TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

Theatre is unique among all arts. I am aware that this is not new information. But the reason for this statement is what drives my teaching philosophy. One of the reasons theatre is unique as an art is that it involves humans writing about the lives of others and performing them live: people watching in the same room as those performing, with the revelation of human relationships and challenges as the reason for bringing them together. Theatre exists for us to better understand who we are--not just those who are familiar to us, but especially those who are very unfamiliar to us. And this is where my approach to teaching finds its inspiration.

Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, author of Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, draws on the ancient Greek term cosmopolitan, or “citizen of the world,” to discuss how differences among people of the world ought to be addressed. Appiah argues that a citizen of the world will hold two foundational values: 1.) a universal concern for other human beings, and 2.) a respect for legitimate difference between people. As a teacher and director, I make it my mission, first, to hold myself to these values and treat each student/collaborator according to the high ethical standards of a citizen of the world, and second, that students emerge from my classes and rehearsal processes firmly upholding the ethic of cosmopolitanism. To that end, through reading selections, regular in-class discussions, in-class exercises, and writing assignments, I ask my students to engage in conversations with perspectives beyond their own. I foster a supportive environment in which my students can feel safe and comfortable stumbling over and pushing through engrained cultural prejudices and stereotypes to find stable footing in a perspective that embraces Appiah’s cosmopolitanism. I believe that one’s ability to recognize one’s responsibility for every human being, and that humans are different and there are invaluable lessons to be learned from those differences allows one to more fully understand others, and further, to empathize with others.

Empathy is that ability that is too often forgotten or taken for granted in humans that allows us, as a literal translation of the German word for empathy (einfühlung) suggests, to “feel into” an other’s experiences. Anna Deavere Smith describes empathy in terms of the experience of walking in others’ shoes, which I believe is the goal of any theatre artist, regardless of focus area. My pedagogy enacts this walking in others’ shoes at every opportunity. I seek to feel into my students’ experiences of the world by engaging them personally before class or rehearsal, during transitions within a class or rehearsal session, and after the class or rehearsal is over. By making myself accessible to students both on campus and remotely, and by soliciting feedback from students through daily “muddiest points,” informal assessments of what is most troubling them about course material, and confidential midterm evaluations, I feel into their experience of the class. I also ask students to actively use and stretch their empathic boundaries, challenging how they receive the ideas and emotions of others. And training as a theatre student simultaneously increases the opportunities for empathic engagement of others and also increases the urgency of being able to empathize with others whose worldview is not like our own, even beyond the obvious instance of an actor feeling empathy for their character. We only increase our ability to collaborate with others when we are able to feel our way into their perspectives and experiences of the world. I believe that if theatre is to matter to the world in the way it can, this type of cosmopolitan and empathic training must be at the root of the teaching of theatre.