Resources

This page is an evolving set of resources for teachers who are looking for new ways of thinking about their work.

Video & Audio from CTEC & Other Events

Take a look (and listen) to some of the events that CTEC has hosted in the past:

Virtual Sypmosium on Online Theatre Education — a playlist with all sessions

Hosted on Zoom on May 8th, 2020. This symposium brough together 130 educators from around the world to talk about the challenges, and opportunities, brought on by moving theatre education online due to COVID-19.

Contemporary & In Colour: Culturally Integrated Scene Study for Today and Tomorrow

In this talk from Got Your Back Canada’s 2019 Acting Educator’s Conference, Tanisha Taitt explores why asking acting students to embody characters of colour is vitally important. In particular I was inspired by this quotation from Tanisha: "It is very important for white students to experience excellence from people of colour. Excellence. You need to make them understand that all people are capable of greatness, and that all people produce greatness."

Tanisha also provided a list of plays which she uses in scene study, which you can find by clicking here.

The Apple Cart; This Constant Race, or A Classroom in Colour

This is the audio recording of Tanisha Taitt’s inspiring Keynote from the 2018 Canadian Theatre Educators’ Conference, held at Artscape Youngplace in Toronto

Room for Everyone: The Plenary Panel on Anti-Oppression, Diversity, and Inclusion from Got Your Back’s 2019 Conference

In this discussion, moderated by Lara Arabian and including Andrew Moodie, Alex Norton, Karlie Starchuk, and Brefny Caribou-Curtin, the panelists discuss how we can begin to make our classrooms and rehearsal rooms inclusive to all. I was particularly moved by this quotation from Brefny Caribou-Curtin: "Sometimes at theatre school I felt like I was being treated like I was this empty vessel that needed to be filled with information. And I was like: I'm already full. We're already full, we just need to figure out how to use what is already deep inside of us to create art."

Resources from the CTEC community

A few resources gathered and shared by the CTEC community:

Teaching Acting Online: Ten Tips Toward Creating a Strong Container

This article published in Theatre Topics (Vol. 30, No. 3) by Tanya Elchuk offers insightful and thoughtful guidance on how to structure an online course to ensure the wellbeing of student and teacher alike, while giving good learning and good art-making the best chance to thrive. A terrific starting place if you’re facing down your first online course, and equally useful if you’ve already got a few under your belt!

Database of Culturally Diverse Plays & Playwrights

This living document, created by Kathryn Shaw and Jane Heyman of Studio 58 and Langara College, aims “to provide students and faculty with a resource for monologues, scenes and plays for potential production written by people from diverse backgrounds.

Screen Recovery Yoga by Soo Garay (4 min.)

Acclaimed actor and teacher Soo Garay, (whom some of you may remember from the morning yoga sessions at the very first CTEC conference), has generously provided this short sequence to help you to release the tension and the aches & pains that come from our many, many hours on screen. If you'd like to get in touch with Soo, we'll be happy to connect you. Simply email us at info@canadiantheatreeducatorsconference.com.

Dalhousie’s Fountain School of Performing Arts Online Instruction Questionnaire for Students

Created by Susan Stackhouse, Veronique MacKenzie, and Matthew Walker of Dalhousie Univerisity, this questionaire was sent to all students in order to ascertain in what ways they could participate in class. It serves as a great template for other programs to follow, or for individual instructors to ask their classes.

Theatre Online Master List

Created by Karen Fricker and Stephen Low, this long list includes links to over 900 productions available online as audio dramas, filmed productions, or recordings of online pieces. An invaluable resource for teachers building their course outlines. (Update: Karen and Stephen have recently added a section particularly highlighting online plays featuring BIPOC artists.)

Online Theatre Voice Pedagogy: A Literature Review

Written by Shannon Vickers, of the University of Winnipeg, for the journal ‘Voice and Speech Review’, this article is a comprehensive and concise overview of the best practices for online theatre education in voice — and a whole lot of good stuff for non-voice teachers too. Definitely worth a read.

Teaching Theatre Performance Online: Advice for Acting, Voice and Text Teachers

Written by Tim Whelan, and based on his experience teaching an online Voice & Text class with Martha Farrell for the Stratford Festival in May 2020, this is a terrific primer on which considerations to make when adjusting to teaching online. From the details of the technological setup, to the structures and strategies to use in the online classroom, Tim has given a great gift to those of us who are still wary of digital teaching.

Four Guidelines for the Use of Micro-Journalling in the Training of Theatre Artists

This is a draft version of an article being developed by Neil Silcox, discussing a useful methodology for journalling that will be particularly useful in the age of online teaching. A large part of how we come to know our students happens outside the classroom: eavesdropping on pre-class conversations, a quiet conversation just after class, bumping into students in the hallways, and more. These avenues won’t be available to us this year. Using frequent, but very short, journals, this methodology proposes a way to ensure good student-teacher dialogue no matter the context—without overtaxing either the student or the teacher.

PWYC Online Movement Classes from Pippa Domville

From now until July 24th, Pippa Domville (who hosted the Movement Breakout Session in the Online Symposium for Online Theatre Education) is offering the following classes:

• Tuesdays 10AM: Gentle Core Awakening — no experience necessary

• Wednesdays 10AM: Intermediate Advanced Core Yoga — more advanced work, but mindful of those who are new to the work

• Fridays 10AM: All movement all the time — guided movement improvisations

• Saturdays 10AM: Core and Back — great for strenghening and relieving aches and pains

For more information, or to register, email Pippa at petitjeu [at] sympatico [dot] ca

Outside Resources

Here are a few thoughts, materials, and tools from other terrific organizations:

The National Theatre School’s Update on Actions Taken to Dismantle Systemic Racism at NTS

This statement from September 2020 outlines some of the first steps that NTS is taking to correct course regarding anti-racist and white-supremacist teaching. Like all such work, it is not the be-all-and-end-all, but for those of us working to make change in our schools, it offers a good starting place.

CATR’s COVID-19 Teaching Resources

The fine folx over at the Canadian Association for Theatre Research have put together a great list of resources for teaching and research. Well worth checking out!

Culturally Competent and Trauma-Informed Teaching in the Age of MAGA and Brexit

This is a discussion between Sylvan Baker (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama), Stephen Buescher (University of California, San Diego), and Kaja Dunn (University of North Carolina at Charlotte). “This piece considers effective ways of changing both curriculum and culture on campus. Looking at practice and culture in BA, BFA, and MFA programs, the panel explores the barriers and strategies to implementing change in academia and advocating for the theatre world that students will enter. Drawing on critical race theory, decolonizing methodologies, and sociological and psychological research, the panel also looks at the unique barriers affecting faculty of color in theatre institutions that are working to implement change.”

BIPOC Demands for White American Theatre

Created by We See You White American Theatre, a “collective of multi-generational, multi-disciplinary, early career, emerging and established artists, theater managers, executives, students, administrators, dramaturges and producers,” this document offers specific, actionable ways that the theatre industry needs to change, in the United States, and in Canada.

Alternative Canon to 1945 - Non-western plays, plays by black, indigenous, people of colour, by women and by queer writers before 1945

This resource offers a large list of influential plays outside of the white-supremacist canon traditionally taught in theatre schools. Many plays include links to free online versions. (Thank you to Jennifer Wigmore for sending this my way).

Trauma Informed Practices for Post Secondary Education: A Guide

This short-but-thorough guide to trauma-informed teaching has many useful frameworks and tools for addressing students who have suffered loss.

Nobody Signed Up for This: One Professor’s Guide for an Interrupted Semester

In this article from The Chronicle of Higher Education Brandon L. Bayne, a Religious Studies professor from the University of North Carolina, published the five principles he has used to ensure the work with his students is humane and adaptable in this time of uncertainty. I found it useful in structuring my own thoughts around how I’ve adapted the tail end of my devised theatre class for online delivery.

Not In Our Space

The Canadian Actor’s Equity Association’s Not in Our Space campaign offers a great list of resources for tackling harassment and bullying in the theatre industry. This is both an useful tool for us to consider in creating our own teaching spaces, and a resource that every student who is stepping out into the professional world should be made aware of.

The Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s Resources for Teaching Online

This website has a long and well-updated list of resources that you can use, and many that you can send to students.

Dismantling Anti-Black Language in Shakespeare

Developed during a residency at Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 2020 Writer’s Group, this document helps explain why certain anti-black language exists in Shakespeare, what it meant in the Elizabethan era, what it may mean now, and strategies for replacing or cutting around them.

You Feel Like Shit — An Interactive Self-Care Guide
This is unquestionably an anxious and difficult time. This online self care tool is built around the article “Everything is Awful and I’m Not Okay” by blogger Sinope. This simple, straightforward tool offers the user actionable steps to take to try to get themselves out of a funk. If your own stress and isolation are getting you down, consider taking a look. If you feel a student could use it, consider sending it their way.

Keep in Touch

Don’t be shy to reach out.

I’m always happy to have a conversation with another educator. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at info@canadiantheatreeducatorsconference.com

Want to be the first to hear about new resources as they’re posted? Subscribe to the CTEC Newsletter for regular (but not TOO regular) updates.