All the Classroom's a Stage: Applying Theater Principles to Teaching Techniques

All the Classroom’s a Stage reveals how teachers can apply theater skills to the craft of teaching and enhance their ability to engage and motivate students, cultivate collaborative learning, and become stronger and more dynamic ‘performers’ in the classroom. This bookillustrates how to use theater techniques to invigorate the craft of teaching in college classrooms across multiple disciplines. The book shows readers how to explore and apply improvisation, actor-training, and directing techniques to their classroom. By using discipline-specific examples, case studies, and a breadth of theater and teacher-training experience, the book reveals how theatre can strengthen teaching and learning, improve attendance, retention, and students’ commitment to their education and to each other. Whether a new teacher navigating the job for the first time or an experienced veteran hungry for new teaching methods, All the Classroom’s a Stage will transform a traditional classroom into a dynamic creative space built on collaborative sharing of the educational experience.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgement sIntroduction Chapter 1: Theatrical Concepts Applied To The Classroom Chapter 2: The Teacher as Performance Artist Chapter 3: Creating The Story—Abandoning The Traditional Lecture Chapter 4: All Of Your Classroom Is A Stage Chapter 5: Your Students As Your Acting Partner Chapter 6: The Educator As Director Chapter 7: Your Stage In Action: Using Theater To Teach WritingAppendices Bibliography About the Contributors

About the Author :
Rose Burnett Bonczek is a theater educator, director, and consultant with over forty years’ experience in the field. She is coauthor of Turn That Thing Off! Collaboration and Technology in 21st-CenturyActor Training(with Roger Manix and David Storck), Ensemble Theatre Making (with David Storck), and One Minute Plays (with Steve Ansell). Michael Flanagan has taught theater and directed at colleges and universities for over twenty years. He is also a former English and general education professor and a former college administrator in departments of retention and student success, where he has used theater to revise curriculum in freshman seminar, English literature, speech, and other academic disciplines. He currently teaches Drama at Houston Community College.

Review :
In All The Classroom's a Stage, coauthors Flanagan and Burnett Bonczek, both experienced theater educators and directors, provide fantastic suggestions on how instructors can improve their teaching craft by applying principles and exercises common in the world of theater. While these suggestions are primarily directed toward those teaching in colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher learning, the lessons are applicable to teachers of all levels. The theater principles and exercises explored in this volume are a great way to reinvigorate classroom practice, engage with students collaboratively in the education process, and improve the knowledge and experience of emotional intelligence for both the reader and the students with whom they work. The creativity of the processes covered will also help instructors reconsider how they convey information to students and perhaps experiment with methods that are less traditional but more effective. The writing is approachable, fun, and enjoyable. In all, this is a fantastic work that this reviewer highly recommends to anyone attempting to teach in any subject. Highly recommended. Reflecting a combined 45 years of its authors' theatrical and teaching experience, All the Classroom’s a Stage cuts to the chase that lies at the heart of both drama and education: the empathetic and imaginative telling of the human story. The great theater of the human experience and memory is hardwired into all of us (actors, directors and educators). We just need to discover how to tap into it. Flanagan and Bonczek have given us the tools to do exactly that. Sharing solid theory and numerous practical and collaborative exercises rooted in years of personal experience (their marvelous “war stories” alone are worth the price of the book!) and resting upon impressive scholarship reflected in the book’s valuable and extensive bibliography, the authors have provided all educators with an inspiring guide for student / learner success. While everyone is fretting about “flipping classrooms” so technology can save us all, Bonczek and Flanagan remind us humanity is the greatest teacher’s aid. Merging the pathos of the theater with the logos of the classroom, they present us with the incredible, imagination-freeing, idea-multiplying, human-connecting power of group storytelling. The true beauty of it? No discipline is immune to the power of ensemble learning. If you're looking to ignite your classroom, look no further. This clear-cut guide offers a renewed (and quite possibly brand new) passion for teaching. The clarity of the authors gives confidence to apply their techniques to the craft of teaching any subject with complete conviction. Their methods are sure to develop a trust between student and teacher that is the foundation for all good learning. And perhaps most importantly, it inspires young minds to engage in their education in ways that are both challenging and welcoming. I couldn't wait to begin teaching this Fall! This book is a valuable addition to curriculum materials in the high school and community college Introduction to Speech course. Its exercises give the teacher fun and useful ways to get students to address and abolish fear of “performing” in front of others, as well as ways to enter into fun collaborations with each other in the classroom. Students open up, rather than shut down. Great work!