Over 70 years since its inception, The University of Toronto Drama Festival provides a showcase for up-and-coming theatrical talent from the university's three campuses. Now in the 23rd year since its revival, the festival is proud to continue the tradition of only accepting original student written plays; serving as a much needed outlet for U of T playwrights. The festival serves as an accessible avenue for U of T students to perform, direct and express their flair for the dramatic on the historic Hart House Theatre stage. It also provides an opportunity for aspiring members of the U of T drama community to get started in the professional sphere as many scripts have gone on to have further productions. The University of Toronto Drama Festival boasts a variety of famous individuals as alumni - Ted Follows, David Gardner, Don Harron, Arthur Hiller, William Hutt and Donald Sutherland - to name a few!

This year's festival will be adjudicated by Dr. Baņuta Rubess. Baņuta is a director and writer with a string of innovative productions to her credit for audiences in Europe and Canada. One of the first dozen women to win the Rhodes Scholarship, she has a doctorate in history from Oxford University. Formerly a denizen of the Toronto theatre scene, she created groundbreaking works for Nightwood Theatre, Theatre Direct, and Tapestry New Opera Works, and for a heady four years, was Associate Artist at Theatre Passe Muraille. In 1998, she moved to Riga, Latvia, to participate in the development of a new democracy, returning to Toronto in 2012. She writes plays, screenplays, essays, newspaper columns, poems, prose and libretti. She directs plays, operas, musicals, and intermedial works that elude definition. Her most recent projects include a production of Waiting for Godot in a cinema, a novel for young adults, and an adaptation of Mrs. Dalloway. Currently she is working with choreographer Julia Aplin on a project called Seven Documentary Theatres of Love. She has been teaching academic and practical courses in drama at the University of Toronto since 2010.

Adjudicated by Dr. Baņuta Rubess

• Dream As You Will, St. Michael's College / Troubadours
• Let My Mind Run Dry, Hart House Players
• Chase Williams and the Case of the Missing Fixture, Victoria College Drama Society

Friday, February 13

• Ond, St. Michael's College / Troubadours
• Guillotine, Trinity College Drama Society
• The Bacchae, Woodsworth Performing Arts Collective

Saturday, February 14

• Fanny, Fluff and Dandruff, UTM
• Swim to the Moon, UC Follies
• Evening of the Dead, UC Follies
• Final Adjudication and Awards Ceremony

For more information about the individual shows (coming soon) and the Drama Coalition, visit their website.