festival (Richard II and Rent), at the Grand Theatre in London (Kim’s Convenience), and at the Crow’s Theatre in Toronto (Bad Roads). Students will have the opportunity to rehearse and perform a scene and to devise a production concept for a scene from another play on the course. 0.5 course
Fall 2024 | 2201F / 001 | J. Devereux | Syllabus |
2202G - Performance Beyond Theatres
Performance Beyond Theatres is where we explore how theatre does work in the world offstage. We examine the stuff of everyday life as performance: sports (and being a sports fan!), political speech, political protest, land acknowledgements and our relationships to the land, and more. We peek into the world of Applied Theatre, where artist-researchers collaborate with communities of all kinds to help those communities share their stories. And we think, with Indigenous artists and scholars, about how performance can function as a social contract, a way of being human and humane in a dangerous, burning world.
Winter 2025 | 2202G / 001 | K. Solga | Syllabus |
2204G - Forms and Genres: The Greeks to Shakespeare
This course will introduce students to the range of plays and theatre practices that shaped the first two millennia of theatre. Landmark texts will be studied in the context of the diverse theatre spaces, festivals, and political cultures in which the drama first came into being. 0.5 course
Winter 2025 | 2204G / 001 | J. Devereux | Syllabus |
2212F - Adapting Across Page, Stage, and Screen (cross-listed with Film 2212F and English 2112F)
How does the shape an artwork takes contribute to its aesthetic and political power? When artworks flex across form and media how do their messages change? What did Marshall McLuhan mean when he said “the medium is the message”? How do genre and form shape social and political discourse? In this course, students explore these questions and more as they investigate texts that assume multiple cultural forms and represent a diversity of perspectives. 0.5 course
Fall 2024 | 2212F / 001 | B. Diemert | Syllabus |
3000-3999 Level Courses
3209G - Indigenous Theatre and Performance (cross-listed with Indigenous Studies 3209G)
This course examines Indigenous drama and performance practices, combining an attention to aesthetic traditions, Indigenous storytelling and innovation with an awareness of the cultural and political contexts shaping dramatic texts and performances. 0.5 course
Winter 2025 | 3209G / 001 | P. Wakeham | Syllabus |
3951F - Special Topics in Theatre Studies: Theatre, Ghosts, and the South Western Ontario Gothic
Description TBA. 0.5 course
Fall 2024 | 3951F / 001 | Instructor: tba | Syllabus |
Looking for more? Explore the world of the classical Athenian theatre in Classical Studies 3130G. View the syllabus or contact the Department of Classical Studies for more information.
4000-4999 Level Courses
4999E - Thesis Project
Individual instruction in the selection of a topic, preparation of materials, and creation of a thesis project with a focus on theatre or performance studies. The outcome may be a written piece of research or a performance-creation project. Students who wish to take this course must apply to the Program Director, Theatre Studies. This course is restricted to students with an 80% or above average and who have completed at least 1.0 course(s) from Theatre Studies 3000-4999 or approved substitutions. See Theatre Studies 4999E - Thesis Project for details. 1.0 course
Fall/Winter | 4999E / 001 | Various | See Theatre Studies 4999E - Thesis Project |
SPRING/SUMMER 2024 COURSES (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
Intersession (June 10-22)
3206F - Shakespeare in Performance
An historical, theoretical, and analytical introduction to Shakespeare's plays in performance. This course focuses on specific problems related to past productions and to those in the current Stratford Festival season. Class usually meets for three hours a day, six afternoons a week (Mon-Sat, Sun off), and usually includes attendance at Shakespeare productions. THEATRE STUDIES 3206F RUNS CONCURRENTLY WITH THEATRE STUDIES 3207F. Intersession only. 0.5 course
Spring/Summer | 1 pm-4 pm | 3206F / 600 | Stratford Festival | Instructor tba | Syllabus |
3207F - Voice and Text in the Theatre (co-requisite TS3206F)
A workshop in which students will experience, with simple, practical exercises, the ways in which Festival actors develop and maintain their voices and explore various aspects of the text they are performing. Class usually meets for three hours a day, six mornings a week (Mon-Sat, Sun off). Taught by Stratford Festival staff. THEATRE STUDIES 3207F RUNS CONCURRENTLY WITH THEATRE STUDIES 3206F. STUDENTS TAKING THEATRE STUDIES 3207F MUST ALSO BE REGISTERED IN THEATRE STUDIES 3206F. Intersession only. 0.5 course
Spring/Summer | 9 am-12 pm | 3207F / 600 | Stratford Festival | Instructor tba | Syllabus |
Course listings are subject to change. See Western Academic Timetable for date, time, and location of specific courses. See Undergraduate Sessional Dates for more details and deadlines.