Allen Lang

This course is for undergraduate theatre artists interested in learning and sharing theatre skills in the community. Using the vocabulary of theatre, we will investigate methods and techniques, styles, and forms to create and develop theatre projects designed for specific community work. The course develops individual collaboration, experimentation, and understanding of specific community needs. Students will explore the essentials of constructing a creative practice for community engagement. In addition, students will learn to extend their personal theatre skills by developing detailed interdisciplinary lesson plans for specific workshops. Each community project is unique. Lesson plans may include a combination of theatre games, acting, music, story making, movement, and drawing. Participants are encouraged to teach what they already know, step outside their comfort zone, and learn more as they become aware of their placement’s educational and psychological needs. The course focuses on teaching methods, making mistakes, and becoming aware of individual and personal processes. This ideal combination explores education and community problems for those considering a career in early-childhood, middle-school, and high-school education and beyond. Course topics will explore community self-care, lesson planning, curriculum development, and approaches to learning. In this course, students will experience crucial connections between theory and practice through a weekly community placement. Students will learn by doing, gaining hands-on experience by collaborating as a team member at an area school, senior home, museum, or the long-running Saturday SLC Lunchbox Theatre Program, which is open to the Sarah Lawrence and Yonkers communities. In addition, students will gain valuable experience as prospective teachers and teaching artists by taking this course and developing lesson plans that will be useful and valuable beyond the Sarah Lawrence College experience. Students will better understand how civic-engagement practices encourage essential dialogues that deepen community connections and may lead to change. Many former students of this course are teaching and running educational programs at schools, theatres, and museums across the globe. Course readings will include the work of Paolo Freire, Augusto Boal, Viola Spolin, MC Richards, Vivian Gussin Paley, Pablo Helguera, and others. Budget-depending placements may offer an hourly stipend.

Students in this course will develop valuable creative resources while investigating the intersection of theatre and community. The course is open to graduate and upper-level undergraduate students interested in sharing theatre skills in the community. We will explore interdisciplinary creative processes, social-justice issues, and curriculum development focusing on the individual. We will analyze the crossovers between various teaching theories, pedagogies, and philosophies. In addition, students will explore creating theatre in the community that investigates the connection of art practices in education while respecting the emotional aspects of learning. Students will analyze, explore, and investigate social-justice pedagogies and philosophies and explore various practices and creative techniques to deepen awareness and critical thinking. We will look at strategies for classroom management and teaching methods suitable for different ways of learning. Students will actively create, develop, and share collaborative theatre lessons while building community with artists, teachers, and community organizations. Active class work will explore ideas for projects that will support lesson planning and the growth of curriculum concepts. In addition, students will hold yearlong placements at schools, community centers, area colleges, museums, LGBTQIA youth centers, and the long-running SLC Saturday Lunchbox Theatre Program that combines the SLC and Yonkers communities. As a result of this course, students will have a portfolio of designed lesson plans and educational ideas that will serve as a creative template for current and future projects. We will explore the work of Paulo Freire, Augusto Boal, Suzanne Lacy, Ana Mendieta, bell hooks, and others. Placements may offer an hourly stipend.

This course is for undergraduate theatre artists interested in learning and sharing theatre skills in the community. Using the vocabulary of theatre, we will investigate methods and techniques, styles, and forms to create and develop theatre projects designed for specific community work. The course develops individual collaboration, experimentation, and understanding of specific community needs. Students will explore the essentials of constructing a creative practice for community engagement. In addition, students will learn to extend their personal theatre skills by developing detailed interdisciplinary lesson plans for specific workshops. Each community project is unique. Lesson plans may include a combination of theatre games, acting, music, story making, movement, and drawing. Participants are encouraged to teach what they already know, step outside their comfort zone, and learn more as they become aware of their placement’s educational and psychological needs. The course focuses on teaching methods, making mistakes, and becoming aware of individual and personal processes. This ideal combination explores education and community problems for those considering a career in early-childhood, middle-school, and high-school education and beyond. Course topics will explore community self-care, lesson planning, curriculum development, and approaches to learning. In this course, students will experience crucial connections between theory and practice through a weekly community placement. Students will learn by doing, gaining hands-on experience by collaborating as a team member at an area school, senior home, museum, or the long-running Saturday SLC Lunchbox Theatre Program, which is open to the Sarah Lawrence and Yonkers communities. In addition, students will gain valuable experience as prospective teachers and teaching artists by taking this course and developing lesson plans that will be useful and valuable beyond the Sarah Lawrence College experience. Students will better understand how civic-engagement practices encourage essential dialogues that deepen community connections and may lead to change. Many former students of this course are teaching and running educational programs at schools, theatres, and museums across the globe. Course readings will include the work of Paolo Freire, Augusto Boal, Viola Spolin, MC Richards, Vivian Gussin Paley, Pablo Helguera, and others. Budget-depending placements may offer an hourly stipend.

Students in this course will develop valuable creative resources while investigating the intersection of theatre and community. The course is open to graduate and upper-level undergraduate students interested in sharing theatre skills in the community. We will explore interdisciplinary creative processes, social-justice issues, and curriculum development focusing on the individual. We will analyze the crossovers between various teaching theories, pedagogies, and philosophies. In addition, students will explore creating theatre in the community that investigates the connection of art practices in education while respecting the emotional aspects of learning. Students will analyze, explore, and investigate social-justice pedagogies and philosophies and explore various practices and creative techniques to deepen awareness and critical thinking. We will look at strategies for classroom management and teaching methods suitable for different ways of learning. Students will actively create, develop, and share collaborative theatre lessons while building community with artists, teachers, and community organizations. Active class work will explore ideas for projects that will support lesson planning and the growth of curriculum concepts. In addition, students will hold yearlong placements at schools, community centers, area colleges, museums, LGBTQIA youth centers, and the long-running SLC Saturday Lunchbox Theatre Program that combines the SLC and Yonkers communities. As a result of this course, students will have a portfolio of designed lesson plans and educational ideas that will serve as a creative template for current and future projects. We will explore the work of Paulo Freire, Augusto Boal, Suzanne Lacy, Ana Mendieta, bell hooks, and others. Placements may offer an hourly stipend.

Students will explore the theatre artist working in the community, the theatre artist/activist responding to a population’s particular needs, sharing skills and creating work that connects and empowers their fellow citizens. Students will experience the impact of sharing creative skills in the community. Starting close to campus, the class will become better acquainted with the richness and diversity that is Yonkers. Exploring Yonkers, students will research the complex sociological issues surrounding this, the fourth-largest city in New York State. In addition to the political, we will venture into Yonkers to explore public parks, spaces, landmarks, and cultural institutions and meet and interact with the people who run them. Incorporating a vocabulary of theatre and everyday movement, students will design and develop their own art in the public sphere by constructing a site-specific environmental performance video piece in a Yonkers park, combining the political with the poetic. The class will learn about the work of theatre artists who listen, connect, and extend their theatre-making into communities—theatre makers who are catalysts for change. Students will also look into the mission of Sarah Lawrence College and its continuing commitment to experiential learning through community engagement, exploring the history of artistic practices and sharing of creative skills of the Sarah Lawrence College Theatre Outreach Program and other campus programs and initiatives. This course will include trips to New York City to view theatre that explores and provokes dialogue about race, gender, class, and other issues. Assigned readings, course discussions, and exercises will explore tools for making theatre in the community. A very strong interest in collaborative theatre-making and for sharing expressive skills connected to community work is required for students enrolling in this course. Conference work will entail research into Applied Theatre, Performance Theory, and Theatre for Social Justice movements.

Artists are the real architects of change, not the political legislators who implement change after the fact. —William Burroughs

This course explores creative, collaborative, and interdisciplinary structures that extend theatre to our community for students new to and interested in developing a civic engagement practice. The course is open to performers, writers, designers, movers, and stage managers. The practice will explore creating theatrical forms, the creative process, and the connections to learning and community building through making and doing and constructing an interdisciplinary, shared theatre vocabulary. Course work cultivates reflection, dialogue, participation, leadership, facilitation, and curriculum-building skills. Students will have a civic engagement placement at an area school, after-school program, or the SLC Lunchbox Theatre Program. Community placements are typically yearlong and usually culminate in a process-centered, informal presentation that reflects the individual participants’ interests, stories, and experiences. Class projects explore participatory, collaborative techniques that are valuable in community engagement projects.

Developing original, issue-oriented dramatic material using music and theatre media, this course for students new to community work will present the structures needed for community extension of the theatre. Performance and teaching groups will work with small theatres, schools, senior-citizen groups, museums, centers, and shelters. Productions and class plans will be made in consultation with the organizations and our touring groups. We will work with children’s theatre, audience participation, and educational theatre. Teaching and performance techniques will focus on past and present uses of oral histories and cross-cultural material. Sociological and psychological dynamics will be studied as part of an exploration of the role of theatre and its connections to learning. Each student will have a service-learning team placement. Special projects and guest topics will include the use of theatre in developing new kinds of after-school programs, styles and forms of community on-site performances, media techniques for artists who teach, and work with the Sarah Lawrence College Human Genetics Program. This course continues the successful process-centered goals and the proven community-building techniques and principles of the long-established SLC Theatre Outreach Program.

Theatre and Civic Engagement teaching artists students will develop valuable creative resources while investigating the intersection of theatre and community. This course is open to graduate and upper-level undergraduate students interested in sharing theatre skills with the community. We will explore interdisciplinary creative processes, social-justice issues, and curriculum development focusing on the individual. We will analyze the crossovers between various teaching theories, pedagogies, and philosophies. In addition, students will explore creating theatre in the community that investigates the connection of art practices in education while respecting the emotional aspects of learning. Students will analyze, explore, and investigate social-justice pedagogies and philosophies and explore various practices and creative techniques to deepen awareness of critical thinking. We will look at strategies for classroom management and teaching methods suitable for different ways of learning. Students will actively create, develop, and share collaborative theatre lessons while building community with artists, teachers, and community organizations. Active class work will explore ideas for projects that will support lesson planning and the growth of curriculum concepts. In addition, students will hold yearlong placements at schools, community centers, area colleges, museums, LGBTQIA youth centers, and the long-running SLC Saturday Lunchbox Theatre program that combines the Sarah Lawrence and Yonkers communities. As a result of this course, students will have a portfolio of designed lesson plans and educational ideas that will serve as a creative template for current and future projects. We will explore the work of Paulo Freire, Augusto Boal, Suzanne Lacy, Ana Mendieta, bell hooks, and others. Placements may offer an hourly stipend.

This advanced course will provide a strong foundation from which to explore and extend teaching and theatre-making skills in the community. With an interest in exploring personally expressive material and in extending and developing skills, students will find a practical approach to experiential learning that grows teaching skills through a weekly community placement. Placements are usually yearlong and typically culminate in a process-over-product, informal presentation that is reflective of the interests, stories, and experiences of the individual participants. Students will explore collaborating with partnerships at schools, libraries, museums, community centers, prisons, and downtown Yonkers storefronts and other venues to develop original work that will result as a creative forum—with performances concluding in a talk-back environ of historical and contemporary social-political and artistic issues as applied to community work. Class readings and discussions will explore theoretical and practical discussions about theatre making and sharing theatre skills in the 21st century that will examine the role of creative artists working in the community to bring forth social change. Exploring gender and open to all races and ethnicity, students will work toward the development of a creative ensemble of Sarah Lawrence College theatre artists. Class readings and discussions will explore LGBTQ, African American, Latino/Hispanic, and Asian/Asian American artistic contributions, and that will provide a strong foundation from which to create new work. Focusing on local, national, and world issues as they pertain to our own experiences, first-semester work will culminate in an informal workshop presentation and discussion session at a Yonkers high school. Second-semester class work will culminate in a touring show for the HS Lunchbox Group and intergenerational work with the 50+ Lunchbox Group. First-semester course work will include a Yonkers tour that visits the Yonkers Downtown Waterfront, as well as important Yonkers cultural attractions. The class is open to all students who want to explore personal material through a sociopolitical lens. Open to dancers, poets, playwrights, actors, and visual artists. Educator John Paul Lederach asks the artist to connect with the “moral imagination”—the ability to “stay grounded in the here and now, with all its violence and injustice, while still imagining and working toward a more life-affirming world.”

This course will provide a strong foundation from which to explore and extend teaching and theatre-making skills in the community. An interest in exploring personally expressive material and in extending and developing skills is needed. Students will find a practical approach to experiential learning that builds teaching skills through a weekly Theatre Outreach placement. Such placements—at schools, libraries, museums, community centers, homeless shelters—are typically yearlong and usually culminate in a process-centered informal presentation that is reflective of the interests, stories, and experiences of the individual participants. We will explore the applications of contemporary sociopolitical and artistic issues of community work. Class readings and discussions will explore theoretical and practical applications about theatre making and the political role of teaching artists working in the community as agents for social change and social justice. The course is open to all students who want to explore personal material through a sociopolitical lens and to students interested in responding to the mad politics of our time by making a difference—however they can, large or small—through the sharing of theatre skills. The course is open to movers and shakers, playwrights, actors, designers, and visual artists. Extended class projects in urban areas may include performance in public spaces, creating site-specific videos, recording community oral histories, and touring. Educator John Paul Lederach asks the artist to connect with the “moral imagination”—the ability to “stay grounded in the here and now, with all its violence and injustice, while still imaging and working toward a more life-affirming world.”

Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it. —Marian Wright Edelman

Theatre and Civic Engagement teaching-artist students will develop valuable creative resources while investigating the intersection of theatre and community. This course is open to graduate and upper-level undergraduate students who are interested in sharing theatre skills in the community. We will explore interdisciplinary creative processes, social-justice issues, and curriculum development throughout this course and analyze the crossovers between various teaching theories, pedagogies, and philosophies. Students will explore how creating theatre in the community that prioritizes self-care and diversity leads to developing specific projects. Interdisciplinary theatre-generating techniques will support lesson planning and the blossoming of curriculum ideas. In addition, students will hold yearlong placements at schools, senior centers, area colleges, museums, LGBTQIA youth centers, and the long-running SLC Saturday Lunchbox Theatre Program. Budget depending, some placements may offer an hourly stipend; however, wages do not cover travel or prep time. The College sets the hourly rate.

This course will explore, extend, and bring theatre-making skills to the community. An interest in exploring personally expressive material and in expanding and developing skills is required. The course focuses on successful, process-centered goals and proven community-building techniques and principles. We will examine the applications of contemporary sociopolitical and artistic issues of community work. Class readings and discussions will review theoretical and practical applications about theatre making and the political role of artists working in the community as agents for social change and social justice. The course is open to students who want to explore personal material through a sociopolitical lens, who are interested in responding to our time’s mad politics by making a difference—however they can, large or small—through theatre-sharing skills. The course is open to movers and shakers, playwrights, actors, designers, and visual artists. Students will hold one civic engagement placement: SLC Lunchbox Theatre, an area school, an after-school program, a senior center, or a youth community center. Class projects may include: performances in public spaces, a musical cabaret for seniors, creating site-specific videos, recording community oral histories, or community-wide forums. Educator John Paul Lederach asks the artist to connect with the “moral imagination”—the ability to “stay grounded in the here and now, with all its violence and injustice, while still imagining and working toward a more life-affirming world.”

I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living. —John Dewey

This weekly conference course, for graduate and undergraduate students with extensive community experience, explores the experiential perspectives of the practicing teaching artist, developing teaching skills and techniques through a weekly, yearlong community placement. The course explores making connections and crossovers between teaching theories and interdisciplinary theatre coursework that leads toward transformative practices. Course readings will explore the writings of Paulo Freire, MC Richards, bell hooks, and others. This course continues the successful process-centered goals and the proven community building techniques and principles of the long-established SLC Theatre Outreach Program.

This course will provide a strong foundation from which to explore and extend teaching and theatre-making skills in the community. An interest in exploring personally expressive material and in extending and developing skills is needed. Students will find a practical approach to experiential learning that builds teaching skills through a weekly Theatre Outreach placement. Such placements—at schools, libraries, museums, community centers, homeless shelters—are typically yearlong and usually culminate in a process-centered informal presentation that is reflective of the interests, stories, and experiences of the individual participants. We will explore the applications of contemporary sociopolitical and artistic issues of community work. Class readings and discussions will explore theoretical and practical applications about theatre making and the political role of teaching artists working in the community as agents for social change and social justice. The course is open to all students who want to explore personal material through a sociopolitical lens and to students interested in responding to the mad politics of our time by making a difference—however they can, large or small—through the sharing of theatre skills. The course is open to movers and shakers, playwrights, actors, designers, and visual artists. Extended class projects in urban areas may include performance in public spaces, creating site-specific videos, recording community oral histories, and touring. Educator John Paul Lederach asks the artist to connect with the “moral imagination”—the ability to “stay grounded in the here and now, with all its violence and injustice, while still imaging and working toward a more life-affirming world.” This course continues the successful process-centered goals and the proven community building techniques and principles of the long-established SLC Theatre Outreach Program.

This advanced course will provide a strong foundation from which to explore and extend teaching and theatre-making skills in the community. With an interest in exploring personally expressive material and in extending and developing skills, students will find a practical approach to experiential learning that grows teaching skills through a weekly community placement. Placements are usually yearlong and typically culminate in a process-over-product, informal presentation that is reflective of the interests, stories, and experiences of the individual participants. Students will explore collaborating with partnerships at schools, libraries, museums, community centers, prisons, and downtown Yonkers storefronts and other venues to develop original work that will result in a creative forum, with performances concluding in a talkback environ. Historical and contemporary social-political and artistic issues are applied to community work. Class readings and discussions will explore theoretical and practical discussions about theatre making and sharing theatre skills in the 21st century that will examine the role of creative artists working in the community to bring forth social change. Exploring gender, and open to all races and ethnicities, students will work toward the development of a creative ensemble of SLC theatre artists. Class readings and discussions will explore LGBTQ, African American, Latino/Hispanic, Asian/Asian American artistic contributions, and that will provide a strong foundation from which to create new work. Focusing on local, national, and world issues as they pertain to our own experiences, first-semester work will culminate in informal workshop presentations and discussion sessions at a Yonkers High School. Second-semester class work will culminate in a touring show for the HS Lunchbox Group and intergenerational work with the 50+ Lunchbox Group. First-semester coursework will include a Yonkers tour that visits the Yonkers Downtown Waterfront, as well as important Yonkers cultural attractions. The class is open to all students who want to explore personal material through a sociopolitical lens. Open to dancers, poets, playwrights, actors, and visual artists. Educator John Paul Lederach asks the artist to connect with the “moral imagination”—the ability to “stay grounded in the here and now, with all its violence and injustice, while still imagining and working toward a more life-affirming world.”

Developing original, issue-oriented dramatic material using music and theatre media, this course will present the structures needed for community extension of the theatre. Performance and teaching groups will work with small theatres, schools, senior-citizen groups, museums, centers, and shelters. Productions and class plans will be made in consultation with the organizations and our touring groups. We will work with children’s theatre, audience participation, and educational theatre. Teaching and performance techniques will focus on past and present uses of oral histories and cross-cultural material. Sociological and psychological dynamics will be studied as part of an exploration of the role of theatre and its connections to learning. Each student will have a service-learning team placement. Special projects and guest topics will include the use of theatre in developing new kinds of after-school programs, styles and forms of community on-site performances, media techniques for artists who teach, and work with the Sarah Lawrence College Human Genetics Program. This class is suited for students new to community work.

Developing original, issue-oriented, dramatic material using music and theatre media, this course will present the structures needed for community extension of the theatre. Performance and teaching groups will work with small theatres, schools, senior-citizen groups, museums, centers, and shelters. Productions and class plans will be made in consultation with the organizations and with our touring groups. We will work with children’s theatre, audience participation, and educational theatre. Teaching and performance techniques will focus on past and present uses of oral histories and cross-cultural material. We will study sociological and psychological dynamics as part of an exploration of the role of theatre and its connections to learning. Each student will have a service-learning team placement. Special projects and guest topics will include the use of theatre in developing new kinds of afterschool programs, styles and forms of community on-site performances, and media techniques for artists who teach, as well as working with the Sarah Lawrence College Human Genetics Program.

I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living. —John Dewey

This weekly conference course explores the experiential perspectives of the practicing teaching artist, developing teaching skills and techniques through a yearlong community placement. The course explores making connections and crossovers between teaching theories and interdisciplinary theatre course work that leads toward transformative practices. Course readings will explore the writings of Paulo Freire, M. C. Richards, bell hooks, and others.