White woman, shoulder length brown hair, glasses, wearing a dark coat

Christine Brubaker

BA Hons, MFA
Pronouns: she/her

Positions

Associate Professor, Drama

Faculty of Arts, School of Creative and Performing Arts

Affiliations

Division Lead, Drama

Faculty of Arts, School of Creative and Performing Arts

Contact information

Email

christine.brubaker@ucalgary.ca

Web presence

Professional Practice & Research

Research Project: Rella's Cambrian Dream

Research Project: HenryG20

Linkedin

Phone number

office/cell: 416-659-9313

Location

Office UCalgary : CHD016

For media enquiries, contact

mediarequests@ucalgary.ca

Preferred method of communication

email christine.brubaker@ucalgary.ca directly. 

Background

Educational Background

B.A. Honours , University of Waterloo, 1991

M.F.A. Interdisciplinary Arts, Goddard College , 2015

Christine Brubaker CV

Biography

Christine Brubaker is a director, actor and educator. She has worked on many of Canada’s large and small stages as a director and performer and continues to balance her professional life with both conventional theatre work, new creation practices and scholarly/sectoral research. She is deeply curious about the nature of liveness between an actor and audience, the dynamics of leadership in the creation process, and the use of strategic foresight as a compass for the arts sector in volatile and uncertain times. 

Her twenty-five year career has been primarily focussed on the creation of new work and adaptation. She's worked at the Shaw Festival, Stratford Festival, Charlettown Festival, Citadel Theatre, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Factory Theatre, Canstage and many others. Her artistic practice has include new plays, durational work, digital synchronous performance using extended and mixed reality platforms. She has directed over 20 world premieres, most recently Cowgirl Up at Alberta Theatre Projects, Formations at the University of Calgary,  and The Extinction Therapist at Theatre Aquarius. She is a co-creator/performer of numerous projects including 7th Cousins: An Automythography - a 700 km durational walk and performance with collaborator Erin Brubacher which traced the route of their Mennonite ancestors.  She is the creator/writer and director of Henry G20, a digital contemporary adaptation of Henry V that premiered at the Luminato Festival in October 2021. She is creative lead and director on Rella's Cambrian Dream, an immersive science adventure for family audiences which leverages augmented reality world building through mobile technology. 

She teaches directing, producing and acting in the Drama Division in the School of Creative and Performing Arts. She is the winner of two Toronto Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Performance, the 2014 Gina Wilkinson Prize for Direction, and the 2016 Ken MacDougall Prize for Emerging Director. She is an alumnae of the University of Waterloo, the National Theatre School and the Michael Langham Program for Classical Direction at the Stratford Festival. 

Research

Areas of Research

Theatre, Performance and Extended Realities

The integration of digital technologies in live performance. This work seeks to understand the fast-changing landscape of the introduction and use of of digital technologies inside live and synchronous performance. Special focus is on the use of mobile technology (smart phones) and augumented reality.

Directing for Contemporary Theatre: Rehearsal, Creation Culture & Artistic Leadership

The nature, study and application of individualized leadership styles in creative processes influenced by the cultural norms, aesthetics, values, gender, economics and environmental dynamics

Strategic Foresight as a Tool for the Performance Sector

Use of strategic foresight methodologies to create and plan in highly volatile climates. Specifically my work focusses the particular dynamics inside the regional identity of the Canadian prairies (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba), but has lateral implications for the performance sector as a whole in Canada.  

Regenerative and Ecological Theatre Practice

The analysis and critique of current theatre making and production models with efforts to move to regenerative and sustainable practices. Collaborations include: The Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts; Advising on the SSHRC Funded Sustainability in the Arts;  SCALE-LeSAUT Round Table Member. 

Activism & Performance

I have a number of projects that sit at the intersection of activism and performance, specifically Henry G20 which interrogates through a free-wheeling adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry V the narratives and historiography of the G20 protests and the largest mass arrest in Canadian history that took place in Toronto in 2010. 

Participation in university strategic initiatives

Human dynamics in a changing world

Courses

Course number Course title Semester
DRAM 500 Advanced Acting II Fall 2020
DRAM 613 Sel Problems in Directing II Winter 2023
DRAM 511 Advanced Directing (Undergrad) Fall 2022
DRAM 611 Selected Problems in Directing I Fall 2022

Awards

  • Faculty of Arts Respect and Compassion Award , University of Calgary . 2022
  • Ken McDougall Directing Award, Harold Toronto Theatre Awards. 2017
  • Gina Wilkinson Prize for Emerging Director , Ontario Arts Foundation. 2014
  • J.B. Watkins Prize for International Study, Canada Council for the Arts. 2013
  • Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Performance Penelopiad, Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts . 2012
  • Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Performance The Babysitter, Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts. 2007

Publications

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