“Bespoke” New Play in Development

On Saturday, March 19, student actors and directors gathered for a closed workshop reading of a new play by Governor General Award-winning playwright David Yee, with directing and dramaturgy support from Dora-award winning artist Nina Lee Aquino. Yee and Aquino have a long track record of developing new work with university and college students using …

That’s a Wrap on “The Late Wedding”

From November 23rd-27th, 2021, Theatre@York presented Christopher Chen’s The Late Wedding, directed by Jamie Robinson, performed by the 4th year BFA Acting Conservatory, and designed, built, and produced by the students of Theatre Production & Design and the first-year Introduction to Stagecraft class. The Late Wedding was produced in person to be livestreamed online for …

A Theatre@York Year In Review: 2020/21

How do you teach and produce theatre in a pandemic?  The York University Department of Theatre explored various models this year as we worked remotely, collaboratively, and eventually, in person. We realised many of our productions virtually, adapting plays or commissioning new plays, which we produced in either a live or pre-recorded digital streaming environment. …

(Re)Setting the Stage: The Past, Present, and Future of Casting Practices in Canada

Organized by York University Professors Jamie Robinson and Marlis Schweitzer with support from Ph.D. graduate student Marilo Nuñez and undergraduate students Dante Jemmott, Cassandra Henry, and Zoe Marin, professional theatre directors, playwrights, actors, educators, and students from across Canada joined together for a series of Zoom panel discussions organized across 2 days in May and …

Canadian Stage and the Department of Theatre at York University

After five successful cohorts, Theatre at York University and Canadian Stage will no longer be accepting applications for the joint MFA Program in Stage Direction and will retire this program with the conclusion of the current student cohort. Building from this successful program, however, Theatre at York and Canadian Stage are developing a new collaboration that will …

Theatre Devising Starter Kit: Tools to Create from Scratch

The “Theatre Devising Starter Kit” will offer a series of FREE online lessons, workshop activities, collaborative opportunities, and feedback sessions for high school students interested in learning how to devise original theatre pieces from scratch. This 2 week, six session online course is aimed at students in grade 11-12 or 1st/2nd year post-secondary students interested in creating their own performance based work from scratch. Student will learn new lessons/activities each day led by professional artist educators, Aaron Jan, Lucy Powis, Luke Reece, & Autumn Smith.