Shifting demographics in student populations combined with the ubiquity of a technologically tethered social landscape challenge the pedagogical foundations upon which theatre education has comfortably rested for decades. Responding to this need to alter methodologies and confront these new realities, New Directions in Teaching Theatre Arts assembles a variety of perspectives that offer both tangible and theoretical outlines designed to loosen the academy from archaic moorings and usher unfamiliar but necessary dialogues into its evolving vernacular. These essays explore student and instructor relationships with digital advancements, interrogate the relevance of canonical adherence and research innovative strategies currently implemented at universities across the globe. This collection speaks to every level of the professoriate, providing case studies, theories and action plans that demonstrate applicability to all avenues of theatre research, practice and education. Despite taking on the juggernaut that is collegiate theatre, the editors gather insightful, focused perspectives that push pedagogical and academic discourse into the twenty-first century.
The editors divide their project into five parts to address various facets of their central project: ‘to honestly evaluate … recent effectiveness in the classroom’ (p. 4). Part I examines digital interactions with theatre studies in and out of the classroom, including an outline for the successful integration of an online theatre introduction course. In a survey of interactive pedagogy, Will W. Lewis uses Blast Theory's Operation Black Antler to illustrate the need ‘to keep pace with the hyper-attention of iGen spectators’ (p. 23). Part II responds to the broad shifts across academia, offering specific solutions to the challenges of product-oriented matrices, like the scaffolded research paper that finds itself in more classrooms every semester. Sample course objectives and learning outcomes suggest undergirding curricula with strictures that articulate clearer goals for students and professors alike. Part III presents the collection's most practical examples of innovative pedagogy, through the lens of actor training and the use (or perhaps misuse) of marginalized and disabled bodies in higher education. Chris Hay and Kristine Landon-Smith's penetrating investigation of cultural erasure in performance training is particularly illuminating and demands further study. Their intracultural project sheds light on the disparity between claims of inclusivity and the realities of the normative classroom experience, and champions opportunities of ‘engaging with rather than disavowing the cultural context of the actor’ (p. 162).
Part IV moves farther still from traditional teaching methodologies to highlight theatre education's usefulness beyond production and performance by adapting the tactics of unlikely pedagogical compatriots. Authors investigate how borrowing from Brecht's dialectical model, working directly with children in the classroom, and employing ethical social outreach can offer unconventional moments of cross-disciplinary engagement and tangential theatrical rewards, like role playing and performance-based activism. Part V concludes with examples of innovative and interdisciplinary pedagogy in action. Building on the ‘usefulness’ arguments found in preceding sections, Emily Rollie shares her experience teaching improvisational skills to business students, from the basics of personal physical awareness to incorporating group dynamics into collaborative performances. Rollie's workshops represent one of many necessary ‘new ways to educate students and link theatre and the arts to broader learning contexts and disciplines’ (p. 282). Her work across disciplinary boundaries epitomizes entrepreneurial engagement with theatre education and provides a template that future entrepreneurs in the arts can manipulate to create opportunities in myriad ways.
By infusing departmental-specific exercises with interdisciplinary goals, by inviting digital invasions into classrooms, and by eschewing constrictive definitions of theatre itself, New Directions in Teaching Theatre Arts repositions the art form as a viable, legitimate contributor to the education of future generations. The collection also invites future scholarship into the evolving field of theatre pedagogy. While broadly championing growth within the discipline, the book casts a deceptively wide net and this breadth welcomes deeper investigations into each of its sections – certainly complete volumes will be dedicated to technological innovations alone in years to come. In this way, New Directions in Theatre Pedagogy provides a foundation upon which novice educators and tenured faculty alike can build curricula that open beneficial dialogues with students and across academia.
