Minor in Canadian Studies - Canadian Theatre to 1968: Performing the Nation CANA 4500   Canadian Theatre to 1968: Performing the Nation
CREDIT HOURS: 3
Early Canadian theatre offers a fascinating example of a colonized nation’s struggle to find its own dramatic voice in the face of powerful outside influences. This seminar course will explore the development of theatre in Canada from its roots in First Nations ritual and performance, to its encounters with British and European models and its eventual search for an independent identity via the Little Theatre movement, the Workers’ Theatre movement and the Dominion Drama Festival. The course will close with a consideration of the influential Massey Commission and the birth of the Stratford Festival, Canada’s first ‘world class’ theatre. Over the course of the term, special attention will be paid to the development of diverse dramatic traditions in French and English Canada. Drama by representative playwrights will be studied alongside primary sources in Canadian theatre history to give students an integrated perspective on the complex artistic and political debates that helped to determine the character of performance in Canada.
PREREQUISITES: Permission of the instructor
CROSS-LISTING: THEA 4500.03, ENGL 4500.03