Theatre and Film Studies
What we do
We study theatre and film as performing arts and as cultural processes in order to provoke a more direct understanding of ourselves as participants in, and as performers and consumers of, culture. Theatre and Film Studies students are encouraged to work both as artists and as scholars at all levels: to read and think and write, but also to create, to act and direct, and to shoot and edit films.
Our approach is interactive and interdisciplinary, incorporating literary, historical, aesthetic, philosophical, psychoanalytic and socio-political theories from the twin perspectives of the artist and the spectator/reader, through the experiences of doing and watching as well as through the processes of intellectual inquiry and research.
Students are encouraged to work both as scholars and as artists at all levels: to read and think and write, but also to create, to act and direct and edit. Ideally, students study both theatre and film, as these disciplines have in common various theories of genre, representation and performance, as well as the practices of acting and directing.
Theatre and film studies courses integrate theory and practice, with performance and digital film work serving as grounds for scholarly writing and all research having the potential to provoke artistic experimentation.
Quicklinks
Theatre and Film Studies, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch. Contacts Page
Thinking about summer and beyond?
We’re happy to advise you that our summer Animated Film course will be offered yet again,
and students will still be able to create their own short animated films.
In 2010 the major in Theatre and Film Studies
will be continuing in much the same way as it is now, with the practical component in all film studies offerings remaining intact.
Summer Course 2009/10:
2010 Courses, 1st Semester:
2010 Courses, 2nd Semester:News and Announcements
Mark James Hamilton awarded Best Presentation at the national postgraduate conference
TAFS Ph.D. candidate Mark James Hamilton presented a paper - Mika's haka in 'Mika's Haka': performing as the 'other' - at the NZPGC held in November
at Victoria University in Wellington, for which he has been awarded the VUW Award for Outstanding Oral Presentation and a nice cash prize. Well done, Mark.
Faust Chroma nominated for Chapman Tripp award
The Free Theatre Christchurch production FAUST CHROMA, directed by
Peter Falkenberg, was nominated
for Most Original Production of 2009 at the prestigious Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards held in Wellington. Congratulations to Peter
and the ensemble, all of whom were past or present TAFS staff members or students.