Teaching Philosophy

In both professional theatre and higher education, I have come to define my role as a brave space facilitator. The classroom and rehearsal room are collaborative environments that require risk-taking to achieve success. For many years, I aimed to create "safe spaces" infused with trust and respect. However, I began to question whether we could ever ensure absolute safety for everyone and whether our goal was comfort or something deeper. A brave space acknowledges the challenges around difficult and sensitive topics such as race, power, and privilege and encourages dialogue, curiosity, and accountability. We commit to courageous, honest engagement while preserving the trust and respect that helps students feel safe.

My teaching style can be described as kind and rigorous. These two contrasting fundamentals—kind, welcoming acceptance of each individual and rigorous application of high standards—could be seen as in conflict with each other. I disagree. By committing to kindness, I can create a learning environment where students feel brave enough to make the public displays of vulnerability required to create excellent theatre. As a classroom’s collective bravery expands, its competency grows. We can push ourselves to internalize more challenging concepts, reach for higher benchmarks, and achieve more than students initially believe is possible. As an educator, nothing is more satisfying than seeing students achieve more than they think they can. To reach this, I follow a few core principles.

First, I engage students on their terms. I invite them to engage with the theatre and theatrical tools in ways that can benefit them in their majors and future careers. We use theatre to learn how to communicate, analyze, create, listen, lead, work in teams, disagree respectfully, be mindful, and embrace curiosity. As a teacher, my most critical goal is to prepare my students to be citizens in a complex world, with the tools to be collaborative, compassionate and innovative. To reach this goal, I need every student to feel personally connected to what they’re learning.

To facilitate this, I embed social identity and social location explorations and reflection into the curriculum of every class. I continually revise my syllabi to ensure that we are reading across differences and engaging with the work of authors of many different backgrounds, genders, races, and abilities. I solicit feedback from students and have them vote on several of the course readings rather than unilaterally selecting them. I also provide a menu of assessment options for final assignments so that students can pursue what genuinely excites them.

Second, I make every classroom a brave space. A theatre classroom is different from what students typically experience. I build each room from the ground up to be accessible, inclusive, consent-based, open, responsible, and supportive. I am the facilitator, sharing my expertise and learning from my students as we think critically about the topics we’re exploring. We use active learning and theatrical exercises to engage deeply with the material in our learning community. We apply principles of consent and boundary work to support student agency. In every class, opportunities are given for students to both listen and be heard.

Third, I create systems that empower the students to do their best work. I apply intercultural competence, universal design, and various pedagogical strategies to equalize the playing field for all learners. Before classes begin, I survey each student about what they hope to learn, their past experiences with the subject, the questions they have, and how I can support their growth. In the first days of class, we do an interview project or personal artifact assignment to get to know each other while building trust and respect. In the first two weeks of class, each student creates a document sharing their learning goals for the semester, and we follow that up with an end-of-semester reflection on those goals. Whether I am teaching dramatic theory or a studio course, I invite the students to form a semicircle rather than sitting in rows. The circle invites everyone to be equal collaborators and allows my deaf and hard-of-hearing students’ access. I use oral, written, and visual components in every class and invite students to participate actively. We create shared agreements clarifying our expectations of one another and ourselves in the learning community. I give students space every day to share anything they need to be present in the classroom. All of these steps are built into my approach to teaching.

The final element is creating opportunities for every student to fully experience theatre. Every semester I provide opportunities for the students to see plays on and off campus and often meet with guest artists from those productions in our classroom. I prioritize diverse guest artists so that students from all backgrounds can engage with theatre professionals with whom they identify. This past year included guest artists who identified as Deaf, neurodivergent, immigrants, Latinx, Black, first-generation college students, Trans and Queer. In addition to actors and directors, I also bring in theatre designers, technical directors, and fight choreographers so that we can truly explore the collaborative nature of theatre.

As a brave space facilitator, I empower the students to communicate, build connections, form community, problem-solve, and do their best work to create knowledge and solutions to the grand challenges of our times.