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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=FR-CA link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Beautifully said, Lynette. And let’s all of us engage actively in celebrating and supporting studies in theatre, performance and drama, which so richly nourish all the rich sources of our shared humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Louise Forsyth<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=FR style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>De :</span></b><span lang=FR style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> Canadian Theatre Research [mailto:CANDRAMA@LISTSERV.UNB.CA] <b>De la part de</b> Lynette Hunter<br><b>Envoyé :</b> 14 octobre 2012 12:47<br><b>À :</b> CANDRAMA@LISTSERV.UNB.CA<br><b>Objet :</b> Re: This may be of interest to Canadian Theatre/ Drama Departments<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>To argue that we 'overtrain' "(in the sense that supper far exceeds demand) actor and other theatre students" is to ignore the list of trained areas offered by Professor Irwin:<o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>strong and transferable skills training, vibrant community building activity, creative problem solving, enhanced tourist activity, and so forth.</span></span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>this list could easily be extended.</span></span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Departments of English Literature 'overtrain' in the sense that students rarely become creative writers, and only a small proportion become English Literature teachers. The vast number develop transferable skills that equip them to work in areas that require understanding of communication strategies - from the law to banking to retail to social services to medicine ...</span></span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Theatre, dance and performance university departments are often only incidentally training people to enter professional performance activity. This training has in the past been frequently more appropriately acquired in conservatory systems. Today universities are the sites where far more experimental work is possible, but students still rarely become professionals. </span></span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Theatre, dance and performance in the university context are more likely to train </span></span>an understanding of both creative power and different kinds of knowledge (especially practice-based and embodied knowledges that generate new insights drawing from current issues around diversity and globalisation), interpretation (in an exceptionally wide range of different media not encountered in any other arts or humanities textual base), and communication (using voice, body and gesture, spatial and material visualization and implementation, and sociocultural media), as well as academic exploration and argumentation.<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>The skills outcomes in departments of Theatre, Dance and Performance, are also inherently interdisciplinary and collective, training students in the pragmatics of problem-solving, negotiation, time- and material-management, and project completion.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>There are few other departments in a university in which students can be trained for such a wide range of skills acquisition necessary for contemporary society to adapt, change and flourish.<o:p></o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Lynette Hunter<o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>Chair, Department of Theatre and Dance<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Chair, Graduate Group in Performance Studies<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>University of California Davis<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><a href="mailto:lhunter@ucdavis.edu" target="_blank">lhunter@ucdavis.edu</a><o:p></o:p></p></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On 14 October 2012 09:21, David Ferry <<a href="mailto:appledor@sympatico.ca" target="_blank">appledor@sympatico.ca</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Thank you Ms Irwin for your thoughtful and provocative post.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>We must reflect too that our university and college system, nation wide, has been overtraining (in the sense that supply far exceeds demand) actors and other theatre students for years. As far back as the late 1970s the Canada Council sponsored Black report (after its author, theatre director Malcolm Black) warned of the trend then to have far too many theatre training programs to support an industry that has (among actors alone) a consistent 85-90% unemployment rate. He questioned then, and the questioned has never really been addressed, the ethics of creating so many training programs for so few jobs. Of course immediately on delivery of that report, it was shelved.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#888888'><br>David Ferry<o:p></o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#888888'>Appledore Productions<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#888888'><a href="tel:416%20433%205826" target="_blank">416 433 5826</a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#888888'><a href="http://www.davidferryactor.com" target="_blank">www.davidferryactor.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><br>On Oct 13, 2012, at 8:38 PM, Kathleen Irwin <<a href="mailto:Kathleen.Irwin@UREGINA.CA" target="_blank">Kathleen.Irwin@UREGINA.CA</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><div><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Lucida Grande","serif";color:black'>This may be of interest to Canadian Theatre/ Drama Departments</span></b><span lang=EN-CA> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA style='font-family:"Lucida Grande","serif";color:black'>On September 26 2012, the University of Regina posted an update regarding the university-wide Academic Program Review (APR) on their public website. The information in the announcement regarded major changes to the delivery of programs within the Theatre Department. It was erroneous and, as many of you across Canada have asked about it, I want to correct the misinformation and provide a context for the statement. What was posted was news that the Theatre Department had retired its BFA in the Performance and Design / Stage Management streams effective January 1, 2013 – after 42 years. While this was true in part, it was only partial. The official statement from the Theatre Department on what really happened follows here. </span><span lang=EN-CA style='color:black'> </span><span lang=EN-CA> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'><span lang=EN-CA style='color:black'>The Theatre Department at the University of Regina is focusing attention on the delivery of the core degree, the BA in Theatre and Performance (with optional concentrations i</span><span lang=EN-CA style='font-family:"Lucida Grande","serif";color:black'>n acting</span><span style='color:black'> </span><span lang=EN-CA style='color:black'>or design/stage management). We see this as a way of consolidating our course offerings into a flexible degree that optimizes our skills and resources and enables students to choose widely from a menu of courses that reaches across the Fine Arts disciplines or to pursue further training in theatre, a professional career or higher education. </span><span lang=EN-CA style='font-family:"Times","serif";color:black'> </span><span lang=EN-CA> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'><span lang=EN-CA style='color:black'>We believe that this will educate students to be broad thinking and resourceful in their approach to creativity while they are here at the university and when they graduate into the world beyond whether they chose to pursue further training in theatre, a professional career or higher education. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'><span lang=EN-CA style='font-family:"Lucida Grande","serif";color:black'> </span><span lang=EN-CA style='font-family:"Times","serif";color:black'> </span><span lang=EN-CA> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'><span lang=EN-CA style='color:black'>In reality, nothing changes in the delivery of our program other than the name change. In doing this we feel we are reflecting a current shift across North America in the delivery of performance-based undergraduate training by allowing our student more control over their course of study. We are excited to offer a more progressive degree – A BA in Theatre and Performance that will highlight traditional training in addition to innovative courses in creative technologies and community-oriented practice.</span><span lang=EN-CA style='font-family:"Times","serif";color:black'> </span><span lang=EN-CA> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:36.0pt'><span lang=EN-CA style='color:black'>The BFA programs are suspending admissions as of January 1. Current students have 6 years to complete.</span><span lang=EN-CA style='font-family:"Times","serif";color:black'> </span><span lang=EN-CA style='color:black'> </span><span lang=EN-CA> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA style='color:black'>While the official Theatre Department statement points to exciting new directions in course delivery (digital media, community–oriented practice, links with indigenous communities, ACTRA mentorships, international exchange), it also puts a slightly optimistic spin on a slow decline that masks a self-fulfilling prophecy (the annual department budget is now $40,000 less than it was 16 years ago). Cuts and changes are almost always read in a negative way. What is self-fulfilling is that the withdrawal of funding and the loss of 2 key faculty positions in the studies area (due to cuts and attrition) and the elimination of many sessional positions in a department already stressed by tight overall budgets and static numbers is demoralizing and it immediately impacts registration. When current and potential students sense weakness, they look elsewhere for education and training. This is not only true at the U of R. Anecdotal information indicates that many smaller departments across the country are suffering as administrations slowly withdraw support in those areas following fiscal strategies that prioritize student numbers and research dollars over less directly quantifiable measures of success that the arts amply produce – strong and transferable skills training, vibrant community building activity, creative problem solving, enhanced tourist activity, and so forth. Students will take note and Theatre Departments will continue to crumble. </span><span lang=EN-CA> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA style='color:black'>In our case, following APR directives to modernize old courses, the Theatre Department was aggressive and proactive in cleaning up programs thereby making them more focused, accessible, flexible and aligned with current interdisciplinary pedagogy. However the overall net gain is negative as the perception that we are now closed for business, fed by the University’s fatal error in reporting changes to our program, persists despite retractions, rebuttals and statements that stress otherwise. This is, in fact, why I am so emphatically making two points simultaneously: 1. The Theatre Department at the University of Regina is open for business; 2. The University is slowly pulling the rug out. The third point is: if it is happening here, it will happen elsewhere. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA style='color:black'> </span><span lang=EN-CA> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA style='color:black'>This is all happening within a wider provincial context. Over the past 6 months, the film business in Saskatchewan has received a deathblow through changes to the Saskatchewan Film Employment Tax Credit. This has affected the entire creative industry and it is estimated that approximately 600 arts professionals are leaving the province for greener pastures. As head of the Theatre Department at the University of Regina, I am, in part, responsible for the training of our undergraduate students to prepare them for a future in the Theatre, Television and Film industry in Saskatchewan. Every year we graduate young people who are trained in acting, technical direction, costume, set, props, lighting and sound design. These are the troops on the ground who help make the industry vibrant and successful. Without jobs to go to, our graduates will join the flood of young people leaving the province and they will take our training / their education with them. </span><span lang=EN-CA> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA style='color:black'>These two events are, of course linked in important and obvious ways. The arts feed into a complex ecosystem – when one part is jeopardized, the rest of the organism begins to fail as well. Is this important? You tell me.</span><span lang=EN-CA> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA style='color:black'>Kathleen Irwin, Head </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA style='color:black'>Theatre Department, University of Regina</span><span lang=EN-CA> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA style='color:black'><a href="mailto:Kathleen.Irwin@uregina.ca" target="_blank">Kathleen.Irwin@uregina.ca</a></span><span lang=EN-CA> </span><o:p></o:p></p></div></blockquote></div></div></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><br><br clear=all><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></body></html>