Teaching

Courses

Philosophy of Teaching

I take as the core of my teaching philosophy a simple quote from Bertolt Brecht’s essay on thI take as the core of my teaching philosophy a simple quote from Bertolt Brecht’s essay on the instructional nature of theatre: “there is thrilling learning, joyous and militant learning.”^[1] As an educator, it is my task to create this elusive form of learning in collaboration with students, so they become aware of their critical capacities and learn to apply them creatively, as well as to be thrilled by their discovery and dedicated to their refinement. Theatre is a place to experiment and, most of all, a place to interrogate our individual differences and collective humanity.

To accomplish this lofty goal, I expose students to a wide range of content. I acknowledge the diversity of the classroom and include a variety of perspectives from across the literature. For example, in my Script Analysis course, students read seventeen plays and have reading assignments due every class period that vary from American realism to the genre-breaking An Octoroon by Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins. This creates a culture that reads and expects to read, but also challenges students with a broad view of performance as an art form capable of telling disparate stories dynamically.

Since Covid-19, student’s mindsets have shifted. We must meet students where they are and push students to think about their learning and expand their development. One way I do this is through un-grading, which deemphasizes external rewards (grades) and focuses heavily on personal goals paired with rigorous assessment. For example, my Dramatic Literature courses include a number of self-assessments (pre-term, midterm, and final) and rigorous rubrics with oral/written feedback from myself. In particular, in their first self-assessment they set personal goals for the course based on their career objectives and what they will do each week to accomplish those objectives. Removing the specter of grades begins the metacognitive process of learning for the development of desired skills. It better prepares students to be life-long learners. In fact, students in these courses often critique themselves more vigorously than I do, and it is very fulfilling to guide them through positive critique of their own work and where they must improve.

I treat my rehearsal room as a classroom for exploration. I explicitly give actors assignments ranging from dramaturgy, community outreach, to research based on their own artistic practice. When directing Roe by Lisa Loomer, my actors interviewed people they knew over spring break about abortion. In preparation for such interviews, we had a conversation about strategies for engaging others in difficult conversations and how to make sure we did more listening than talking. The actors brought back a trove of complicated opinions on abortion that enhanced the whole production’s understanding of the controversy. Even when directing You’re a Goodman, Charlie Brown, I ask my actors to engage in research about the art of acting and apply it to their performance. One year, for example, the actor playing Lucy drew from a workshop on Alba Emoting to engage the Alba breathing patterns in her performance. The actor playing Beethoven dove deeply into the techniques of Michael Chekhov to work on opening himself physically while acting. The goal of production is not an end product, but a developmental journey.

In sum, my commitment to theatre, focused on socially conscious production from a research driven perspective, informs my pedagogic strategies. I am dedicated to engaging students where they are and fostering their ability to have an impact on society through art.

[1] Bertolt Brecht, “Theatre for Learning,” Brecht Sourcebook, trans. Edith Anderson, eds. Carol Martin and Henry Bial (London and New York: Routledge, 2000) 27.