Do drama students at U of T deserve their degrees? When a student spends his schooldays letting out cleansing sighs, trotting around like a bear, and realigning his posture in yoga pants, should he receive the same B.A. as other humanities students who have to pore over textbooks, memorize dates and names, and churn out hundreds of pages of essays?
Like it or not, the elitist reputation of University of Toronto exists in the real world, following graduates every time they flash their credentials. Whether students in the University College Drama Program (UCDP) deserve that cachet while not necessarily engaging in the same rigorous academic standards that a U of T degree is associated with is a question of perception.
UCDP student Catherine Dunn takes both drama and English-and finds there’s a noticeable difference between the two.
“[Drama] is indeed very challenging academically,” she says, “but I also have to bring my physical and emotional availability to every class, as well as my intellect.”
Dunn’s English poetry courses have required her to learn and apply poetic scansion to delve into the meaning of metre in a piece. For her drama credits, she also has to metrically scan her lines for thematic context-but then she has to memorize them, ‘block’ them out in a performance context, and open her heart and mind to the implications of what she’s found between them.
“It’s not the type of gig where you can munch away at your Diabolos’ muffin in the back row of the lecture,” added third-year UCDP student Sarah Warren. “We have to come to class early, prepared, warmed up, in proper attire-flexible clothing with no logos-and be able to tap into any depth of emotion at any time.”
This passion and personal dedication is something many students would argue is not demanded from, or often even present in, many generic major or specialist degrees.
Clearly, for a society to function and thrive, it requires many such passionate and dedicated people in the artistic community. But elsewhere at U of T, other similar artists come away from their undergraduate time with an arts-specific degree.
For time spent learning about theory and technique of an instrument, a student will see a B. Mus. on her business card. For excellence in sculpture, a student can walk away with a BFA. And yet, the UCDP graduates achieve the same initials on their diploma as the political scientist who has written hundreds of pages of statistical analysis.
Like the B.Mus. and BFA, the UCDP requires its students to fulfill breadth requirements. For drama students, courses such as English, Classics, or languages often function in counterpoint to their performance credits, helping to develop context and broaden students’ perception of the role of drama and theatre. However, the overwhelming bulk of drama students’ days are spent working on applied performance technique.
But ultimately the question about the drama program is not whether it is an accurate standard in the ‘real world,’ or whether applied arts degrees are valuable. Rather, it is whether this emotionally based and unorthodox program deserves a straightforward B.A.-in other words, whether the UCDP belongs in an institution world-renowned for its book smarts.
“It is because of this reputation that a large institution like U of T should be well-rounded in terms of its offerings,” argues graduating engineer Irene Wang, who can clearly appreciate the “arts” aspect of a B.A.
“It’s because of the standard U of T has to uphold that it can attract and foster international talent in various fields, particularly in performance areas such as drama where not many other schools in Canada could boast the same honoured standing worldwide.”
