Dr. Alexandra (Sasha) Kovacs

Winter 2026-27 Courses

• THEA103 - Current Performance Practices
• THEA237 - World Theatre History I
• THEA416 - Theories of Meaning

Areas of Research and Creative Activity

Canadian theatre history, theatre historiography, performance archives, performance theory, material theatre culture, devised theatre, experimental dramaturgy, geographies and flows of cultural production

Brief Biography

Dr. Sasha Kovacs (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at the University of Victoria, where her research and creative practice focuses on how archival materials, oral histories, and community knowledge can be activated through performance to illuminate underrepresented histories and expand understandings of cultural memory. She holds a PhD from the University of Toronto Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies. 

Kovacs is the co‑director of Gatherings: Archival and Oral Histories of Performance (https://gatheringspartnership.com/), a national SSHRC Partnership Grant initiative developed in collaboration with Canada’s Theatre Museum, Playwrights Canada Press, and Dance Collection Danse. As part of this partnership, her current book project documents the work of feminist playwright Hannah Moscovitch, extending her long‑standing research focus on feminist theatre makers: https://www.playwrightscanada.com/Books/M/Making-Moscovitch3. 

She also co-leads the SSHRC funded Insight project Traces and Circulations, co‑led with Dr. Heather Davis‑Fisch at the University of Lethbridge. This initiative builds on her leadership in developing Performance in the Pacific Northwest, an open‑access digital resource dedicated to the histories of performance in the Pacific Northwest region:https://performancepnw.uvic.ca/ Together, these projects bring archival research, community collaboration, and digital humanities methodologies into conversation to support accessible, place‑based performance historiography.

Kovacs’ scholarship appears in Performance Research, Canadian Theatre Review, Shakespeare International Yearbook, Studies in Canadian Literature, and multiple edited collections. Her award‑winning research on the performance history of E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) received the Canadian Association for Theatre Research’s Richard Plant Award. She was the co-organizer for the 50th anniversary conference for the Canadian Association for Theatre Research (Inheritances in Transition), hosted at the University of Victoria. 

As an educator, Kovacs supports students in developing critical and creative approaches to theatre history, encouraging them to connect personal, familial, and community narratives with broader performance traditions. Her teaching is informed by her background in performance‑based pedagogy and her training with the University of Toronto’s Centre for Teaching Support and Innovation. She has taught theatre history, acting, and dramaturgy at universities across the country including University of Toronto Mississauga, University of Toronto Scarborough and Toronto Metropolitan University. 

Alongside her research and teaching, Kovacs maintains an active creative practice. Her early artistic work centred on experimental dramaturgies, particularly post‑dramatic approaches to activating performing histories, a foundation that continues to shape her interdisciplinary methods. She develops performance projects with the international collective Ars Mechanica, with past works presented at various venues internationally. Most recently, she contributed to the production of In My Day by Rick Waines at the Phoenix Theatre, along with its accompanying exhibition, a Gatherings‑funded project that brought together community and artistic partners to activate oral history and archival research through performance.

Across all her work, Kovacs remains equally committed to research and practice, and aims to seed collaborative partnerships that extend the reach and impact of scholarly inquiry, artistic creation, and teaching.

Selected Publications

• Kovacs, Sasha. “Performing Complaint in Contemporary Canadian Academic Drama.” Studies in Canadian Literature, vol. 49, no. 1, 2024, pp. 103–23, https://doi.org/10.7202/1119909ar.
• Kovacs, Alexandra. “A Red Girl’s Reasoning: Reassessing the Performance  History of Tekahionwake” Canadian Performance Documents and Debates:A Sourcebook. Eds. Anthony J Vickery, Glen F. Nicols, Allana C. Lindgren. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2022, 119-129. 
  
• Kovacs, Sasha, and Cheri Maracle. “Matriarchal Word Warriors in a Paddle Song for E. Pauline Johnson Tekahionwake.” Canadian Theatre Review, vol. 192, no. 1, November 2022, pp. 82–85, https://doi.org/10.3138/CTR.192.018.
• Kovacs, Sasha, and Sharon E. Secord. “The ‘Stuff’ That Games Are Made Of: Sharon E. Secord’s Work for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies.” Canadian Theatre Review, vol. 152, January 2012, pp. 44–49, https://doi.org/10.3138/ctr.152.44.