Thomas R. Whitaker
In this seminar we explored the implications of assuming that, even in a classroom, a play is best read as a “score for performance.” We engaged a variety of plays, sampled some theatre games and exercises, and shaped our work so that it would intersect with each of the curriculum units being prepared by the Fellows. Those units suggest the applicability of this approach to a wide range of curricular settings.
Joyce Listro shows how theatre exercises may provide training in concentration and sensory awareness for middle-school students. Richard Canalori and Edward Cohen provide two ways of introducing students of that age or somewhat older to the nature of drama. On a more advanced level, Carol Altieri outlines an approach to modern American drama and Maureen Howard presents a detailed engagement with
Hamlet
. Other units are more interdisciplinary in focus. Andrea Passarelli takes as her topic the incorporation of the theatre director’s craft into the work of the English classroom. Norine Polio proposes that Mexican and Chicano drama be used as a vehicle for teaching English to speakers of other languages. And Joseph Weber suggests how both poetry and drama may enliven and illuminate the geography class—and, by implication, any class in social studies.
Thomas R. Whitaker
