Ulla Neurburg, a valued colleague at the Theatre Department at Concordia University in Montréal, Canada passed away recently in autumn, 2026. I remember her mostly as a warm, vital and productive colleague at CATR conferences over the years, but her influence as a teacher, scholar, and practitioner touched so many others on both sides of the Atlantic.
Born in Cologne, Germany in 1962, Ulla’s training, practice and teaching took her to Berlin, New York, and California before she joined the faculty at Concordia University in Montréal in 2006 to teach acting, directing, and theatre history and to supervise graduate students. Her research into “how performers train their psychophysical instruments to summon and wholly embody strong, complex, often difficult emotions” (Sussman) led her into groundbreaking work on Rasaboxes. Her collaborations with Saskatchewan Cree playwright, Floyd Favel (Poundmaker Nation), also led to critical investigations into “Indigenous housing precarity, stories of dislocation, and the loss of traditional language and culture on native reserves” (Sussman).
Colleague, Dr. Lisa Ndeduru described Ulla as “a devoted theatre person, friend, teacher, mother, and partner … who loved her students as humans and as artists” and who “took people as they presented themselves, studied them,…and whenever she could, she supported them.”
Our condolences to her many family, friends, and colleagues both in Canada and abroad. She will be much missed.
– Moira Day, Professor Emerita University of Saskatchewan, CATR Secretary