Christine Brubaker combines technology and theatre with upcoming projects
By Ben Read and Hannah Caparino, March 25 2026—
Research and the creative and performing arts are two concepts that aren’t expected to collide, but Christine Brubaker blends the two opposing worlds together with her ongoing research.
Brubaker is an associate professor here at the University of Calgary. She works in the School of Creative and Performing Arts in the drama sector. Her research includes using interactive technologies and combining it with augmented reality to replicate the live experience of watching plays in unconventional spaces. She began this research in the COVID-19 pandemic where the social isolation required her to experiment with audio plays while still maintaining an interactive element with audiences.
“The piece that had been missing in my other is that it lacked that connection of a live performer, and that’s what I specialize in,” said Brubaker.
A play she started called Rella’s Cambrian Dream was interrupted in the middle of its development due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this production, she successfully used technology to recreate that intimate bond that live theatre performers share with their audiences. Her intrigue surrounding technology being used to replicate the live connection performers create with their audiences in theatre came to fruition in its production. The Telus Spark immersion galleries were a great source of inspiration for Brubaker, who was invited to work with Telus. She believed their immersion with the audience would increase by “[integrating] the live storyteller inside.”
“In theater, if you are an audience member and you start to laugh, that activates the performer. That heightens everyone else’s attention to that moment,” said Brubaker.
The live experience of being in a theatre creates a sense of human connectivity between the performers and the audience. This is missing from spaces which would classify as augmented reality. Her research centers around bringing these human experiences and connections into spaces of augmented reality in performance.
“It’s a social practice that can hold space for many people, and I believe theater is actually a human need to tell stories and enact them in front of one another,” said Brubaker.
Brubaker expressed that theater can speak to a variety of people from many different walks of life. The innate need to share stories with one another speaks to the activist ideas of needing to spread a message or speak for what you believe in, using theatrical and emotional ideas to communicate these ideas.
With the potential that was posed through Brubaker’s research, the act of storytelling and interactivity is that there is a mutual agreement between audience and performer. Theatres are immersive because audiences are brought into the performance and allow the messages to speak for themselves. With Brubaker’s research in particular, not only is interactivity vital so that the themes will resonate with the audiences but that new and original works reflect current conversations or social moments.
“I think my work has almost exclusively been within new plays, [and] new work that is happening,” said Brubaker. “If there’s a play with a political side to it, I’m usually drawn to it because it’s new, it’s speaking to the here and now.”
Brubaker’s research had begun pilot programs and readings of upcoming shows with interactivity and audience resonance at the very core. The themes that she is currently working with surround people’s on interpersonal relationships, the after effects of ecocide and overconsumption, as well as how these conversations contribute to wider social dialogues. Some of these projects that are in-development include Susan’s Dream Date which was part of the Alchemy Festival in 2023 and The Extinction Therapist, written by Clem Martini and comments on the destructive nature of the oil industry.
As a professor in acting and directing, she is also witnessing firsthand how the students of the SCPA are continuing to create pieces that they are passionate about and utilizing what they learn at U of C to carry that into the industry. She mentions that both small and large companies have the ability to take risks and tell stories that can extend all across the city.
“I love that we have the whole ecosystem, from small theaters all the way up to the big ‘A’ houses. We need it. That’s what keeps our art framework, our art network alive and it feeds artists. It also meets our communities at so many different points of intersections, you know?” stated Brubaker. “So our students can learn from the professional things, and it’s a closer bridge for them to start thinking about how they can see themselves in the world in the community.”
On a final note, Brubaker explained how engaging with art gives students the ability to take a breather and reflect or get away from the world. Not only just engaging with art but engaging with student creators and supporting our student community.
“What I really hope is that we […] throw open our doors to the university,” said Brubaker. “Sometimes it’s easy for us to not see one another and we know that going to see art, music, dance [and] engaging in artistic activity is good for us.”
For more information about Brubaker’s research, details can be found on her UCalgary profile.