Location: Roger Bishop Theatre
Abstract:
Recent PhD graduates, Dr Taylor Marie Graham and Dr Lauren McLean have solicited and compiled a series of important personal essays focused on the graduate student experience in the theatre in Canada.
Graduate school can often be an isolating experience; however, those feelings of isolation are a shared experience. Graham’s inspiration for this book came from the fabulous success of two articles written on the personal experiences of graduate life by herself and her colleague Dr Robert Motum. Fall 2021, “The Art of Not Picking A Lane” by Graham was published by Intermission. This funny personal essay explores the underdiscussed topic of tensions between critical engagement and artistic practice, both between communities and within researchers themselves. Also published by Intermission, Robert Motum’s 2024 article “Why would anyone do a PhD in theatre?” examines the perceptions vs the realities of pursuing a PhD, and challenges readers to consider the value of earning a doctorate in complex times. To this day, both Graham and Motum still receive “fan mail” for these articles from graduate students and faculty alike. The popularity of these articles clearly demonstrates a need for more discussion on this topic, including more diverse and varied voices and perspectives.
Graham and McLean are in the process of receiving personal essays from recent graduates who offer unique perspectives into the real lived experiences of folks navigating higher learning today. Some contributors discuss practical concerns such as writing a dissertation, dealing with financial realities, working with an advisor, teaching undergraduate students, etc. In addition, some contributors explore important topics of shared and individual experiences of navigating grad school at the intersections of race, sexuality, gender, grief, age, and accessibility. Overall, Graham and McLean have compiled an array of perspectives that they wish they could have read when they started their journeys into academia.
Starring A Black Actor in Grad School
By Starr Domigue, Actor at Stratford Festival etc
Twenty-Twenty. A very successful career as an actor has paused as we all grapple with a worldwide pandemic. The decision is made to pursue another dream, for no other reason than time and opportunity. But where to begin?
Original forays into a post-secondary arts education had been based on foundationally Eurocentric ideals of theatre and though time spent accruing said diploma was not only invaluable but beloved, there was often an expectation to follow those models.
Teachers believed they knew exactly what was needed, they taught their students accordingly and there was no recourse against the “Keepers of the Knowledge.”
However, having spent over two decades in entertainment as a multi hyphenated Black, female-presenting artist and educator, I had seen the evolution of theatre and arts institutions. Perhaps a return to academia would illicit a pleasant surprise. Could I be presented with progressive, learner-centered professors who understand the challenges students now face, and vocalize, amid the era of post-pandemic education and social revelation?
A quest for the illusive short graduate theatre program began. Though the question of “where” and “when” paled in comparison to the “whys.” Why subject myself to the pressures; financial, emotional or otherwise? Why commit my valuable time and energy to the pursuit of something that in theory has no real baring on my actual work? Why devote myself to something just for the paper of it all?
There was a humble willingness to learn and be mentored, a pride in my aptitude for research and a hefty facade of confidence in my point of view. However, undergraduate studies had been based in practical skills, not necessarily theoretical ones and those studies had taken place twenty years prior. A constant thwarting of imposter syndrome began that has never left me even as I type these words.
The truth is I have lived a life where I like to get what I want. I work really hard on getting what I want. And what I wanted was that paper.
Learning to Bloom: Gender Studies as a Guiding Point for Navigating Grad School
By Dr Lauren McLean, Sessional Professor, Niagara College
As a grad student, you are in the process of learning, but a different sort of learning. You are learning to be an expert, from experts, on experts.
While simultaneously, feeling anything other than expertise – at least that was my experience. I did my best to be a flower, soaking up the sun (aka readings) to help me grow. I was a flower, and the experts were in a whole other field. I didn’t feel like a seed anymore as I knew I held some level of knowledge, having completed my Masters, literally less than a week before beginning my PhD journey (a story for another time); however, it took time for me to develop the confidence and certainty that came with developing knowledge.
I will never forget sitting in a meeting with faculty who informed me I was brave for researching and analyzing people and works by people who were living. The thought process went: Brave. Brave? BRAVE?! Should I not be taking this approach? Have I made things more difficult on myself? What about living people was brave? Then, I remembered Sara Ahmed, one of many people and aspects of gender studies that would be my guiding points. In Living a Feminist Life, Sara Ahmed discussed citation as a tool to acknowledge those who helped us find our way through the uncertainty and those who helped provide a foundation for “our dwellings” (Ahmed 16). Citations were powerful, and I did not want to take the easy path. I wanted to be brave.
In turning to gender studies, I was frequently reminded that theory was inherently connected to life, and thus, I found myself needing to apply theory in practice to strengthen my own awareness of both. In this chapter, I will share how finding my guiding points allowed me to find roots that helped me bloom into knowing how to be open to learning and re-learning, while also finding certainty in what my garden needed.
Navigating Grief in Grad School
By Molly Mikola, Academic Program Administrator, McMaster University
In July of 2019, in the midst of completing a collaborative master’s degree at the University of Toronto I experienced the sudden loss of my 45-year-old father to an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm.
What were my next steps? What did I do now?
Faced with the immediate demands of an intensive language program and an upcoming months long international research trip, I was confronted with the question of how to move forward both academically and personally.
Do I continue my studies? Should I take time away to help my family? It seemed like nobody had any answers for me. Each time I reached out, I was often told I didn’t qualify for resources, or that specific resources were only for undergraduate students. I could hardly put one foot in front of the other and I felt like I was supposed to continue with my studies as though nothing had happened. I had no frame of reference on how to handle the situation I found myself in. How was I supposed to keep up with school when something so unimaginable had just occurred?
Through personal reflection I want this article to examine the lack of guidance and support graduate students often face during times of tragedy. I am going to share coping strategies I developed, resources I discovered, and the role of open, clear and honest communication with one’s academic supervisors. I hope to provide insight for other graduate students experiencing similar losses and advocate for stronger institutional support for grief within academic settings.
Biographies:
Starr Domingue is a multi-hyphenate artist, scholar and educator, with 20+ years on stages and screens across the Caribbean, the United States, Europe and Canada. Selected credits include A Change in Heart, Hudson & Rex, 4square’s 4tone, Oddsquad’s Puppy Master and the upcoming feature No Boundaries. An original Toronto company member of Hairspray, the stage musical and the motion picture of the same name, Starr has been featured in multiple productions of Ain’t Misbehavin’ including the 30th Anniversary Broadway National Tour, which culminated in a resident directorship for the European tour. She has spent years performing at Canada’s two major repertory companies, the prestigious Shaw Festival and the world-famous Stratford Festival, where in 2026 she reprises her role as Bea from the 2024 season’s critically acclaimed production of Something Rotten, General Cartwright in Guys and Dolls and her one-woman show, I’m the Greatest Starr… (but no one knows it). Starr achieved her Masters in Theatre while simultaneously performing in the musicals Room and Dixon Road for Mirvish Productions and The Musical Stage Company, respectively, followed by an award-nominated role in The Musical Stage Company’s Retold and the Dora award-winning production of The Crow’s Theatre’s Red Velvet. She is also the creator/producer and host of The Blacktor’s Studio podcast: an interview series highlighting the journeys of actors of Colour who grace the Canadian stage.
Dr. Taylor Marie Graham (she/her) is an award-winning playwright, dramaturg, director, theatre scholar, and educator. Both her creative and academic work often explores feminist, rural Canadian, decolonial, and environmental themes. In her eighteen years of working as a professional theatre artist, Taylor has garnered considerable critical praise for consistently walking the line between social commentary and entertainment in her work. You can find her articles in Canadian Theatre Review, Intermission Magazine, Routledge’s Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, The Conversation, Theatre Research in Canada, Guernica Editions, as well as Canadian Literature. Her 2024 play anthology Cottage Radio & Other Plays was published by Talonbooks.
Dr. Lauren McLean (She/Her/They) is a researcher, educator, and advocate whose work centers on intersectional social change, community, and digital culture. Lauren holds a PhD in Literary Studies and Theatre Studies from the University of Guelph and her current work focuses on queer acts of resistance in relation to popular culture within online community spaces. Within and beyond her current work, Lauren is a self-declared feminist killjoy hoping for change.
Dr. Robert Motum is an artist-researcher. His writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Drama Review, Theatre Research in Canada, Canadian Theatre Review, and in collections from Palgrave and Routledge. His award-winning doctoral research into the performance of nationhood is currently featured in the documentary Micronations, premiering at the Tribeca Festival in June. Robert is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies and serves as faculty at the Rotman School of Management.