curriculum change at Saskatchewan

[Richard Plant]

Hello Moira:
 
Your queries raise important issues for most departments these days. I
hope a good deal of discussion ensues. I can comment at least briefly on
what has been happening at Queen's. Over the years we have had different
types of first-year courses in a liberal arts drama programme. The most
prevalent has been one course which brings together anywhere from 20 to
45 students (currently 43 limit) who work through aspects of
the various discipline areas inherent in theatre, e.g. some acting,
design, dramatic analysis, theatre history, criticism, playwriting, etc.
I've not taught this course for several years, but I note the
virtues and problems remain. It is a difficult course to teach, as one might
imagine. The intention is to introduce fundamentals. We have another 1st
year course which focuses on 20th century theatre (usually available on
video) which is meant to accommodate large numbers (our largest room
holds 70ish so that limit is set). This course too has the potential to
offer quite a lot of theatre practice. I remember also a course ages ago
which was meant to serve students who had a strong theatre background
(high school drama, stage experience) and/or had declared in their first
year that drama would be their major. One discovery was that those "more
advanced" students were often undisguishable from the less adavnced who
took our more general first year course. (Good students will learn in
spite of what we do as teachers?)
 
I'd suggest getting in touch with Gary Wagner who has seen all this
through for many years. He is currently on sabbatical, and may not be on
CANDRAM, but can be reached thorugh Drama Dept at Queen's. I'm happy to
urge him to look out for a message.
 
The manner and content of what is offered in drama courses seems to me an
important area to share ideas about. We have recently begunimplementing a
new curriculum at Queen's, simultaneous with university-wide pressures to
cut and become more Ralph Klein and Mike HArris efficient.
 
I look forward to seeing more disucssion onthe line.
 
rp