About the Book
Teaching Critical Performance Theory offers teaching strategies for professors and artist-scholars across performance, design and technology, and theatre studies disciplines.
The book’s seventeen chapters collectively ask: What use is theory to an emerging theatre artist or scholar? Which theories should be taught, and to whom? How can theory pedagogies shape and respond to the evolving needs of the academy, the field, and the community? This broad field of enquiry is divided into four sections covering course design, classroom teaching, the studio space, and applied theatre contexts. Through a range of intriguing case studies that encourage thoughtful theatre practice, this book explores themes surrounding situated learning, dramaturgy and technology, disability and inclusivity, feminist approaches, race and performance, ethics, and critical theory in theatre history.
Written as an invaluable resource for professionals and postgraduates engaged in performance theory, this collection of informative essays will also provide critical reading for those interested in drama and theatre studies more broadly.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements; Introduction: Teaching Critical Performance Theory in Today’s Educational Landscape - Noe Montez; PART I Course Design: Reimagining the Syllabus; 1 Doing Things with Theory: Situated Cognition and Theatre Pedagogy - Jennifer Ewing-Pierce; 2 Feminist Musical Theatre Pedagogy - Emma Watkins and Stacy Wolf; 3 Theory Over Time: Asian American Performance, Critical Theory, and the Theatre History Survey - Angela K. Ahlgren; 4 From Systemic Dramaturgy to Systemic Pedagogy: Rethinking Theatre History and Technology - Michael M. Chemers and Mike Sell; 5 Contemporary Playwriting Pedagogies: A Survey of Recent Introductory Playwriting Syllabi - Les Hunter; PART II Classroom Identities: Engaging Students in Theory; 6 Performing Blackness, Ecodramaturgy, and Social Justice: Toward a Radical Pedagogy - La Donna L. Forsgren; 7 Casting Christopher: Disability Pedagogy in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Samuel Yates; 8 Greening the Curriculum: Introducing Ecocriticism and Ecodrama to Students in the Classroom and Rehearsal Studio - Miriam Kammer; 9 Teaching African American Plays as "Reality Checks"; Or, Why Theatre Still Matters - Isaiah Matthew Wooden; PART III Studio: Theorizing Praxis; 10 Deep Thought: Teaching Critical Theory to Designers - Jeanmarie Higgins and Michael Schweikardt; 11 Re-imagining the Actor’s Presence through Contemporary Neuroscience - Andrew Belser; 12 Drag Evolution: Re-imaging Gender through Theory and Practice - Jean O’Hara; 13 The "Best" Bad Idea: Decentering Professional Casting Practices in University Productions - Maria Enriquez; PART IV Communities: Applying Theory; 14 Life First: Interdisciplinary Placemaking for the Theatre - Jen Plants; 15 Growing Applied Theatre: Critical Humanizing Pedagogies from the Ground Up - Beth Murray; 16 Up Close and Wide Awake: Participating in Anna Deavere Smith’s Social Theatre - Stephanie L. Hodde; 17 Tricksters in the Academy: "Find the gap, then look for the people" - Susan Russell and Kikora Franklin
About the Author :
Jeanmarie Higgins is an Associate Professor in the School of Theatre at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA.
Review :
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