Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media

Our Country's Good

Written by Timberlake Wertenbaker. Directed by Dr. Bill Kerr.

April 2 - 5, 2025
Wednesday to Saturday - 7:00 p.m.
Saturday - 2:00 p.m.

John J. Conklin Theatre, Gail Asper Performing Arts Hall
Third floor Taché Arts Complex, 150 Dafoe Road

Based on historical events and adapted from Thomas Keneally’s The Playmaker (also author of Schindler’s List), Our Country’s Good is about the landing of the First Fleet and its transported prisoners who enact the first English theatrical production in Australia.  Both highly comic and greatly troubling, the play suggests that theatre can be a tool to enable radical reimaginings of selves and futures. But this fresh perspective retains an old blindness about the terrible transformations of colonization. The play points to hopeful futures at the same time as it displays the pressing need for a greater justice.

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Learn more about the show on UMToday

Presented by the Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media's Theatre Program. Produced by special arrangement with THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY of Woodstock, Illinois.

Research Spotlight:
Queer Kinship Structures in Epic Fantasy and Online Fandom Communities

Dr. Erin Keating and honours student Anastasia Christodoulou have a video conversation about Books One and Three of Steven Erikson’s [BA/80] epic fantasy series, Malazan Book of the Fallen. Based on research they conducted alongside two graduate research assistants over the summer, this video looks at two characters from the series, Silverfox and The Mhybe, through the lens of queer theory and queer reproduction.

Watch the video

If you’re interested in doing more public-facing scholarship as part of your degree, the Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media might be the place for you. 

Learn more about our degree offerings

That Elusive Spark 

By Janet Munsil. Directed by Dr. Katrina Dunn.

November 27 - December 2, 2024

Thank you to all who attended the show. Congratulations to the students, staff and professors who made it happen. 

A mashup of historical drama and romantic comedy, this play time shifts between a contemporary university where Neuropsychologist Helen Harlow struggles with teaching Psych 101 and taming her own mind, and a famous and true historical case in psychology and neuroscience. The human mind, brain, and heart are all explored with humour, theatricality and Hamlet!

Presented by the Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media's Theatre Program.

On social media? Then you’re an ‘author’

MA student studies how much influence an audience’s response has on an author or creator

Everyone who creates something on social media becomes an author. Sudden, unexpected virality might turn any one of us into authors with global recognition, subjecting all of us to similar expectations of famous creators.

Jessie Krahn [BA(Hons)/2018, MA/2023] is a 2024 UM Distinguished Master’s Thesis Prize winner. The prize is given out annually to recognize the achievements of Master’s graduates who submitted groundbreaking theses in the previous academic year. Her thesis is titled “Here comes the author: evolving notions of authorship on social media.”

Read more about Jessie Krahn’s prize winning thesis on UM Today

Theatre a safe space to learn how to fail

2024 graduate grateful for opportunities and says program truly “chose her”

As a first year student, Bailey Chin [BA/2024] wasn’t quite sure what to study in university. She had already taken a year off after high school and still hadn’t decided what might be for her. So, like many others, she registered for University1. Among the arts and science courses she registered for, a longtime love of theatre led her to try Introduction to Theatre. Jump forward and COVID-19 led Chin to take another year off and work professionally as an actor before coming back to complete her degree in 2024. Years of study and many productions later, Chin is graduating this spring with a bachelor of arts majoring in theatre and hopes to continue her journey in the performing arts world.

Read more on UM Today

Identity and Poetics of Ukrainian Canadian Literature

We are pleased to share that the conference Identity and Poetics of Ukrainian Canadian Literature took place on March 14 and was a great success. The event brought together scholars, writers, and community members to engage in meaningful discussions on the literary contributions of Ukrainian Canadians and their role in shaping cultural identity.

This success would not have been possible without the invaluable support of our speakers, participants, and organizers. We extend our sincere gratitude to everyone who contributed, especially our sponsors—the Shevchenko Foundation, the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies, and the Faculty of Arts at the University of Manitoba, the Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media, the Department of German and Slavic Studies —whose generous support helped make this event possible.

To learn more about the conference or future projects related to Global Ukrainian Canadian Studies contact Prof. Mariya Shymchyshyn
 

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