Transformative Theatre 191: A Historical and Interactive Approach to Theatre Appreciation , Study Guides, Projects, Research of Theatre

Download Transformative Theatre 191: A Historical and Interactive Approach to Theatre Appreciation and more Study Guides, Projects, Research Theatre in PDF only on Docsity! 1 The Top 25 Project: Engaging Students in their Learning Full Proposal: “Experiencing Theatre: Re-visioning THE 191, Theatre Appreciation” Department of Theatre 1. Abstract This Miami Plan course in theatre appreciation will introduce non-majors to all aspects of the theatre art. Students taking THE 191 will experience a master class once a week taught by an instructional team of professional artists and theatre scholars. In addition, students will have a smaller weekly break-out section taught by a graduate student. The break-out will allow for more intimate discussion and will be a forum where students write, rehearse, and produce their own ten-minute play based on the knowledge and experience gained in the class. A “shadowing experience” for all students will also introduce them to the backstage realities of making live theatre. 2. Detailed and Expanded Description of Redesigned Course Context Theatre 191, Theatre Appreciation, is a Miami Plan course and the largest class taught in the Department of Theatre. It is taught every semester to over 400 non-majors and fulfills a Foundation II (Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Science) requirement. In addition, it is also a core class in the Department of Theatre’s Thematic Sequence in Modern Theatre and Drama. While the Miami Bulletin explains that the focus of Theatre 191 is “Theatre Appreciation,” our course is atypical of most introductory theatre courses throughout the country and instead has more of a historical emphasis; indeed, its “H” designation allows students to meet the historical perspective requirement articulated by the Miami Plan. Ideally, a theatre appreciation course should be less a study of theatre history (although some context is necessary) and more of an introduction, for future patrons, to all aspects of the art: design and technology, playwriting, performance, directing, producing, and stage management. During the fall of 2006, the Department of Theatre’s Curriculum Committee re-examined Theatre 191 in response to commentary issued by our recent Program Review. Both external and internal evaluators felt the course should be revised to reflect the national trends in the teaching of theatre appreciation, and allow for more departmental involvement, rather than continue to ask one professor to bear full responsibility for the course. In order to address the concerns voiced in the Program Review, the Curriculum Committee researched theatre appreciation courses at universities similar to Miami (those M.U. identifies in bench-marking exercises, or who identify with Miami). In addition, the Committee looked at models for introductory courses that were particularly innovative in their approach to teaching large groups of students. Drawing upon their research, theatre faculty outlined a model for a new Theatre 191 course that takes into consideration the resources of the department, the core values of the Miami Plan, and the characteristics that correspond to “The TOP 25 Project: Engaging Students in their Learning.” Our re-evaluation of THE 191 comes at an opportune moment with regards to this new campus initiative. 2 Overview of Course Components The new model would transform THE 191 from a traditional lecture class, with one professor regularly instructing a large group of students on a bi-weekly basis, to a team-taught course that would feature most, if not all, of the faculty artists/scholars in the department (the instructional team), who would each share their particular art within an established framework. “Experiencing Theatre” would also provide each student with live opportunities in the theatre both as an audience member and behind the scenes, in addition to the challenge of creating original theatre in a small group setting. This re-designed course would have three essential parts and a practical assignment that would be intended as a capstone or culminating experience. The parts of the course include: [1] a large weekly master class taught by a lead professor in concert with an instruction team of artists (200-400 students), [2] smaller weekly break-out sections (30-40 students) taught by graduate teaching assistants, and [3] a shadowing experience. The capstone project for the course would involve the writing, rehearsal, and production of a ten-minute play to be performed for the break-out class at the end of the semester. The best ten-minute play from each section will be performed for the larger class in a culminating play festival at the end of the semester. Master Class In order to enhance student learning and to move away from a more traditional lecture format, the course would employ an instruction team, comprised of a lead professor who would work collaboratively with faculty artists and guest artists. During a given year, the Department probably has at least four visiting artists, some from the Cincinnati area and other national and international figures. The 2006-2007 academic year, for example, included guest designs and artist residencies by Jakyung Seo (a Korean lighting designer and visiting professor at CCM who designed our production of Rhinoceros), Jeff Fishburn (Miami Emeritus Professor who designs lights professionally in regional theatres and in New York and who designed lighting for All’s Well That Ends Well), and Carlyle Brown, an African-American playwright whose play Pure Confidence opened at the Cincinnati Playhouse this January. In addition to these artists, the Department has also recently sponsored master classes by professional dancer Dan Weltner from New York and professional arranger and orchestrator Larry Moore (both alumni of Miami). All of these guests could theoretically participate in our instructional team. Moreover, the Department also regularly partners with the Performing Arts Series, which makes regular exchanges possible (Squonk Opera did a week long residency with our students as did the Missoula Children’s Theatre). Such a varied group of teachers could work more effectively to engage students as individual artists spoke directly about their experiences rather than have those experiences communicated as a kind of second-hand narrative by the lead professor--the typical means of presentation in Theatre Appreciation courses nationally. Students could directly interact with professional artists, and understand through their dialogue, how contemporary theatre is presently being made throughout the country. While this master class could perhaps be perceived as more “passive” than “active,” strategies will be employed to create interactive lectures and small group activities within the master class time space (see below for an explanation of these strategies). 5 would work with the faculty members to create a syllabus, learn how to use the website, and discuss pedagogical strategies and training to facilitate the capstone project. Students would be in workshops in the mornings of the week prior to classes and have afternoons free to develop their sections. Faculty would assess their independent work throughout the week. In order for graduate students to be fully prepared for their August orientation, they will be given copies of the text books in the early summer and will be kept abreast, through email, of all developments throughout the summer. 3. Characteristics of New Learning Models The course would address each of the “Characteristics of New Learning Models” in the following ways: Characteristic 1: approaches to learning that are student-centered, inquiry-driven, and active. Hands-on creative assignments like the capstone project would be an active way to apply the kinds of knowledge gained in the master lectures, through homework assignments, in the shadowing experience, and in the experiences students have had as audience members at live events. The capstone project is also a student-centered approach to learning because students will have to do all of the application themselves and teach each other about what they have learned through their respective experiences. While graduate student teaching assistants will serve as coaches or guides, students will be responsible for all the full production of their project. THE 191 would be inquiry-driven in many ways: students would understand each individual artistic component of theatre through a discussion with working professionals (a time for Q and A could be built in to each master lecture or faculty/guest artists could respond to student prompts established ahead of time in the break-outs), and students, in working on their own theatre pieces, would have to address a series of artistic challenges and collaborate with their classmates in order to solve these creative “problems.” Indeed, the capstone project must be approached through an “inquiry driven” methodology as students will need to ask themselves how the various learning opportunities they have had throughout the semester may be adapted, inserted, transformed into a creative work of their own construction. Characteristic 2: employ methods that will engage students in their learning and with others Recent research on pedagogy suggests that student engagement is enhanced by active learning and the proposed redesign of THE 191 has many examples of active learning: the shadowing experience, the capstone project, and the experiences students will have in witnessing live theatre throughout the semester. The project team also argues that the master class can and will engage students in a variety of ways. Because theatre people are naturally dramatic, lectures will be interactive and “performative.” For example, a lecture on acting might include a segment on stage combat in which select theatre department students are planted in the large class room and instructed to begin a fight in the middle of lecture. Non- majors can witness these performances and then understand how these fights are created safely through the instruction of a certified stage combat specialist. Lighting designers can 6 hand out flash lights and allow even large groups of students to create certain landscapes from their seats. Students will regularly be brought to the front of the class (hopefully the classroom will have some kind of stage area) to demonstrate various principles about stage composition, mood, etc. . . Students in the master class might also watch scene work from plays the theatre department is doing or witness the work of a visiting artist with the Performing Arts series. In short, the master classes or “lectures” will be conceived of as performances that will engage students and peak their interest so that productive dialogue can occur in the breakout sections and in the theatre companies about how art is made. In addition to the interactive lecture/master class, students will also be asked to prepare for class by watching podcast lectures or scenes from theatrical events, so that once they gather in the large setting the lead professor and the graduate teaching assistants can break them down into smaller groups to work on an exercise that builds on or applies information they have encountered through podcast, media reserves at the library, or reading from the text book. Specific exercises for the large classroom will be developed during the “research phase” of this project in the Summer of 2007. Project Team members will continue to build upon the bibliography included below in order to understand more about large group pedagogy. Consultants from Illinois State University, where a similar class is being successfully taught, will also visit Miami during the Summer of 2007 for consultation. Project team members will also be encouraged to use CELT as a resource. Characteristic 3: use approaches that will improve critical thinking and problem solving This learning model would be met by [A] interpretation of dramatic and performance texts and [B] working together in the break-out sessions on the capstone project. Understanding performance is a critical process and students will become more aware of this as they learn that all artists, from the playwright to the designers to the actors, make specific choices that communicate meaning. Encountering a play on stage is an aesthetic experience, but it is always also a lesson in decoding a message—a message created by the playwright and communicated by the director, actors, and designers. Indeed, performances—like dramatic literature—are “texts” to be “read” by audiences. Students will be asked to analyze drama that they will read for class (and understand through the lens of particular artists), interpret performance texts on stage, and create their own text—all exercises that require critical thinking and problem solving skills, and demonstrate that theatre is not a simplistic entertainment industry as is so often the perception, but a complex sign system. In order to build specific assignments and assess their critical thinking value during the “research phase”/Summer 2007, the Project Team will employ Washington State University’s “Critical and Integrative Thinking Rubric, 2006” (wsuctproject.wsu.edu/). Characteristic 4: replace lecture and memorization with outside learning opportunities Each student will be required to see at least one theatrical event throughout the semester. This could be a Department of Theatre mainstage or secondstage production, a theatre event brought in by Miami’s Performing Arts Series, a play at a professional venue in Cincinnati (the Playhouse in the Park, the Ensemble Theatre, the Know Theatre Group) or another city, or something from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music’s season. Students will be required to write a paper reflecting upon their experience with guidelines established for them by their 7 break-out instructor. Students must also identify one moment (the mainstage moment) that struck them as particularly aesthetically profound or significant. This could be a particular stage image, a bit of staging/blocking, a certain way an actor moved across the stage, or a design choice. Active learning and critical thinking will take place as students reflect upon their mainstage moment and think about how to incorporate it into their capstone project. This process of translating one artistic idea into a new creative setting, and teaching it to their fellow students, will result in increased learning outcomes. The shadowing experience and capstone project can also be constituted as outside learning experiences as students with have to participate in the making of live theatre outside their master class and break-out sections. 4. Increase in time students spend preparing for class In order to successfully progress through THE 191: Experiencing Theatre, a three credit hour course, students will need to spend at least 9 hours per week outside class. Students will have weekly reading assignments that will typically include text book chapters (one per week) and plays (also probably one per week). In addition to this more traditional “homework,” students might also be assigned podcast lectures to watch (typically 45-60 minutes) or theatrical performances/plays to see (live or on DVD) in order to prepare them for more active exercises in the large master class room or in their break-out sections. Moreover, since the capstone project will be a large portion of each student’s final grade (50%), students will be motivated to work with their theatre companies on a regular basis outside of class. This will be necessary as students must write, cast, rehearse (includes memorizing lines), and design their productions. Failure to engage in outside work will almost certainly result in a failing grade. 5. Evidence One recent scholarly essay corresponds directly to the research and thinking we have done thus far about THE 191. This article, cited in the bibliography below, discusses how best to craft learning objectives for the large non-major theatre appreciation course, and will be a valuable resource. This essay comes from the only theatre journal that currently deals with pedagogy, Theatre Topics, and several older essays from the journal will be consulted as well (see below). In addition, the Project Team will look to contemporary research on pedagogical strategies for the large classroom and in collaborative/active work in the classroom. Our working bibliography includes the following: Aronson, Elliot, and Shelley Patnoe. The Jigsaw Classroom: Building Cooperation in the Classroom. 2nd ed. New York: Longman, 1997. Berkeley, Anne. “Myths and Metaphors from the Mall: Critical Teaching and Everyday Life in Undergraduate Theatre Studies.” Theatre Topics 11.1 (March 2001): 19-29. Campbell, William E., and Karl A. Smith, eds. New Paradigms for College Teaching. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company, 1997. 10 all of the break-out sections will be selected and evaluated according to the rubrics designed this summer. Student papers that discuss their experiences seeing live theatre and their shadowing experiences will be scrutinized according to criteria established by the project team. In addition to assessing content mastery as demonstrated in the pilot course in the Fall of 2007, the Project Team will also meet during the Spring semester 2008 to assess other aspects of the course in order to determine if the pedagogical strategies and delivery mechanisms devised are adequate conduits of learning for students. Project Team members will determine what worked during the pilot in the fall and what needs to be changed before the course is taught again, probably in the Fall of 2008 (and hopefully for a larger group of students). The Theatre Department is tentatively thinking of not teaching the course during the Spring of 2008 in order to work out a full-cycle assessment plan, concentrating on keeping or enhancing the successful aspects of the course and identifying and rethinking the elements that were unsuccessful. 9. Expected time-line, faculty and faculty tasks to accomplish redesign Research Phase: Summer 2007: Team Members will need to continue to study outside models that correspond to our ideas for THE 191. After identifying select courses at other schools, the team would need to either bring in a consultant or visit the campus where similar courses are being taught in order to observe the instruction of the master lecture and break-outs. It would be especially important to witness or discuss the shadowing experience process. The Team Members would need to see how this challenging but extremely significant aspect of the course could be implemented. Development Phase: Summer 2007 and Fall 2007: Team Members would develop the course by creating a syllabus and course requirements, outlining lesson plans for the graduate students, and consulting with and establishing a schedule for the instructional team. Members would also need to work out a process for facilitating the shadowing experience, for monitoring student attendance at outside performances, and for overseeing web discussions and activities. Website Construction: Summer 2007: Team Members in consultation with a web designer or web master and the outside consultant will create a website for the class. (This could also be done through Blackboard.) The website would explain in detail all the course requirements and would be a place where shadowing assignments could be posted. Team Members Bill Doan Associate Dean of the School of Fine Arts and Professor of Theatre Studies Role on Team: lead professor for pilot course and graduate student mentor Because Bill is both an administrator and a valued member of the graduate faculty in the Department of Theatre, his skills will expertly suit his role as the first lead professor for THE 191, which will be piloted in the Fall of 2007. As the lead professor, Bill will also be a great resource for on-going assessment exercises. 11 Gion Defrancesco Associate Professor, Production Manager, and coordinator of instructional team Gion will give input regarding the mechanics of the instructional team and shadowing experience in addition to helping generally with course development. Liz Mullenix Department Chair and Professor of Theatre Studies Role on Team: oversight and administration of project Liz will be responsible for coordinating the efforts of the Team Members, corresponding with outside consultants and web masters, and supervising assessment measures. Initially, she would also help to incorporate the use of professional artists as members of the instructional team and help instructors coordinate the shadowing experience. Steve Pauna Technical Director and Associate Professor of Theatre Design and Technology. Role on Team: course development and production coordinator. As the T.D. in the Department of Theatre, Steve has expertise in the area of design and technology and could, in addition to developing the initial course syllabi and course requirements, help coordinate the hands-on aspects of the course. Bekka Eaton (Miami Hamilton) and Mike McVey (Miami Middletown) to be added to the team in the Summer of 2008 in order to develop the course on the regional campuses. The reason for adding them to the team later is because it will allow the Project Team member on the Oxford campus to assess the pilot semester of the course in the Fall 2007 in order to determine content. Once the content is solidified during the 2007/2008 school year, ideas about how to make the class work on the regional campuses can be developed and implemented. 10. Certification all sections will implement redesign, including Regional campus sections. THE 191 on Regional Campuses The redesigned THE 191 on the Oxford campus will require faculty and graduate student labor that does not exist on the regional campuses. Thus the course, as conceived in this proposal, will be impossible to implement in Hamilton and Middletown. However, it would be very easy to change the content of the course on both regional campuses from the history-oriented approach currently in place to the theatre appreciation model described on page one of this proposal. In fact, such a change would greatly benefit regional campus faculty—both tenure-track and adjunct—whose training prepares them to teach an introductory course that corresponds with national norms (a survey of the whole art) rather than a theatre history course. Because theatre faculty on regional campuses are often “one person shows,” they practice and produce theatre and--out of necessity--wear a variety of hats. For them as teachers to talk about directing, acting and design more directly reflects what they themselves do as artists. Moreover, each campus has developed delivery mechanisms for THE 191 that best suited their student population. In Oxford this was the large lecture classroom (now under revision); in 12 Hamilton, THE 191 is currently being adapted for the Saturday Select series; and in Middletown, students have benefited from an on-line version of the course. While future negotiations about THE 191 will need to evolve between campuses, it makes sense that as long as the content of the course is consistent, the pedagogy can be tailored to fit the respective student population. As stated above, regional campus faculty will be added to the Project Team in the Summer of 2008 in order to help transpose the course content to their campuses. Summer salary money for them has been included in the budget. Institutionalizing Changes in the Course A basic scaffolding for the course will always exist because the course will require some kind of introduction to theatre text book. While there are several on the market, they all have major similarities in that they are all surveys of the art with sections on each aspect of the art. Currently it is difficult for another faculty member to teach THE 191 because it is being taught as a theatre history course, and faculty artists who have M.F.A. degrees are not trained as historians. However, because the redesigned course will be an introductory course, all faculty with a graduate degree in theatre should be able to be the lead professor for this course. Faculty with specialties in each area will be best suited to teach the master class in their area of expertise.