Performance Training: Scaffolded College Coursework

In this chapter, we look at our own experiences teaching within both Theatre and English departments, considering how the courses we taught at each level were designed and implemented to create a linear development of student skills and knowledge within the field. This bears comparison with how theatrical training is a lifelong process, not something that can truly be mastered in just a few short weeks, like a semester. We frame this analysis of our actual practices with some consideration of the unique challenges of teaching Theatre, which can be, at the same time, an abstract Liberal Arts field and a vocational training program. We reflect on how teaching individual courses in this way can inform how students think about their years in college as a journey, not a series of individualized course experiences, even when we are not afforded the chance to teach the same students more than once. We close by considering some of the realities that exist when trying to create this scaffolded approach to program design.