Useful links
Stay up-to-date
Theatre and Performance Studies
The making, presentation and viewing of theatre and performance
From theatre, dance and other forms of live art to political rallies, sacred rituals and pop stars, we explore all aspects of performance to understand culture, history and ourselves.
We regularly attract international academic visitors who come to observe our unique program. Our staff are widely recognised researchers in the fields of theatre, dramaturgy, dance, community theatre, music and sport.
Some of our graduates move into professional theatre, dance, production management, drama teaching or arts administration, while others use insights from this discipline and the research skills they have acquired to inform their careers in law, medicine, public administration, social justice and foreign affairs. Many of our students undertake postgraduate study and teach at tertiary level.
Our study offering
Theatre and Performance Studies looks at a broad range of aesthetic, social and everyday performances across theatre, dance or live art and the stage, to the performative dimensions of politics, sport, cinema and popular culture. Explore a range of different approaches to performance making, engage with professional artists-in-residence and learn how to document performative events and build these observations into a detailed critical analysis.
Undergraduate
- Theatre and Performance Studies major*
- Theatre and Performance Studies minor*
- Theatre and Performance Studies (Honours)
*Available to all students studying the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Visual Arts, as well as all combined Bachelor of Advanced Studies degrees.
Research
Research in Theatre and Performance Studies engages with a broad range of aesthetic, social and everyday performances, from practices that we might readily recognise as theatre, dance or live art through to the performative dimensions of law, politics, sport and other kinds of activity.
Our research
We are concerned in the broadest possible way with the phenomenon of performance and the processes involved in its production and reception. Some of our areas of expertise include:
- Australian theatre and dance history
- Performance-making processes: theories of acting, dramaturgy, ethnography of rehearsal
- Historical rehearsal processes and performance practices in Europe
- Performance and health
- Performance and social change
- Placemaking and embodiment
- Creative practice as research
Current postgraduate research
- Neil Anderson: Rudolf Steiner's Art of Acting
- Joseph Appleton: Deviant Bodies/Queer Corporealities
- Lawrence Ashford: Towards a Dramaturgy of Interactive Theatre
- James Dalton: A Doctor Prepares: An Ethnographic Account of Medical Students Learning to Perform as Junior Doctors
- Aine De Paor: Staging Ireland Down Under
- Tess De Quincey: What can 'Body Weather Bodies' do?
- Peta Downes: Artist or Creative Entrepreneur? The Impact of Creative Industries on Australian Theatre Practice
- Rowan Greaves: White Faces and Nervous Laughter: Subversive Comedy in Australian Performance
- Lillian Shaddick: Samba Showgirls: Cross cultural practice in Australian popular dance entertainment
- Ting Zheng: Transformational Role of the Dramaturgy between Drama Production Teams, Critics and Audiences in the Transitional Society of China
The Rex Cramphorn Performance Research Studio
Expressions of interest for the 2023 Rex Cramphorn Studio Artist-in-Residence program have now closed.
The annual program of artist residencies is curated and managed by the Placement and Project Co-ordinator, Dr Barbara Campbell. Artist residences are offered with the condition that artists are open to engage with students and academics; this may include student observation, class participation or invitations to showings. Please email Barbara Campell (barbara.campbell@sydney.edu.au) if you’d like to discuss a project for 2024.
We have two studio facilities available to outside practitioners. Both are located in the Department, Level 1 of the John Woolley Building, A20, and are accessed from Manning Rd.
Rex Cramphorn Studio
The Rex Cramphorn Studio was named to commemorate a brilliant man of the theatre who had a long and important involvement with the Department.
The Studio is an open rectangular space which can be used for rehearsal, workshops or performance in various flexible formats.
- Length: 12.7m
- Width: 8.5m
- Height: 4m
In addition to the main sprung floor, there is a small foyer space with kitchenette, toilets and space for some seats. Above the entrance is a mezzanine with toilets, changing rooms and showers. The Studio is equipped with a semi flexible lighting grid and some rated rigging positions, a small theatre lighting package and control, an audio control desk and a pa system.
The AV Studio
The Audio-Visual Studio is a flat-floor seminar room equipped with audio and visual equipment, as well as blackout shutters. It is suitable for workshops, seminars and video screenings.
- Length: 8m
- Width: 5.5m
- Height: 4m
Journal: About Performance
The discipline publishes a peer-reviewed journal, About Performance, which provides an international forum for analysis, theory and critique by academic researchers and performance makers. We welcome articles that bring theoretical perspectives derived from other disciplines to bear on performance practice. The journal is published annually, and each issue is devoted to a single theme.
Distributed via Informit Humanities & Social Sciences Collection and ProQuest Central.
Editor: Ian Maxwell
Our people
- Mr Lawrence Ashford
- Dr Amanda Card
- Dr Paul Dwyer
- Dr Laura Ginters
- Dr Kate Maguire-Rosier
- Associate Professor Ian Maxwell
- Associate Professor Glen McGillivray
- Ms Michelle St Anne
- Dr Paul Dwyer, Chair of Discipline
- Associate Professor Amanda Card, Undergraduate Course Component Coordinator, Honours Coordinator (S1)
- Associate Professor Sarah Gleeson-White, Honours Coordinator (S2)
- Associate Professor Glen McGillivray, Research Director
- Ms Nien Yuan Cheng
- Associate Professor Tim Fitzpatrick
- Dr Daniel Johnston
- Dr Jodie McNeilly-Renaudie
- Dr Mark Seton
- Dr Justine Shih Pearson
- Ms Kerrie Roberts
Events
Visit the School's events calendar to see our upcoming events and seminars.
Banner image: Artists in residence with the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, in the Rex Cramphorn Studio. Theatre Kantanka, Obscene Madame D, 2018. Photo: Heidrun Löhr.
Featured news
See more
