The Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies offers graduate programs leading to the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. The centre's own core courses focus on the program fields of dramaturgy, theatre history, and theory of drama. Within the parameters of these fields, the centre supports research in such areas as performance analysis and reception; Canadian, American, international, and intercultural theatre; Elizabethan and Restoration staging practices; historiography and performance; acting and modern staging theories and practices; performance aesthetics and politics; as well as play and project development.
A new aspect in the curriculum focuses on the impact of digital culture on theatre practice and research. Through affiliations with other graduate units, students may also take courses in drama, theatre, and performance from other departments, centres, and institutes across the University. Graduate students build on the foundation that would normally be laid in undergraduate studies with a concentration in theatre, drama, and performance studies. Performance practice is an integral part of graduate work in the centre and it takes place, for the most part, at the Robert Gill Theatre and the Luella Massey Studio Theatre.