Introduction

I officially began my studies in the EdD program in Educational Theatre at NYU in the Fall of 2020. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, I had completely uprooted my life and moved to New York City, but I came in poised and ready to do this work. At the time of writing this portfolio, in the Fall of 2021, I have completed or I am about to complete 35 out of 40 coursework credits. My proposed culminating study will seek to use a documentary-style verbatim performance piece that I am currently in the process of creating as a catalyst to open up conversations with teachers, parents, community members, and administrators involved with rural high school drama programs in Vermont about the successes and challenges of teaching theatre in a rural area, and how we can work as a community to make these programs more intentionally anti-racist. The aim of this project is to create an anti-racist pedagogical framework for teaching theatre in rural communities. You can read more about my current work with that project here. Below I would like to introduce you to my background and career, in addition to my teaching philosophy and stance as an arts-based researcher.

I grew up performing among the trees and mountains of the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. It was there I learned the value of community and the arts from an early age. I caught the theatre bug in middle school, and haven't quite been able to shake it yet! Growing up gay in a very rural community, I found a home on stage, and I was involved in every production throughout high school. I was lucky to have fantastic teachers in the arts who taught me that theatre is not only a form of entertainment. I learned that theatre is way to express feelings and issues that are important to communities, and it is a form of political activism. I also had the unique opportunity to work with the local independent film company Kingdom County Productions where I learned the power of social justice in the arts through my performance in the film Shout It Out. Shout it Out, based on the original touring stage musical by the same company entitled The Voices Project raised awareness of issues faced by real Vermont teens and toured to schools throughout Vermont and the United States. These experiences propelled me into a life of performing, directing, and using theatre as a tool for social imagination and change.

In my time at Emerson, and as a teacher in the field, I have spent a lot of time developing my own thoughts and philosophies about my teaching practice. My philosophies are based in the transformative power of theatre and the formation of community through the building of ensemble and creative storytelling. I believe theatre as an art form can facilitate students using their voices and expressive power to be the narrators of their own stories, and develop the tools and imaginative vision to make positive change in their communities. Through the use of theatre games, scene work, and guided improvisations in addition to design, construction, and practical well-rounded theatre training, I help to give students the tools to develop their imaginations, gain confidence, and build a stronger sense of empathy for others and themselves.

Community Through Theatre

The basis of my teaching is expressing my own excitement and enthusiasm about the material and conveying that energy to my students through my curriculum. I love theatre as an art form, as a means of personal expression and storytelling, and as a tool for social change. I want all students to understand that they can have a place within the field, and that they can use theatre to express their own passions, imaginations, and thoughts about the world. My teaching is based on mutual respect and understanding so that ensemble and community is the foundation, and that we are also viewing our classroom through an abolitionist and anti-racist lens. This means that all students, no matter their background, race, gender, sex, or ability, have a place in the classroom, and it is the responsibility of everyone in the room (including myself and other students) to make sure that we all feel safe, welcome, and valid in our thoughts, and value the assets that we all bring to the table.

Empathy

I believe mutual respect and empathy with students is built on an understanding of where they’re coming from, what their interests are as individuals and as a group, and where their abilities lie. My lessons are based around a student-centered learning approach. I design all of my lessons with varying students’ styles of learning in mind whether they be verbal or visual learners, or more physical activities for kinesthetic learners. I am always finding ways for students to bring their own imaginations and experiences into the work whether it be through improvisation and scene work, to writing their own material. I encourage students to talk about their own lives through theatre, and to tell stories that are relatable to them. I give students the freedom to express the issues that are on their minds and are the greatest concerns for themselves and their community. I think it is much easier for students to connect to and want to learn material that is accessible and relevant to their day-to-day lives. This is why I'd much rather students stage original devised work than putting on the same production of The Importance of Being Earnest again and again (not that I don't like Earnest, but time, place, and context matter). This way, we can all be connected to the material we are creating together, and have a stronger sense of communal empathy throughout the process.

Critical Thinking

I want my students to be critical thinkers, and to be able to use the tools they learn through drama to open their minds to the world around them. I use questions as a vehicle for learning by sparking discussion, and letting students lead the conversation. I also use journaling as both a form of assessment, and as a way for students to continue to process the concepts they are learning in theatre. These skills are ones students can transfer to anything in their academic coursework, and their daily lives. I give students complete control over the work, and it is in their hands that the success of the show lies. I want students to learn by doing, and to be the experts in the room. The act of putting on a play with students and giving them the complete mantle of the expert throughout the process allows them the freedom to problem solve, get creative in their choices, and build solid communication skills allowing them to collaborate with other artists and other students throughout the process. In this way, we are not only making good art, but also learning skills that are essential for 21st Century life.

Through my studies at NYU, I have been able to crystalize my understanding of theatre as not only a tool of entertainment, social change, and teaching, but also as a tool of research that feeds into all of these same facets. (Experience in ABR and Practice Led Inquiry). It has been exciting to see tools of art used to collect and convey data in ways that are accessible, engaging, and groundbreaking. I am excited to get into that same work with my own study focused on building an anti-racist pedagogical framework for rural high school drama programs, a project close to my heart because of my own roots in rural life. Because of my own positionality, however, there are several biases and stances I hold that I must address as I move forward into my own research.

Because of my experiences as an artist, a learner, and an educator in theatre, I inherently believe in the power of theatre as a tool for teaching, and I believe in the impact theatre can have on the life of a young person. I have seen this art form change the lives of so many young people, and have witnessed it in my own life too. I don’t know what I would be doing if it wasn’t theatre with young people. I do recognize an innate personal bias toward engagement in/with the arts---often assuming that because theatre is being done with young people, there must automatically be some sort of an impact occurring.

When it comes to my personal paradigm of knowledge-making, I lean toward the interpretivist turn in research. Willis (2007) describes interpretivists as having difficulty with the idea that reality is “independently knowable” (p. 96), positing the researcher as capable of separating and knowing greater truths than can be bound up in cultural constructs. I believe that everyone in the world has a viewpoint shaped by their upbringing, education, personal/familial/counter cultures, and individual interactions with the world. Because everyone and every group has their own driving truths, it is impossible for outsiders to predict those thoughts and opinions, impose such beliefs onto others, or even feign to understand another's experience. For instance, my beliefs on theatre making with youth were constructed from my own educational experiences, and my current teaching philosophies have emerged from the work I’ve observed throughout my career.

Camargo-Borges (2017) describes this epistemology as social constructivism, and asserts four different assumptions of the paradigm: “the constructed character of the world,” “reality is produced by interactive exchanges among people,” reality and our concept of knowledge is maintained by “social processes,” and the notion of “language as action” which assumes that language and the production of knowledge help construct the world itself (p. 93-94). These assumptions are aligned with the interpretivist worldview that powers the researcher in me, and when considered in tandem, they allow me to view things in a more imaginative, reflective way. By being open beyond my own experiences, I can better observe and work to understand social structures outside of my own.

Because of this stance, I also acknowledge my own identities and how they play into the research I wish to pursue. As a white, cisgender man I come into a lot of spaces with a lot more societal privilege and power than some of the people and communities I have taught, worked with, and researched, and will continue to in the future especially as those communities pertain to my culminating project. I must also be aware that because of my own white, cis male privilege there are experiences that I cannot possibly understand or surmise, and it is only through directly working with folks from communities of color or trans communities that those stories can be told. I also know as a queer-identifying person that there are many circumstances where I don't have certain privileges and will need to navigate in heteronormative circles, as I have for my whole life. In terms of my culminating project, which you can read more about here, I believe that it is my responsibility as a white, cis male individual, and as someone born and raised in a rural community, to do this work. It is my understanding that Racism as a construct is a problem of white people, and it is our responsibility to dismantle the systems and ideologies where Racism occurs. That is why I want to work with folks in rural communities to create more anti-racist ways of teaching theatre and engaging with students in the community.

As you peruse this portfolio, I hope you can see where my identities as a queer theatre artist-researcher converge in my work, and where my stances and philosophies meet practice.