Welcome to the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies (CDTPS), a leading institution in North America for the study of theatre and performance. We offer three competitive degree programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels — BA, MA, and PhD. The CDTPS is home to more than 30 faculty members, many of whom are internationally recognized artists and scholars, as well as over 200 undergraduate students and more than 40 graduate students. All of our programs, at the graduate and undergraduate levels, foster interdisciplinary learning and research opportunities.
Our undergraduate program combines academic and practical training. Students can choose from among a range of studio courses in acting, directing, playwriting, and design and production, as well as a wide range of focused seminar topics, while also pursuing a double major or minor in other arts and science disciplines.
We now offer a newly redesigned, partially funded one-year master’s program for domestic and international students. Students in this program can follow a ‘Course-only” stream, a traditional thesis stream path, or our new Major Research Project stream, where students can create an original artistic work while integrating the scholarship of arts-based methods and research. Our PhD program is fully funded for 4.5 years and offers key courses orienting students to academic research, as well as inviting interdisciplinary learning across the many fields and disciplines in the broader university with which theatre and performance might intersect.
Students in the Centre have unique opportunities to engage in cutting-edge research with leading researchers in a broad variety of different areas, where research labs undertake a wide variety of scholarly and creative projects. Our BMO Lab in Creative Research in the Arts, Performance, Emerging Technologies, and AI provides a platform for engaging with an array of new technologies. Additionally, we host several other leading-edge research and practice labs for student engagement, such as:
- The Centre for Spectatorship and Audience Research
- The Institute for Dance Studies
- Theatre, Youth, and Digital Media Lab
- Native Performance Culture and the Rhythm of [RE?]Conciliation: Re-Membering Ourselves in Deep Time
Our newly renovated, state-of-the-art facilities in the north wing of University College feature contemporary rehearsal studios, a reconfigurable black box theatre, student lounges, ultramodern seminar rooms, flexible workspaces, and a high-tech studio for the BMO Lab.
At the Centre, students and faculty are encouraged to lead scholarly and artistic projects with the full support of our team. We provide an environment that promotes creative and intellectual exploration, backed by experienced technical and production staff. The Centre is a vibrant space where students can network with some of the world’s leading scholars and artists. Situated in the heart of Toronto, Canada’s most dynamic theatre hub, the Centre is a prime location for anyone passionate about the performing arts. We are excited to have you join us or reach out to learn more. Archive of messages from CDTPS Director Kathleen Gallagher
Dear CDTPS Community:
A very warm welcome to all students, staff, and faculty whether you are returning or newly joining the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies. I welcome you to a place that I hope you find to be supportive and demanding both, that expects much from you and offers you much in return. As students, I know you will encounter deeply committed instructors who work tirelessly, honing their art of teaching. I know you will also have many encounters with staff who work hard every day to make your life as a student easier and more satisfying. And I trust you will find, in each other, a home-base, a community within this enormous university that makes you feel ‘at home’. Students tell me they have this experience at the CDTPS all the time so I’m not making this up! I have also long understood that the work of teaching is made all the more rewarding when teachers feel the fulsome contributions of their students, the honest struggle to improve, learn more, be a generous classmate. I truly hope the CDTPS teachers and students conspire together to make magic this year.
Beyond the classroom, please join in the many and varied activities of the department too. Take in the wide range of extra- and co-curricular student-led programming events happening throughout the year; the course-related directing, playwriting, acting, digital experimentation, curation and performance work, the Mainstage show, the special events and salons hosted by our research centres, labs, and institutes, the guest lectures, book launches, and curricular invitations to enhance our undergraduate and graduate curricula, the end-of-term open doors of classrooms inviting audiences in to see culminating student work. And if you are a graduate student doing important research in our field, I wish you a rich year of new insights and great progress in your projects. And if, as a faculty member, you are launching new research or creative projects or moving into a new stage with your existing projects, I wish you, too, a productive and interesting year ahead. And, if you are an undergraduate student, don’t forget to attend graduate student colloquia, which are always fascinating and may just inspire you to think about graduate school for your future! As you get your footing here, never forget to reach out to staff, to your instructors, our associate directors, and to me anytime for support or guidance, with simple or not-so-simple questions. And if you are a first-year undergraduate student, a special request to you: please stop by and say hello. My own son will be a first-year student this year somewhere else, and I will doubly appreciate any reassurance you can give me that all is going well for you!
As this new academic year is upon us, I extend sincerely my very best wishes to all, and my hope that you experience all the pleasures that come with fresh starts and the anticipation of not knowing the full detail of what lies ahead, but forging onward, nonetheless. What I wish you hold as a certainty is that the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies will be the kind of place that celebrates well your joyful discoveries and accomplishments and holds you up in challenging moments. I am beginning my fourth year as Director of this exceptional place and, somehow, I look forward to the start of the new academic year more with each passing year. What I have learned, then, is that people come together and support one another in inspiring ways in the CDTPS and that holding drama/theatre/performance/art/creativity/playfulness/risk and effort at the centre of what we do reinforces our great good fortune to be here, with each other, at this moment in time. Personally, I feel extremely lucky to be a part of such a place, especially as our world continues to face so many challenges—environmental, political, and humanitarian crises-- while we, individually, may be facing trials of our own. I continue to believe that boldly making art, in community, in the face of it all, is a deep act of humanity. And of hope.
Welcome to the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies! Work hard. Support each other. And reach out if you need support. I am really looking forward to all the interesting scholarly and creative work I know I will experience here in this expansive intellectual and artistic community. May the 2025-2026 academic year be a most rewarding one for you. (And may it be the year we move into our brand new, beautiful space! More on that in the weeks to come).
Kathleen Gallagher
Director, Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies
Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff of CDTPS:
As the end-of-term draws closer, and holiday time nearer, I want to extend my deepest gratitude to all the faculty and students who opened their doors last week and welcomed the broader community into their classrooms, studios, theatre spaces for end-of-term sharing of the extraordinary work being undertaken across CDTPS classrooms. I visited many undergraduate and graduate classrooms to see culminating work and works-in-progress that revealed the very lively state of theatre, performance, and intellectual curiosity alive and well in our classrooms. I was humbled by the learning on display, in so many different forms, and deeply impressed by the creativity and daring that I witnessed. As a great drama teacher once said to me, “showing our learning is extremely powerful”. Being an audience to your practice has reminded me again of the value of theatre and performance in our lives and in this world. Thank you most sincerely.
And to those who have been working away on end-of-term papers, dissertation proposals and chapters, in classrooms, libraries, or your favourite coffee shop, I salute your committed work! To those instructors and thesis supervisors who I know work extremely hard to offer important feedback and mentorship, I thank you for all that you do. To our CDTPS staff who are hard at work behind the scenes to keep things functioning, we all thank you.
And to all, may I wish you a deep exhale after a full term and a much-deserved holiday break when it arrives.
Warmly,
Kathleen GallagherDirector, Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies
Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff of CDTPS:
A very warm welcome to all, whether you are returning or newly joining the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies. Each year I have been at the Centre (this coming year will be my 3rd), I have learned more about the people and the culture of the place. I am proud to work among faculty who are, themselves, always striving, learning from their research, their pedagogy, their creative work, and their students. And I see students everywhere- graduate and undergraduate- in every nook and cranny of our building, creating together, sharing readings, meeting to support one another and to socialize. And behind the scenes is a group of staff members working hard to make CDTPS events, performances, rehearsals, meetings, conferences, exhibits, colloquia, and guest lectures run smoothly and to ensure classes, seminar sessions, and studio practices can proceed unhindered. Together, a creative and intellectual culture can thrive when we all contribute to it and remain aware of how many among us are facilitating our learning. As we know, the world continues to struggle, in so many ways. But I remain impressed by, and grateful for, the ways in which I often witness students, faculty and staff showing up for each other.
If you are new to our programs this year, you will soon learn how vibrant a place this is. So please join in all the activity; come to watch the many extra- and co-curricular student-led programming events happening throughout the year, the course-related directing, playwriting, acting, digital experimentation, curation and performance work, the Mainstage show, the special events and salons hosted by our research centres, labs, and institutes, the guest lectures and curricular invitations to enhance our undergraduate and graduate curricula, the end-of-term open doors of classrooms inviting audiences in to see culminating student work. Please also remember to reach out to staff, to your instructors, our associate directors, and to me anytime for support or guidance, with simple or not-so-simple questions.
I wish everyone a terrific start to the 2024-2025 academic year; I hope it is your best yet!
Warmly,
Kathleen GallagherDirector, Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies
Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff of CDTPS,
I would like to wish everyone a nourishing, restful, and rejuvenating holiday break.
It has been a very busy and productive term, and an extremely busy end-of-term, with class performances and showcases shared with our wider community in both our undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as the excellent work in evidence at our recent Directors’ showcase. Students have been working very hard to complete final assignments and faculty have been working hard to provide important feedback to students in their final projects and in their learning journey. In the background, staff have been supporting the work of faculty and students in critical ways-- on the stage, behind the scenes of the classroom, and through our communications. For all of these efforts, I want to say thank you.
It has been a very distressing time in our broader world, which I know continues to have enormous and deeply personal impact on so many in our community. I want to thank you all for the many expressions of understanding, care and generosity that I have seen in CDTPS. I want you to know that every act of kindness and support is deeply appreciated.
I hope the holiday break brings you what you desire and the generosity of the season nurtures you well.
Sincerely,
Kathleen GallagherDirector, Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies
Dear CDTPS Community:
On the last week before the new school year began, I was fortunate enough to be looking out on water while I contemplated the year ahead. There is something about a body of water, its hidden depths and wild expanse that forces one to accept uncertainty; one day, it was windy and turbulent, the next serene and still. I could not help but anticipate what a new school year might bring, feeling assured it would bring both challenge and calm.
Back in the city, I was immediately immersed in Toronto sounds, loud and familiar. And I sensed in the air that last weekend of summer, especially for those of us who teach and learn. Returning to the classroom after a summer is filled with emotion for many, and most of us have done it for most of our lives.
I want to wish our new CTDPS community members- teachers and students- a most warm welcome. I hope the year ahead brings you new challenges and growth, and I hope, too, that you begin to count on CDTPS to be a support to you as you navigate all of the newness! To returning students and faculty, welcome back! I hope you meet any aspirations you have set for yourself for the coming year and can bask a little in the familiar and reliable. To all students, whether new or returning, please do not hesitate to reach out to your professors, peers, administrative staff, or any of us with any questions you may have. We are here to support you. And please do take advantage of all the varied performance activities and events that fill the CDTPS calendar; there are so many ways to connect with others and exercise your creative muscles. And don’t forget to also take advantage of all that is at your disposal at the University of Toronto. For those faculty, postdoctoral, and graduate students immersed in important research projects, I hope this year rouses your research imagination and brings you a great sense of accomplishment.
To our new associate directors, Professor Seika Boye (Undergraduate) and Professor Jill Carter (Graduate), I hope the year starts well and the community supports you well, as you endeavour to support others. To the staff, thank you for all the work you have already done to make this return smooth and positive for students and faculty. And to all, I wish you good health and abundant curiosity in the year-to-come.
Kathleen GallagherDirector, Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies