University of Canterbury

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.

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. 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.

Images from Passion, Pulse, Power.

Free Theatre's Distraction Camp toured Wellington.

 

Quicklinks

Second Semester 2013

Come talk to us about your plans for the second semester and beyond. Here's what's on offer:
TAFS105 Puppets, Animated Film and Gaming;
TAFS232 Theatre: Realism & Beyond;
TAFS242 Popular and Art Film;
TAFS251/351 The Performance of the Body in Theatre and Film.
You can find us upstairs in Fine Arts Block 2, by phone on 03 364 2580 or by emailing Greta Bond.

New for 2013

TAFS402 Performance Studies: Theories and Methods

Postgraduate Study

Theatre and Film Studies is interviewing now for Masters and PhD. Contact Sharon Mazer for details. See Current and Completed Theses.

Coming up in 2013

Postgraduate Seminar Series continues
Wednesdays at 4.15pm in the University Staff Club. The next presenter, Aaron Annan (PhD), will be speaking on "The Challenge of the Mask in Contemporary Ghanaian Theatre" (22nd May). Closing the first semester’s series of presentations will be Gijs Ochsendorf (PhD), whose talk is titled "That is not dead which can eternal diversify: Lovecraftian fandom as creative expressions of audience agency" (Wednesday 29th May). All welcome.

The Soldier's Tale
Associate Professor Peter Falkenberg has been invited to direct a Christchurch Symphony Orchestra production of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale for the 2013 Christchurch Arts Festival. PhD student Emma Johnston and tutor George Parker will play the roles of the devil and the soldier.

Publications
- Associate Professor Sharon Mazer asks 'A National Theatre in New Zealand? Why/Not?' in S. Blandford (Ed.)'s Theatre and Performance in Small Nations.
- A curated collection of essays and play-excerpts titled ‘Reflections on Theatre and Performance in the (post) Earthquake Zone’ will appear in the April issue of Australasian Drama Studies. The collection was edited by Associate Professor Sharon Mazer and includes writing by TAFS staff, graduates and graduate students Dr Ryan Reynolds, Dr George Parker, Simon Troon and Tony McCaffrey.

Conferences
- Associate Professor Sharon Mazer will deliver a keynote address to The Asian Conference on Art and Cultures, at Srinakharinwirot University (Bangkok) in June.
- Lecturer Dr Ryan Reynolds and TAFS Graduate Coralie Winn were keynote speakers at the recent Community Renewal Conference Newcastle in Australia.

Earthquake Memorial Sculpture
Song Song (A Musical Bridge) is a sound sculpture designed by Chris Reddington, Technical Director and Designer, Theatre and built by Chris and Stuart Lloyd-Harris, Technical Director and Tutor for Film. The work has been selected as the CPIT earthquake commemoration artwork and was unveiled on the anniversary of the February 2011 quake.

Highlights of 2012

Best Play - I Sing the Body Electric
Free Theatre's production of I Sing the Body Electric, a collaboration with the university's HIT Lab, was named 'Best Play' for 2012 by The Press. Directed by Associate Professor Peter Falkenberg, it followed on from last year's Passion, Pulse, Power, and performed a sold out winter season in Christchurch. "This was a production to plunge into rather than politely nibble... outstanding theatre for the senses" wrote The Press.

Teaching Award
Associate Professor Peter Falkenberg, senior lecturer in Theatre and Film Studies, won a prestigious University Teaching Award in recognition of teaching excellence. Congratulations Peter!

Professional Integrity
Dr Ryan Reynolds received a Tertiary Education Union (TEU) Award of Excellence for Professional Integrity.

Gap Filler continued to break new ground
The Gap Filler Trust, founded by TAFS staff and graduates, was given an award for Social Innovation at the NZI National SBN Awards. Meanwhile Prince Charles danced on Gap Filler's Dance-o-Mat and Coralie Winn was named a "One News Good Sort" in recognition of her work as co-founder and director of Gap Filler.

TEDxEQChCh 2012
Dr George Parker and Dr Ryan Reynolds each contributed talks for TEDxEQChCh 2012. George spoke about Free Theatre and Arts Circus; and Ryan spoke about Gap Filler and Life in Vacant Spaces. Hear Ryan's TEDx talk, The Adolescent City. Hear George's TEDx talk, Through An Artistic Lens.

Hereafter Wins Award
Hereafter performed at the Dunedin Fringe Festival, where it won entrance to the 2013 Adelaide Festival, including free registration to the festival. According to the Judges "this bold and challenging work is compelling theatre of the highest calibre".

Bluebeard's Castle
Associate Professor Peter Falkenberg directed Bluebeard's Castle, which featured the graduating class of Theatre and Film Studies and performed a sold out season as part of the Platform Festival.

Close Up Puppetry
The course TAFS105 Puppetry, Animated Film and Gaming featured on TV1 Close Up.

A Different Light tours to Leeds
PhD student Tony McCaffrey took his theatre company, A Different Light, to the Ludus Festival Leeds, where it performed Still Lives.