Teaching Philosophy

Student Centered Learning Communities

As a theatre performance educator, I am committed to creating student-centered learning communities based on the values of belonging, agency, and compassion. I create containers for play and learning to allow students to bring their most present, creative, and curious selves to the work of performance training. I believe in teaching “with” students not teaching “at” them. As such, co-creation of knowledge and learning tools is essential in my teaching. I am also firmly committed to teaching tangible, specific, and repeatable performance skills to students through trauma-informed, consent-based practices. Above all, I teach that theatre performance skills are life skills. The (self-)awareness, critical thinking, and adaptability one gains in performance training is applicable to other professions and disciplines. Moreover, these skills allow any person to enjoy a fuller, richer life as they will be able to listen better and more deeply connect to themselves, others, and the world around them.

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Belonging, Agency, and Compassion

The values of agency, belonging and compassion drive my teaching. I want students to feel like that they matter and that they play an active part in the learning process. In doing so, I work to identify who students are and what they need. I now simplify lessons, covering less so we can deepen learning and impact. This makes room for students to connect to the material, and more opportunity for me to amplify their voices. Using reflection and retrieval practices, I make space for students to think critically about class content, and I allow their words to be heard last, not mine.

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Co-Creating Knowledge with Students

Co-creating learning tools is another way I amplify student voices. We co-create community agreements and rubrics to give students agency and to feel like they matter. We discuss and discover our expectations and hopes for our learning community and we examine the skills we are learning and the value of those skills. Co-creation also happens in one-on-one meetings with every student, in every class. In this dedicated time with each student, we explore what is important to them, what they need to feel/be successful, and we investigate class content in a personalized way. This also allows me to reflect on my own teaching effectiveness and adapt lessons to the students.

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Empowering the Student/Performer

Empowering the student-artist is a central tenet of my teaching. I teach concrete, repeatable, and sustainable skills through collaborative play, exploration, and discussion. I aim to make the learning process explicit through clear exercise progressions that encourage the merging of visceral and intellectual processes. Through trauma-informed, consent-focused methodologies and project-based learning, I allow students the freedom to play and productively fail. I encourage students to be self-analytical, not self-critical and to strive for clear, intentional choices, not “correct” choices. I focus on how to create dynamic moments, and I offer options that allow students to maintain ownership and authorship of their work.

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Learning Comes before my own Ego

Learning is paramount. Learning comes before my own ego. This maxim holds me accountable to prioritize learning, to meet the students where they are, and honor where they need to go. This provides a powerful metric to ensure that all activities, assignments, and assessments facilitate learning. This means my voice does not need to be the loudest or the last. This means I work to listen, to adapt, and to grow as an instructor. This means I honor that students are the experts of themselves and that expertise deserves to be respected. This guides me towards my singular goal, which is to make meaning with students, not for them.