"If you want to learn something, teach it."
This is an idea that gets tossed around so much that I couldn't find someone to whom to attribute it. But I'm sure finding it to be true in my teaching of playwriting one. Here's what I've spent this year trying to figure out:
1) What ARE the bedrock fundamentals of playwriting?
2) In what ORDER does it make sense to introduce them?
3) What TEXTS, if I can only introduce a few, provide a solid grounding in those fundamentals?
4) How do I teach fundamental "rules" and insist on their mastery while fostering the irreverence and sense of experimentation that many of my students bring to the room?
5) How can I give them specific, achievable tasks that, taken cumulatively, will help them get through draft after draft of a play?
6) How can I raise questions both about the fundamentals of playwriting AND the nature of theater and the role of art in the world, and still keep the class grounded in DOING instead of simply endless TALKING? How do I help balance THEORY and PRACTICE.
7) How (and this is important enough that maybe I should talk about it first) do I foster a community of respectful, excited, inquisitive collaborators, who work TOGETHER to do all of the above?
How am I doing with all this? Not entirely sure...but I get *some* clue from the class blog:
http://utplaywritingone2009.blogspot.com
It's a great group this semester. Big, but great.
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