A Teaching Artist at Work: Theatre with Young People in Educational Settings » (1st Edition)

Barbara McKean is currently an assistant professor in theatre education and outreach for the School of Theatre Arts at the University of Arizona. Before teaching at the University level, Bobbi was a professional actress and teaching artist. She served as Director of Education at the Seattle Children's Theatre and as Artistic Director of the Seattle Peace Theatre, where she directed collaborations with young people and artists from Seattle, Moscow, and Zurich.

Are you a theatre teaching artist, or considering it? No matter what kind of educational setting you re in, the theatre skills you teach are intimately linked to your own artistry: you ve got to know how to teach from your own practice while you learn to practice the art of teaching. The key is discovering how the educational setting, the students, and the stage link.

A Teaching Artist at Work helps theatre teaching artists develop connections between their pedagogical and artistic selves. The book presents a framework for thinking about the work of teaching artists in general and theatre teaching artists in particular. Through descriptive examinations of practice, the book also provides theatre teaching artists and those who prepare and work beside them with concrete examples of three theatre-education projects in three different educational settings as well as the collaborative processes that helped them succeed. Replicable in other settings-such as community outreach programs, after school and summer programs hosted by professional theatres, and not-for-profit educational theatres-these projects provide a jumping-off point for others who work to create interesting theatre curriculum.

In any educational setting, theatre teaching artists create spaces where teachers and students can envision a new, different, and exciting way of learning and doing that they can apply to theatre education and many other content areas. With emphasis on linking personal artistry with pedagogical artistry and examples drawn from McKean s own practice, A Teaching Artist At Work is an invaluable resource for teaching artists and the arts-education community.