Thursday, September 06, 2007
Theatre Education Part 1: How We Got Here
Theatre Ideas: "Note that all of these degrees were PhD's -- the MFA as terminal 'performance degree' had not yet been invented. Theatre scholars were expected to have a firm grounding in research and history as well as in performance. Roach indicates the importance of this double-poled knowledge: 'Without the study of history...performance surrenders at least half its content. (Without the study of history, in other words, we can't truly entertain new ideas because we can't recognize them as such.'"
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5 comments:
Thanks for the shout out!
This article is interesting in that my parents hate the BFA. They are just now coming around to think that it is a good use of my college education. It is important to remember the effects that the past has as well as the ability to research. We can get really good at regurgitating back what professors want to hear without necessarily learning how to develop those concepts on our own.
I think there are a lot of misconceptions about theatre education that make it diffucult for students to pursue it these days. I had a really tough time getting my father to understand why I wanted to go to a conservatory and not a liberal arts college in the end. But I liked that some of the problems with theatre education addressed in the article seem to be things that are not issues at CMU. I love that not only am I taking really thorough theatre history but that I also have to take Basic PTM and learn why stuff is done the way it is. I love that the background we need in order to do anything challenging or innovative with our educations and our careers is built-in here to some extent. CMU, in my opinion anyway, doesn't seem to be one of the schools having the difficulties addressed in the article. And that's very comforting.
This is an extremely good article. First on a side note - it lets me know that no matter how much I may dislike a class and think it almost completely irrelevant, it most certainly is not. In last year's Interp and Argument class, we read text by Joseph Roach. So it really is relevant, it really is important, and it really does apply.
Then the article itself. I think all of the problems it pointed out are what CMU SOD is trying to solve. I really do. It's still not perfect of course, but trying to teach us what we need to know while still being innovative and individualistic and independent is precisely what we are trying to achieve. It's good to receive some sort of affirmation to what we're doing here. Especially with the new curricular changes, we are really learning to be more than just what we need to be to survive in the theatre world, but also to advance and enhance the world for ourselves and everyone around us.
Can you give some examples about CMU? I'm curious.
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