GRADUATE PEDAGOGY
Graduate Centre for Study of Drama/Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies
   GRADUATE RESEARCH EMPLOYMENT
   GRADUATE SUPERVISION
(Post-doctoral and Doctoral Primary Supervision, External Examiner, Committee Member)
   GRADUATE COURSE DEVELOPMENT AND INSTRUCTION

GRADUATE RESEARCH EMPLOYMENT

1998+        Supervisor of numerous Doctoral/MA Research Assistants annually for SSHRC-funded research projects.  Supervisor of numerous Research Assistantships, Work-Study Positions, Research Opportunity Program and other variously funded positions employing senior undergraduates, MA/PHD students in on-going research.  Sample descriptions of student duties:  Project Manager, organizing research team, assigning research duties, following up on reports and results; Database Manager, organizing and entering data from research team, liaison with database software specialists, web designer; Research Assistants, searching 19th century periodicals, recording and scanning results, writing analysis and reports, involvement in practice-based research using primary documents.

GRADUATE SUPERVISION

Post-Doctoral Fellows — Primary Supervisor

2019-21     Matt Jones; University of Toronto Post-Doctoral Fellowship.

2019-20     Lisa Aikman; University of Toronto Post-Doctoral Fellowship (subsequently appointed administrative position, University of Western Ontario).

2018-9       Isabel Stowell-Kaplan; University of Toronto Post-Doctoral Fellowship (subsequently awarded European Commission/EU Fellowship, University of Bristol).

2018-19     Kelsey Jacobson; University of Toronto Post-Doctoral Fellowship (subsequently appointed Queen’s University).

2016-18     Cheryl Thompson; SSHRC Banting Post-Doctoral Fellowship (subsequently appointed Ryerson University).

2016-18     Jenn Cole; University of Toronto Post-Doctoral Fellowship (subsequently appointed Trent University).

2016-7       Heather Fitzsimmons-Frey; University of Toronto Post-Doctoral Fellowship (two year; awarded Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, York University, July 2017)

2015-6       Justin Blum; University of Toronto Post-Doctoral Fellowship (two year; subsequently appointed University of Lethbridge).

2009-12     Pil Hansen; SSHRC Post-doctoral Fellowship (subsequently appointed University of Calgary).

PHD Candidates — Primary Supervisor

Current [By Date Named Supervisor]

2017          Maria Meindl; “Reading Elsa Gindler: A Historiographic Study of a Somatics Pioneer”

2016          David DeGrow; “Between theatre and theatre company at Theatre Passe Muraille, Buddies in Bad Times and the Theatre Centre”

2014          Jessica Thorp; “Nerd Culture and neo-burlesque collide: An Ethnographic and phenomenological study of nerdlesque in Toronto”

2014          Michael Reinhart; “Towards a System Based Understanding of Devised Theatre Creation”

 

Defended [By Date Defended]

2019          Cameron Crookston; “Living Legends: Performing a Queer Past Through Drag” (defended May 28)

2019          Marjan Moosavi;  “Ambivalent (En)counters in the Iranian Dissident Theatre from 1990 to Present” (defended December 12; subsequently appointed University of Maryland)

2018          Martin Julien; “Stubborn Subject: The Persistence of Self in Dramatic Acting” (defended October 2018; subsequently appointed Sheridan College)

2017          Isabel Stowell-Kaplan; “Representations of the policeman and private detective in Victorian drama, theatre and performance” (defended October 2017. Winner Clifford Leech Prize. Awarded Marie Sklodowska-Curie/European Commission Horizon2020 Fellowship, University of Bristol)

2016          Shelley Liebembuk; “The Choteadora’s Body in Performance: Carmelita Tropicana and the Intersectional Strategy of Choteo” (defended December 2016; post-doctoral fellow, York University)

Seika Boye; “Looking for Social Dance in Toronto’s Black Population at Mid-century: A Historiography” (defended December 2016; Lecturer, University of Toronto)

Jenn Cole; “Hysteria:  Potential Dramaturgies Toward a Portrait of Ambiguity” (defended July 2016; Assistant Professor, Trent University)

Sasha Kovacs; ““I may act till the world grows wild and tense”: The Performances of E. Pauline Johnson Tekahionwake” (defended June 2016; post-doctoral fellow, York University)

2015          Paul Babiak; “Slapstick and Knockabout:  Violence and Laughter in Nineteenth-Century Popular Theatre and Early Film” (co-supervision with C. Keil, Cinema Studies) (defended September; sessional lecturer, University of Toronto)

2015          Justin Blum; “Melodrama, Monstrosity, and Modernity: The Theatrical Histories of Jack the Ripper” (defended June; Fulltime tenure-stream appointment, University of Lethbridge)

2014          Mark Turner.  ‘Performance Culture and Film Style: The Development of Indigenous Newfoundland and Labrador Narrative Cinema’ (defended January; post-doctoral Fellow, Memorial University; archivist in Newfoundland and Labrador)

2007          Sam Stedman; “Almost Already Almost Here:  Levinas, Derrida, and an Ethico-Political Theatre” (defended April; publisher, independent businessman)

2007          Natalie Alvarez; “The Poetics of Regret: Nostalgic Realism in the Contemporary New York Theatre” (defended March; Associate Professor, Brock University)

2005          Sky Gilbert; “The Shape of the Unspoken: Subtextual Homosexuality in Noel Coward’s Work” (defended October; Associate Professor, University of Guelph)

2004          Allana Lindgren; “The Politics of Theatrical Dance: The Theory and Practice of Franziska Boas” (defended November; Associate Professor and Chair, University of Victoria)

2004          Marlis Schweitzer; “Pleasure Palaces: Theatre, Fashion and the American Culture of Consumption” (defended November; Associate Professor and Chair, York University; President, Canadian Association for Theatre Research; Past Editor, Theatre Research in Canada)

Not Current [by date named supervisor]

2012          Amanda Lockitch; “Manifestations of a Myth: Four Contemporary Adaptations of Medea in Performance.” (withdrew from program 2014)

2009          Steph Berntson; “The Space for Public Nonsense: Extraordinary Vocal Performance in the Commons” (lapsed)

2007         Guillermo Verdecchia; “Staging Latin American Revolutionary Memory in Canada” (lapsed)

2006          Patrick Robinson; “Bergson and the Role of Metaphysics in Early Twentieth Century Theories of Theatre and Performance” (lapsed)

2010          Natalie Mathieson; “Witnessing Trauma, Enacting Resistance: Concentration Camp Cabaret as Creative Testimony” (withdrew October 2019)

2004          Alexis Butler;  “Undressing Toronto the Good:  Burlesque on the Toronto Stage” (deceased)

PHD Candidates — Secondary Supervisor (committee member)

 

Current

Paula Danckert; “The Role of the Dramaturg: Remaking Historiographies, Revisioning Relationships” (co-supervisors J. Carter / N. Copeland)

Christine Mazumdar; “The Balancing Act: Negotiating Athleticism and Artistry in Aesthetic Sport” (supervisor T.N. Cesare-Schotzko)

Julia Mateas; “Costuming Ethnosexual Encounter: Negotiating Exoticism in Neo-Burlesque” (supervisor B. Freeman)

 

Defended [By Date Defended]

2019          Ashley Williamson; “Living Canada’s History: Troubling the Narratives of Canadian History Through Museum Performance.” (supervisor N. Copeland; defended 26 August)

2018          Jimena Ortuzar; “Performing Affective Citizenship: Latina Migrant Workers and the Politics of Belonging” (supervisor A. Quayson; defended 18 December)

2018          Natalie Frijia; “Performing Animals: Analyzing Live Animals In The Arts And Their Impacts On Our Environmental Perceptions Of The Animal Other” (supervisor: B. Freeman; defended 3 July)

2018          Deborah Tihanyi; “Conceiving Dramaturgical Practice in English Canada: Histories, Methods and Models, Post-WWI to the 1990s” (supervisor D. Pietropaolo; defended 23 January)

2018          Sharron Klassen, “Wilde and His Legacy: British Commercial Comedy 1892-1930” (supervisor L. Switzky; defended 2018)

2016          Jacqueline Taucar; “Acting (Outside) the Multicultural Script in Toronto’s Ethno-Cultural Festivals” (supervisor A. Budde; defended 16 September)

2015          Heather Fitzsimmons-Frey; “Victorian Girls Private Theatricals: Performing and Playing with Possible Futures” (supervisor K. Gallagher, OISE)

2014          Joe Culpepper; “Reception and Adaptation: Magic Tricks, Mysteries, Con Games” (supervisor E. Jagoe; dissertation through Centre for Comparative Literature)

2013          Sarah Kriger; “The Technology of Victorian Stage Illusions” (supervisor Janis Langins; dissertation through the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology) (Invited as additional committee member 2011)

Ida Meftahi; “The Biopolitics of National and Islamic Dance in Modern Iran” (supervisor M. Tavakoli-Targhi; dissertation through Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations)

2010          James McKinnon; “The Dramaturgy of Appropriation: How Canadian Playwrights (ab)Use Canonical Source-Texts.” (supervisor N. Copeland)

2009          Mladen Ovadija;  “The Dramaturgy of Sound in Futurist Performance” (supervisor D. Pietropaolo)

Elizabeth Marquis; “Just Act Naturally: A Poetics of Documentary Performance.” (supervisor C. Keil)

Graham Wolfe; “Encounters with the Real: A Žižekian Approach to the Sublime and the Fantastic in Contemporary Drama.” (supervisor B. Barton)

2008          Gian Giacomo Colli;  “The Impossible Tempest: Giorgio Strehler or the Director as Interpreter” (supervisor J. Astington)

2008          Jessica Gardiner;  “‘The Amusement World’: Theatre as Social Practice in Eighteen-Nineties Toronto” (supervisor R. Plant)

2008          Cynthia Ashperger;  “Michael Chekhov’s Acting Technique in Contemporary Pedagogy and Practice”  (supervisor P. Sperdakos)

2003          Yana Meerzon;  “Actor/Stage Figure/Character: Semiosis in Michael Chekhov’s Theatre” (supervisor V. Ambros)

2002          Lisa Coulthard.  “Spectacles of Violence: Theorizing Representation and Reception of Violence with Special Reference to Selected Canadian Plays by Women” (supervisor M. Sidnell/N. Copeland)

2000          Nadine Sivak.  “How we gonna find my me?  Postcolonial Identities in Contemporary North American Drama and Film” (supervisor C. Flinn)

1995          Christine Boyko-Head; Department of English, McMaster University.  On performance theory and nineteenth century Canadian women playwrights (supervisor L. York)

 

External Examiner [By Date Defended; Host Institution noted]

2015          PhD, Jessica Riley; “Tracking Dramaturgical Influence: Lessons from the Archive (Urjo Kareda 1982-1986),” School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph

2009          PhD, Heather Davis-Fisch; “Lost Ships: Performance and the Disappearance of the Franklin Expedition,” School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph

1997          PhD, Joseph Sokalski; “The Theatre of Steele MacKaye: Pictorial Illusion on the American Stage,” Drama Centre, University of Toronto

PhD Oral Examination participant (in addition to supervisory committee work)

(University of Toronto, Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, unless noted)

[By Date Defended]

2019          Lisa Aikman, “Dramaturging Research, Shaping Encounters: Working Methods and Dramaturgical Structures in Contemporary Canadian Documentary Theatre” (defended June 2019)

2019          Caitlin Thompson, “Making Fritters of English: Aesthetic Functions of Early Modern Welsh Dialect Comedy” (defended 2019)

2018          Grace Smith, “Models of Professionalism: Post WWI Strategies and Ideologies Towards a Canadian, Professional Theatre: (defended 2018)

2015          Mel Campbell, “Acts of Resistance: Reclaiming Native Womanhood in Canadian Aboriginal Theatre” (defended December 2015)

Jamie Ashby, ““From the Inside Out, from the Outside In: Devising in Canadian Puppet Theatre”  (defended August 2015)

2014          Courtney Cauthon, ‘Moving Towards Thought: Theatricality, Technology, and the Theatre.’ (defended April 2014)

Chima Osakwe, ‘Revolutionary Drama in Postcolonial Nigeria: The Theatre of Femi Osofisan.’ (defended April 2014)

2013          Chris Jackman: “Disciplined Mind: Implicit Cognition in Devised Performance.” (supervisor B. Barton)

2011          Nenad Jovanovic: “Brechtian Cinemas: Montage and Theatricality in Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Peter Watkins and Lars von Trier” (supervisor S. Soldovieri)

Keren Zaiontz: “The Stagehands of Subversive Spaces: Site-specific Performance and Audience Labour ” (supervisor N. Copeland)

Natalie Papoutsis: “An Ear for an Eye: Greek Tragedy on Radio” (supervisory D. Pietropaolo)

2010          Diana Manole, “Poetics of Denial: Expressions of National Identity and Imagined Exile in English-Canadian and Romanian Dramas.” (supervisor R. Plant)

Barry Freeman: “Toward a Postmodern Ethnography of Intercultural Theatre: An Instrumental Case-study of the Prague-Toronto-Manitoulin Theatre Project.” (supervisor K. Gallagher)

Jill Carter: “Repairing the Web: Spiderwoman’s Children Staging the New Human Being.” (supervisor P. Sperdakos)

Joel Benabu: “Shakespeare’s Openings in Action: A Study of Four Plays from the Period 1591- c.1602,” (supervisor J.L. Levenson)

2009          Aktina Stathaki, “Adaptation and Performance of Classical Greek Drama in Post-Apartheid South Africa” (supervisor A. Quayson)

Toby Malone “‘Hast Thou Been Tampering?’ – A Theory of Parallel-Text Dramaturgical Adaptation in Richard III” (supervisor J. Levinson)

Claire Borody: “Primus Theatre: Establishing an Alternative Model for Creating Theatre in English Canada” (supervisor B. Barton)

Robin Whittaker: “Un/Disciplined Performance: Nonprofessionalized Theatre in the Professional Era” [B. Barton]

Sergio Melo: “Deconstructing the Transhistorical in Contemporary Productions of The Merchant of Venice.” [J.H. Astington]

2008          Birgit Schreyer Duarte, “Made in Kanada? Perception and Construction of Canadianness in English-Canadian Drama on German Stages” (supervisor B. Barton)

2007          Anthony Adah, “Embodying the Screen: Body and Identity in Aboriginal Cinemas” (supervisor K. Armatage)

2007          Dario Del Degan, “The Staged Painting of Samuel Beckett” (supervisor P. Howard)

2007          Anna Racette, “Shakespeare in the Body:  An Exploration of Student Audiences at the Stratford Festival” (supervisor J. Astington)

2004          Cordula Quint, “Dramaturgy and Mise en Scene of the Post Modern Abyss: Subjectivity in Robert Wilson’s Theatre, 1967-1987” (supervisor D. Pietropaolo)

2004          Tanya d’Anger, “An Analysis of the Playwright’s Function in Society in the Works of Normand Chaurette, Rene-Daniel Dubois, and Jean Marc Dalpe” (supervisor L. Doucette)

2002          Teresa Simm, “Behind the Walls: Antonia Pulci’s Drama for Convent in 15th-Century Florence” (supervisor D. Pietropaolo)

2001          Silvija Jestrovic, “The Concept of Ostranenie as Dramatic Technique in 20th-Century Avant-Garde Theatre” (supervisor V. Ambros)

2001          Kirsty Johnston, “Staging Madness: Dramatic Modes of Representing Mental Illness at the Workman Theatre Project” (supervisor R. Plant)

2000          Peter Cockett, “Clowning Shakespeare Today: A Contemporary Approach to the Performance of Shakespeare’s Comic Characters” (supervisor J. Astington)

2000          Julie Salverson, “Performing Testimony: Ethics, Pedagogy, and a Theatre Beyond Injury” (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education)

MA Students — Supervisory Committee (secondary supervisor)

Robert Bell, Department of English, McMaster University, on stage adaptations of nineteenth century British novels (defended 1997)

GRADUATE COURSE DEVELOPMENT AND INSTRUCTION

2017-2018       DRAMA 2011H5F Traditions of Performance Theory (required for PhD)

DRAMA 5000Y5  MA Projects (second half; required for MA)

Last graduate courses taught.

2016-2017       On leave

2016-2017       DRAMA 4092H Directed Reading (Nerd-lesque Culture and Popular Performance (half course spread over full year)

2015-16           DRAMA 2011H Traditions of Performance Theory (required for PhD)

DRAMA 5000H Theatre and Performance Praxis (co-taught with Xing Fan; required for MA)

DRAMA 6000Y Professional Skills (required for PhD; PhD2)

DRAMA 4092H Directed Reading: Theatre Architecture and Performance in Toronto

DRAMA 4092H Directed Reading: Playwrighting and Disability Theatre

DRAMA 4092H Directed Reading: Indigenous/Queer Theatre (co-taught with Jill Carter)

2014-15           DRAMA 1003H Introduction to Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies (required for MA; co-taught with Nikki Cesare Schotzko)

DRAMA 6000Y PHD1 Research Seminar/Professional Skills:  (required for PhD)

DRAMA 6000Y PHD2 Research Seminar/Professional Skills (required for PhD)

[Note:  on leave July-December 2014; taught second half of Y courses]

DRAMA 4092H Directed Reading: Clown Practice and the Theatre

DRAMA 4092H Directed Reading: Race and Sexuality in the Queer Theatre of Toronto

2013-14           DRAMA 1011H Traditions of Performance Theory (required for PhD)

DRAMA 6000Y PHD1 Research Seminar/Professional Skills:  (required for PhD)

DRAMA 6000Y PHD2 Research Seminar/Professional Skills (required for PhD)

[Note:  on leave July-December 2013; taught second half of Y courses]

DRAMA 4092H Directed Reading: Horror and the Theatre

2012-13           DRAMA 5001Y Theatre Practice 2 (required for PhD)

2011-12           DRAMA 5001Y Theatre Practice 2 (required for PhD)

DRAMA 6000Y Research Seminar/Professional Skills (required for PhD)

2010-11           DRAMA 1003Y Introduction to Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies (required for MA; with M. Revermann, B. Freeman)

DRAMA 5000Y Theatre Practice 1 (required for MA; with B. Barton)

DRAMA 5001Y Theatre Practice 2 (required for PhD)

DRAMA 6000Y Research Seminar/Professional Skills (required for PhD)

2009-10           DRAMA 1003Y Introduction to Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies (required for MA; with M. Revermann)

DRAMA 5000Y Theatre Practice 1 (required for MA; with B. Barton)

DRAMA 5001Y Theatre Practice 2 (required for PhD)

DRAMA 6000Y Research Seminar/Professional Skills (required for PhD)

DRAMA 4092H Directed Reading (3 students; Winter 2010)

2008-2009       DRAMA 1003Y Introduction to Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies (required for MA; with N. Copeland)

DRAMA 5000Y Theatre Practice 1 (required for MA; with B. Barton)

DRAMA 5001Y Theatre Practice 2 (required for PhD)

DRAMA 6000Y Research Seminar/Professional Skills (required for PhD)

DRAMA 1011H Traditions of Performance Theory (required for PhD)

DRAMA 4092H Directed Reading: Stage Design and the Historical Avant-garde (1 student; Winter 2009)

2007-2008       DRAMA 1010Y Theory of Drama (required for PhD)

DRAMA 4063H Topics in Performance and Popular Culture

DRAMA 6000Y Research Seminar (required for PhD)

DRAMA 4063H Topics in Performance and Popular Culture: Performance in/of the City (Summer 2008; taught jointly with undergraduate course)

2006-2007       DRAMA 1010Y Theory of Drama

DRAMA 4063H Topics in Performance and Popular Culture:                    Contexts for Blackface Minstrelsy

2005-2006       DRAMA 1010Y Theory of Drama

DRAMA 4091S Directed Research (one student)

2004-2005       DRAMA 1010Y Theory of Drama

2003-2004       DRAMA 1010Y Theory of Drama

DRAMA 4091S Directed Research (one Student)

2002-2003       DRAMA 1010Y Theory of Drama (second term)

2001-2002       DRAMA 1010Y Theory of Drama

2000-2001       DRAMA 1010Y Theory of Drama

DRAMA 4090S Directed Theatre Research (three students)

1999-2000       DRAMA 1010L Theory of Drama

DRAMA 4090Y Directed Theatre Research (two students)

DRAMA 4090F Directed Theatre Research (one student)

1999                DRAMA 4061S American Theatre History and Dramaturgy

1998                DRAMA 4061S American Theatre History and Dramaturgy