A Rich Tradition of Achievement

Since its inception in the 1940s, the Department of Drama has been committed to the training and education of the future artists and visionary leaders of Canadian theatre.

You only need to look at our many alumni filling key artistic leadership roles across the country to see why the University of Alberta’s Department of Drama is widely regarded as one of North America's top training grounds for theatre.

More about our U of A Drama Alumni

Our Areas of Excellence

• Theatre in Performance
• New Play Creation and Development
• U of A Studio Theatre - featuring Canada's leading university theatre students 
• The first Playwright-in-Residence program to be established by a university in Canada 
• The Timms Centre for the Arts, ranked by an external review committee as among the top five theatre teaching performance facilities in North America
• The Canadian Centre for Theatre Creation, a newly established national drama institute
• Are We There Yet? , a unique national research project studying how and why theatre is an effective tool for teaching teen sexuality and education

Recent Achievements

• MFA Theatre Practice student Michelle Rios has been invited to be a member of the International Golden Key Honour Society because of her recent accomplishments.
• MFA Theatre Voice Pedagogy student, Dawn Sadoway, won a 2012 Graduate Teaching Award from the Faculty of Arts.
• Jan Selman, U of A Drama professor and former Chair of Drama (1999-2010), was elected to the academies of the Royal Society of Canada—the highest honour a scholar can achieve in the Arts, Humanities and Sciences–in September 2011. She was also inducted into the City of Edmonton's Arts & Culture Hall of Fame in June 2011.
• Professor Emeritus, former Chair of Drama and theatre legend Thomas Peacocke was honoured at the 2011 Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts with a lifetime achievement award. Professor David Barnet and Drama alum Arlen Konopaki were also honoured with awards.
• U of A Drama alumnus Shaun Johnston (BFA '90) was awarded the 2011 David Billington Award, presented each year to an individual who has made an invaluable contribution to Alberta’s TV and film production community. Read the story in the Calgary Herald here.
• U of A Drama alumnus Michael Peng (MFA Directing '08) was honoured with a Best Actor nomination for his performance in Bashir Lazhar at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe in Scotland. Bashir Lazhar was directed by Drama professor Piet Defraeye. Read more in the UK paper The Stage.
  
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