Practicing (as student and teacher)

Teaching Philosophy

My teaching philosophy is born out of my experience as an international, intercultural student of performance. Though I do not have an MFA, my extensive professional experience and my ongoing training have given me a frame through which to see the world and a way to be in it. I believe this has been a powerful gift. It is with gratitude and humility I wish to give the gift forward.

As a teacher of performance, it is my privilege to create and hold a space for participant self-actualization. My aim is to motivate them to solve the riddle of their own nature through the vehicle of theatre, the theatre making process, the play, and their role in it. 25 years ago I began a quest to find an acting method that would enable and support my effort to simultaneously achieve moments of heightened emotional intensity while maintaining control of my performance. In 1993 I was introduced to the 14th and 15th century treatises of Zeami and have been an active practicing student, both in the US and Japan, of Japan’s ancient nohgaku ever since. As a result, today I am one of a handful of English speaking performers dedicated to time-honored theatre practices, intercultural exchange and innovation. In my class and through my productions, I work to offer students a practicum of the underlying conventions and principles of theatre to be utilized in any performance medium, with my unqualified bias towards heightened theatricality. As a teaching artist, I also offer a continual practice of questioning what we - as artists - do in the world, how do we find/create balance and meaning in our lives and how are we a part - or not - of the communities we live in. Theatre is a received art form that is simultaneously built upon and a rejection of tradition. Through my deep indoctrination in both Eastern – where we start by doing - and Western – where we end by doing - pedagogical strategies, I’ve come to appreciate the significance of these differences.

Simply put, as a teacher of performance in a 21st century classroom, I cannot teach how I was taught. Therefore my pedagogy is a continually melded and refined strategy composed of exercises from the East and West for the body and mind. Recently, an MFA playwright wrote in her workshop reflection, “The vastness of this knowledge [noh’s play structure] is very overwhelming. But the body understands precision in a way that is not intellectual.” This ‘read/write learner’ came to an understanding of play structure through, what I call her, ‘intelligent body.’ I am continually reminded of the power, and utility, of the pedagogy of kata as a somatic form of embodied learning suitable even for non-‘kinesthetic learners.’ My teaching is also infused with elements of the Stanislavski System (whose writings profoundly and remarkably echo Zeami’s treatises), Viewpoints and a healthy dose of Socratic questioning. This fused pedagogy requires a continual delicate fine-tuning to discover the most productive balance of doing - training the voice and body, exploring character and action from the ‘outside in’ and the ‘inside out’ - and a step-by-step process of analyzing an initial concept - in order to achieve my goals for student understanding and accomplishment.

I appreciate classical and heightened texts for their ability to free the people in the room from the particular, the local and the individual. Tapping into this larger, ego-less conception of being in the world can be challenging, especially for young performers who must endure and make their way through a staggeringly capacious cult of the self-absorbed currently powered by unprecedented technology. In general they are suspicious of form, viewing it as stifling to their individuality, which, by default is their creativity. Rather than view accomplishment as a process of adapting themselves to the material, their desire is often to modify the material to suit them.

To cultivate a dynamic and safe environment for deep listening and exploration, I actively diffuse my authority as a ‘master,’ recasting myself as a fellow traveler upon the path. I embrace a non-hierarchical platform conceived to empower the students to activate and practice civility and their citizenship in the classroom. I ask students to adopt an active learning stance and to ‘steal,’ and thus own forever, the time-tested principles they have ‘discovered’ along the way.

Enacting this is more challenging than if I worked to retain more traditional teacher / student roles, but I have found the results are more remarkable than when the students are merely subordinate. More in-depth work is possible. I teach text by modeling the art of listening. The classroom becomes an opportunity to exercise the muscles of our humanity and cultivate empathy through the creation of an engaged community.