This may be of interest to Canadian Theatre/ Drama Departments

[Louise Forsyth]

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.

 

Louise Forsyth

 

De : Canadian Theatre Research [mailto:CANDRAMA at LISTSERV.UNB.CA] De la part
de Lynette Hunter
Envoyé : 14 octobre 2012 12:47
À : CANDRAMA at LISTSERV.UNB.CA
Objet : Re: This may be of interest to Canadian Theatre/ Drama Departments

 

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:

strong and transferable skills training, vibrant community building
activity, creative problem solving, enhanced tourist activity, and so forth.

this list could easily be extended.

 

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 ...

 

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. 

 

Theatre, dance and performance in the university context are more likely to
train 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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

Lynette Hunter

Chair, Department of Theatre and Dance

Chair, Graduate Group in Performance Studies

University of California Davis

lhunter at ucdavis.edu

 

 

On 14 October 2012 09:21, David Ferry <appledor at sympatico.ca> wrote:

Thank you Ms Irwin for your thoughtful and provocative post.

 

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.


David Ferry

Appledore Productions

416 433 5826 <tel:416%20433%205826> 

www.davidferryactor.com


On Oct 13, 2012, at 8:38 PM, Kathleen Irwin <Kathleen.Irwin at UREGINA.CA>
wrote:

This may be of interest to Canadian Theatre/ Drama Departments 

 

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.   

 

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 in acting 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.    

 

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. 

   

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.   

The BFA programs are suspending admissions as of January 1. Current students
have 6 years to complete.   

 

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.  

 

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. 

  

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.   

 

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. 

 

Kathleen Irwin, Head 

Theatre Department, University of Regina 

Kathleen.Irwin at uregina.ca 





 

 

 

 

 

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