Our award-winning faculty are deeply commitment to our students’ success, and to developing theatre art and theatre studies as sources of positive change in contemporary society. Our highly qualified support staff facilitate the Department of theatre’s numerous productions, the integration and supervision of students in all of the Department of Theatre's activities, as well as the organization of special events, such as colloquia and practical research laboratories.
Faculty and support staff
Our faculty includes artists, mentors, and researchers whose work is recognized locally, nationally, and internationally both for its rigour and relevance.
Our faculty and support staff
Joël Beddows
Associate Professor
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Joël Beddows is a stage director recognized for his commitment to contemporary theatre, Franco-Ontarian playwrights, and theatre for young audiences. He is associated with the Centre de recherche sur les francophonies canadiennes where he held a Canada Research Chair in Cultural Practices (2006-2016). During his mandate as Théâtre la Catapulte’s Artistic Director (1998-2010) in Ottawa, this company became an incubator for the development of new works and one of Canada’s most important touring companies. Beginning in 2006, he worked tirelessly to create an MA in Theatre Studies and a BFA in acting conservatory program in the Department of Theatre while championing the construction of the LabO, the Department of Theatre’s new creation centre. As Théâtre français de Toronto’s Artistic Director (2016-2021), he was a founding member of Les Transfrontaliers, an organisation devoted to encouraging exchanges of French language artists and productions on a truly international scale.
Janne Cleveland
Adjunct Professor
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Miriam Cusson
Assistant Professor, Director of Practical Programs
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Miriam Cusson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre since August 2021. An experienced practitioner, she is also a director, actor, writer, dramaturg and producer. In 2017, Miriam received the JOHN HIRSCH Award in Directing and in 2018, the Celebration of the Arts Award (Sudbury). In 2019, Miriam was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award from Laurentian University, where she lectured in the Theatre program from 2004 to 2021. She has a particular interest in women's theatre, Franco-Ontarian poetry and theatre, and the development of new works. Publications include Aéroportée (2022), Nouveaux contes sudburois (2022) and Lieux-dits (2023). Miriam is the Artistic Director of Theatre 4.669 (since January 2023), a company dedicated to the development of new works in the Ottawa region.
Tibor Egervari
Emeritus Professor and Adjunct Professor
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Joerg Esleben
Associate Professor, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and Department of Theatre [email protected]
DS Farrer
Adjunct Professor
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Louise Frappier
Associate Professor, Directrice des programmes en études théâtrales
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Louise Frappier is a theatre historian and the director of the Theatre Studies programs in the Department of Theatre. Her research focuses on the poetics of humanist and classical tragedy as well as on the relationship between theatre and political and religious authorities. She is also interested in Québec and Franco-Canadian dramaturgy. She is currently participating in a research project on female writings in theatre and in French literature (15th-18th century), funded by the Council for the Arts in the Social Sciences and Humanities of Canada (SSHRC). Co-director of Percées. Explorations en arts vivants, she is also a member of the editorial board of the “Archives des Lettres canadiennes” collection of the University of Ottawa’s Centre de recherche sur les francophonies canadiennes (CRCCF).
Peter A. J. Froehlich
Emeritus Professor
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Dominique Lafon
Emeritus Professor
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Irene (Irena) Makaryk
Distinguished Professor, Department of English and Department of Theatre
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Yana Meerzon
Professor
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With three single authored books and nine co-edited collections, Professor Yana Meerzon specializes in theoretical approaches to contemporary performance and dramaturgy, questions of displacement, multilingualism, and identity politics. For the past two decades, she has been studying theatrical representations of migration created by migrant artists in Europe and North America. With the rise of political populism, religious fundamentalism, and nationalism, she turned to the issues of borders and politics of nation building, within which today’s practices and discussions of global migration take place. A outgoing President of Canadian Association for Theatre Research (CATR), Meerzon is a co-editor of the journal Critical Stages, published by the International Association of Theatre Critics. Her current project is entitled “Between Migration and Neo-Nationalism(s): Performing the European Nation – Playing a Foreigner”, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
Daniel Mroz
Associate Professor
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I teach acting and directing for the stage, at the graduate and undergraduate levels, in English and French. In the 1990s, I apprenticed as an actor with director Richard Fowler. In the early 2000s, I earned a Doctorat en études et pratiques des arts from l’Université du Québec à Montréal. I’ve directed original theatre for festivals in Canada and the United States and contributed to the creation of productions in the UK and Europe. I’ve taught actors, directors, dancers and choreographers in North America, Great Britain, Europe, Turkey, and China. I also work as a dramaturg and facilitator for choreographers and performers of contemporary dance. My research focusses on the use of Chinese martial arts in contemporary theatre and dance. I contribute regularly to Martial Arts Studies, a new research area that I’ve helped to establish in collaboration with colleagues from around the world.
Kevin Orr
Professor
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Kevin Orr is a director, artistic director and writer. He is currently the Chair of the Department of Theatre. For the past twelve years, Kevin was the Artistic Director of Theatre 4.669, a new play development company he founded in 2010. During his tenure with 4.669, he accompanied the creation of forty-five new works involving over 100 different theatre makers, garnering twenty-four Prix Rideau Award nominations and winning a dozen. As a pedagogue, he enjoys exchanging ideas about actor and director training and occasionally supervising and co-supervising MA thesis. Theatre is a team sport and should be as thrilling to the spectator as a championship game.
Anne-Marie Ouellet
Assistant Professor
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Anne-Marie Ouellet is a theatre Professor at the University of Ottawa since 2015. Her research focuses on contemporary dramaturgy, stage writing, new technologies and sound in theatre. A research-creator, she is also Artistic Director of L’eau du bain, which produces theatrical, performative and installation works. L’eau du bain’s work is based on the development of sensitive digital tools in order to offer exotic and intimate experiences for audience members of all ages. The company’s most recent creations were presented in various theatres (National Arts Center of Canada, Maison Théâtre) and festivals (Mois Multi, Carrefour international de théâtre de Québec, Festival TransAmriques). In 2022, Anne-Marie Ouellet was named Emerging Researcher of the Year by the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ottawa.
Kathryn Prince
Associate Professor
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Kathryn Prince is fascinated by hopeful post-apocalyptic futures, imagining life in the wake of everything from alien invasions to zombie armies, not to mention more realistic dangers like pandemics, climate disasters, and rogue AI. Drawing on her previous work in the areas of affect, emotions, and cognition, including the use of technology to provoke and detect emotions, her current research considers how imagining life after the destruction of human civilization can elicit real feelings of hope, resilience, and determination. She theorizes that post-apocalyptic works in genres from immersive theatre to first-person shooter video games can create conditions that empower participants to face down extinction-level threats in the real world.
Alvina Ruprecht
Adjunct Professor
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Sylvain Schryburt
Associate Professor
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Sylvain Schryburt is a Québec theatre historian who specialized in the study of festival networks and the relationship between theatre and ecology. He also chaired the University of Ottawa’s Department of Theatre from 2016 to 2022, where he accompanied the construction of a new performance venue – LabO – and the establishment of the first French-language professional training program for actors outside of Quebec. Over the years, he has been a theatre critic (Revue Jeu), an editor in chief of an academic journal (L’Annuaire théâtral) and an exhibition curator (Échos – André Brassard, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec and National Arts Centre). He is currently involved in an interuniversity research group – La Littérature québécoise contemporaine à l’essai de l’histoire (SSHRC) –, where he is responsible for the sections on dramaturgy.
William Weiss
Emeritus Professor
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