Teaching performance in digital and hybrid spaces: Only connect

As all theatre instructors learned in 2020, not every mode of teaching is appropriate for every teaching situation. Theatre and drama instructors found themselves with a unique teaching problem during the pandemic: how can online teaching modes work for a live practice like theatre? Firstly, compassion for students’ learning situations is key to the teacher's success, regardless of the mode of teaching. Secondly, when the mode is digital, materiality is a key learning component. In other words, just because you're teaching online does not mean you cannot ask students to do things, make things, and collaborate with theatremaking materials.

In what seemed like an impossible shift from in-person delivery to asynchronous web delivery, Penn State University's Performance & Society course thrived, becoming a popular course taken by hundreds of general education students. Scalable from 25-750 students, Theatre 101N is assessed without quizzes or exams regardless of enrollment. Instead, students are asked to complete a set of creative projects and discussions, all of which are submitted online through the learning management system. Some of the assignments are art projects. Other assignments are performance-based, such as a dance, a monologue, while others ask students to find performance in unexpected places – family photographs or a random throw of a handful of coins. Students also write performance reviews and short plays. If the student completes all the assignments, they receive an A for the course. So, although the stress of moving to online delivery in March 2020 was significant, Theatre 101N did not suffer as much as other courses in general education, specifically because it asked students to create things despite our inability to be together in a studio.