Fonds 2007.002 - Sam Stedman Fonds

Dr. Sam Stedman received a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto’s Graduate Drama Centre in 2007. Since then, Dr. Stedman has worked as a sessional lecturer affiliated with the Department of English and Drama at the University of Toronto Mississauga, while also maintaining an active presence in the local theatrical community as both an actor and director. Dr. Stedman acquired this collection of tapes directly from the artistic director of the DNA Theatre Hillar Liitoja and donated the tapes to the University of Toronto Media Commons Archives in 2007.

Hillar Liitoja earned a Bachelor of Music in Performance from the University of Toronto in 1977 and upon graduating, worked as a concert pianist for five years. In 1982, Liitoja founded the DNA Theatre where he has served as the artistic director throughout the history of the company. As a playwright, Liitoja was awarded the Chalmers Award in 1994 and a jury prize for innovation in theatrical writing at the Festival de Theatre des Ameriques in 1987.

The DNA Theatre company is a Toronto based avant-garde theatre company known for producing difficult and often disturbing works that challenge both the audience and conventional notions related to theatrical production. The artistic mandate of the company is to “create performances that are deeply affecting, to create environmental theatre, to create unique experiences of theatre, and to create new theatrical languages.” The Sam Stedman Fonds contains a collection of videotaped recordings of DNA Theatre productions including Sick – A Chamber of Horrors, and Phalanx. Productions mounted by The DNA Theatre company throughout its operating history include: On My Knees, Glimpse, I Of The Beholder, ember, The Large Glass, The Celebration, Phalanx Walk, Phalanx, Paula and Karl, 3 Prong Attack, Falling To Pieces, Remnants, A Bartok Story, Artaud and his Doubles, Pendulum, Jata Mu Hing Rahule, This is What Happenned in Rakvere, The Last Supper Assessments, Ultimate Night, Sick– A Chamber of Horrors, Mottetult, Reede Ohtu, The Deputation, Something For Sky, Something For Ed, Give Us This Day Our Daily Pound, Silence for John Cage, The Last Pound, My Plants Came Alive and we Fell in Love, Pain(T), Pound for Pound, Pound II (Pound!), Quarter-Pound, Half-Pound, and Triptych.