At the School for the Contemporary Arts, we study performance as a worldmaking art practice; as a frame for encountering the past, present, and future; and as open questions we ask through rigorous studio experimentation: What can performance do? Why make performance now? What new forms can performance take within a contemporary context? What is the future of live performance? At SCA, we empower students to collaborate across disciplines, become versatile artists, and expand the field of live performance.

Program Information

In the Theatre Performance BFA track, students explore a broad range of genres and forms, including devised theatre, live art, and social practice. Our program deviates from traditional theatre training by experimenting with contemporary processes of performance, unconventional narrative styles, expanded dramaturgy, experimental forms, new media and creative research. We examine how the fundamentals of performance—time, space, body, text, movement—help us stage our burning political questions, enact necessary social interventions, and advance the broad aesthetic fields of contemporary art.

To see detailed descriptions of the program options in the Theatre Performance area, please visit the Academic Calendar.

Curriculum

Our studio and hybrid studio-seminar courses serve six core-curricular groupings:

LIVE ACTS: a wide range of studio courses on live forms and genres.
BODY: studio courses on embodiment and movement.
SOCIAL: forms of collaboration and participation; engaging social practice and activist artmarking.
ENVIRONMENT: from site specificity to staged ecologies.
DIGITAL/NEW MEDIA: from live to pre-recorded; extended reality to interactive installation.
CREATIVE RESEARCH: courses that train students in experimental methods of research, from expanded dramaturgy to practice-based research.

Please visit Future Students for information about applying to the program.

For more information about the Performance Area, please contact Professor Ryan Tacata (Performance Area Coordinator).

FACULTY

Our international faculty consists of practicing contemporary performance makers and scholars, including Erika Latta, Ryan Tacata, and James Long. Our area sessional instructors and lecturers are artists embedded in the Vancouver live art sector, including Lee Su-Feh, Justine A. Chambers, Josh Hite, Milton Lim, Aryo Khakpour, Billy Marchenski, and others.

EVENTS

The Performance area develops and presents many events throughout the academic year, from 'black box' experiments to larger 'mainstage' productions. Keep track of what we're up to on the SCA's Events page. Also, our faculty and instructors are also often busy with projects and performances away from the SCA, as well. Check the SCAs weekly-updated News page to find out what they're up to.