The author unpacks and utilizes the pedagogical success of improvisational theatre ensembles, offers core course design elements inspired by improv that match best practices, and gives concrete ideas for immediate use to strengthen community and increase engagement in college classrooms. Ensemble Culture is a framework for building community in…

In this "Promising Practice" article, we describe rationales and processes of using a tableau theater model for student engagement in a developmental education literacy course. Tableau theater is an instructional technique in which students physically reenact moments in texts they read. Asher's (1969) total physical response (TPR), and…

Before COVID, the author had led in-person readers theatre residencies with the same four fourth-grade teachers and their large public-school classes for over a decade. During COVID, the teachers wanted to do an online residency. The challenge: how to create theatre with young learners in isolated rooms, sitting alone, and seeing others only on a…

This interview and response explores the functionalities of the digital platforms Digital Theatre+ (DT+), Drama Online and Cambridge University Press as represented by the interviewees, with a focus on Robert Delamere's DT+. Delamere discusses the history of DT+, and his vision for it to become a site where students can create 'remixes' of DT+…

This article shares key steps in how to negotiate writing Readers Theatre scripts with English learners or any small group of students. The author aims to help promote language and literacy development and encourage critical thinking and engagement through the powerful modality of Readers Theatre.

As a first-year writing instructor, I generally expect a few mainstays: a handful of bored students, recurring absences, and plenty of covert texting. In order to disrupt the usual lackluster engagement associated with required classes, I approach my writing seminar like a theatre class. By incorporating common performance practices such as the…

This paper will share the design and implementation of a Zoom-mediated theatre workshop in an undergraduate advanced Spanish language course and explore how this type of activity can support the development of a range of learners' competences whilst generating virtual presence through playfulness and engagement. Our aim is twofold: to provide…

The purpose of this research paper is to offer/propose a framework/model of specific imaginative practices, classroom engagement ideas, and implementation pathways that can be adapted across various grade levels within the K-12 (preferably language and literacy) classrooms to utilize the inherent diversity (of lived experiences) amongst the…

In 2016, professors representing Biology, Dance, Music, and Theatre and dance program students created "Dunes," a performance piece that depicts the ecological succession of Michigan's sand dunes. The process used to make this work is a direct representation of the steps that Team Hyena Puppet, a collective of teaching artists and…

This article explores how choral reading can be used as a drama tool in a classroom setting to engage students with nonfiction rhetoric while adhering to the Common Core State Standards.

The educational needs of young adolescents require that curricula include a more expanded set of multiple integrative approaches, including new literacies, and that it be "challenging, exploratory, integrative, and relevant" (National Middle School Association, 2010). Although educators are now focusing on the addition of digital formats…

In November 2011, the author--Ivan Fuller, a professor of theatre and associate dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts at Rider University--attended a joint symposium of the American Conference of Academic Deans and Phi Beta Kappa that was designed to wrestle with the question of why the humanities matter. At one session, participants…

In math, students and teachers toss tennis balls. In science, students become rain, hail, sleet, and snow. In language arts, students maneuver their bodies into related positions and hold into a frieze they call "tableau." The students and teachers are part of TheatreBridge, a four-year model demonstration and dissemination program lead…

In the past decade, there have been growing efforts to improve and enhance the delivery of social studies content in the classroom through arts integration. Some educators have used music as a method for teaching social studies and found that interdisciplinary work increases students' understanding of history and different cultures. This article…

Most students attend summer school not because it's their idea of a good time, but because they need to in order to advance to the next grade. To many students--and even some teachers--summer school feels more like punishment than an opportunity to learn and explore. In July 2010, working with a nonprofit organization called Big Thought, officials…