Teaching

Professional Statement

It gives me great pleasure to present my materials for tenure and promotion. Tenure honors the leadership, advocacy, research, and teaching I have provided and demonstrated at a high national level through challenging times for the department, university, and the nation at large. It would honor the progress I have made in my career and allows me the academic freedom to continue to challenge antiquated modes of theater training, and pursue the research and advocacy necessary to help bring the School of Drama forward into the future.

Anyone who has stood in front of a classroom (or a Zoom room) in the past two years knows that teaching is a different endeavor now. The effects of the pandemic, as well as our country’s latest racial reckoning, have had a massive effect on all of us: teachers, staff, and students. Despite articles and anecdotes to the contrary, I find the students in my classes are just as eager and excited to learn as before. What they require today is context. Once they understand the reason behind a decision, they tend to want to dive into the work.

The imperative in my classes is to create a culture and an environment where students can be fully present and focus on the task of learning at hand. Sometimes simply allowing them to express their thoughts and feelings at a check-in can go a long way in allowing them to do their best work. Students connect with each other, and feel supported in a classroom without judgement. This environment supports the creative freedom necessary to make the mistakes required for growth. I strive to develop a culture in my classroom where students feel free to make bold choices, take risks, and fail spectacularly. My students know they have a teacher who is invested in their success, and creates optimal conditions for artists to bloom and flourish.

In every course I teach, my goal is to help develop empathetic, creative, imaginative artists who have a foundational technique they can rely on, but are flexible enough to go with the flow and live in the moment. I tell students one of my jobs is to “deliver the news” – meaning I give them honest assessments of their work and their behavior. If someone is chronically late for class, unfocused, or holding back from diving into an exercise, I point out that behavior. Similarly, if someone is doing strong work, I tell them so, and go out of my way to recognize effort and improvement. Students trust that I will be honest with them, and over the years they have told me they really appreciate my candor. Tactfully telling them the truth about their strengths and weaknesses is the best way to help them develop the skills necessary to bring characters to life. We spend considerable time each semester talking about the difference between being uncomfortable versus being unsafe. Growth is uncomfortable, and recognizing the differences between discomfort and disrespect is part of the learning process. Through this I treat them with respect and care, and support them as they navigate their discomfort as they continue to grow as artists and human beings.

In respect to methodology in the classroom, while my teaching philosophy is rooted in the traditions of Stanislavski as well as Viewpoints, I am committed to improving and expanding my teaching repertoire. It has been exciting to learn new exercises and techniques from my colleagues, who have been generous in sharing their experiences with Meisner and Active Analysis. In September 2018, I was fortunate enough to take an Active Analysis workshop with Cotter Smith, and the revelations I made in that workshop quickly found their way into my classroom: allowing the students to work on a script without the words. I plan to continue studying this technique in a local scene study class run by Mr. Smith later this year. The growing number of online offerings means that I’ve been able to engage in steady study with different teachers from all over the country. I have participated in online workshops with the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium and Black Acting Methods Studio, as well as a full Meisner training course with a master teacher – all of which enable me to bring different perspectives to the work. I’m excited to share these new perspectives with our students.

Diversity and inclusion are intrinsic in my teaching as well as my research. On the strength of my work developing the “Culture Class” mini in Acting III, I was named to the inaugural class of the Provost’s Inclusive Teaching Fellows. This course allows students to explore their identity through scene work, and gives them the opportunity to work on texts that center marginalized voices and decenter whiteness. I’m heavily invested in redefining which plays and playwrights should be considered “canon”, and I’m working with colleagues from Penn State, UCSD, and the McCarter Theatre Center on a project that looks for a new way to categorize “heightened text”. I am consistently promoting the work of a wider, more representative spectrum of artists than we currently do now.

To be clear: this does not mean we discard or ignore work from well-known and loved playwrights like Shakespeare or Chekhov. Rather, it allows us to expand the definition of who gets to tell those stories, and allows for the possibility to find new texts from other perspectives, whose themes resonate with us in the same way that those of The Cherry Orchard or Hamlet do. It’s a delicate balancing act, but it’s something I’m committed to continue exploring, both in our classrooms and through academic and professional conversations locally and nationally.

Regarding my own artistic work: it feels strange to say, but I was surprised to discover that I was just as busy during the pandemic than I was previously. For years I’ve dreamed of collaborating with various colleagues who are spread out all over the country. All of a sudden, with the shift to online work, it was possible to do just that. It was exciting to take part in so many remote collaborations, and I’m confident my willingness to jump into digital theater with both feet helped raise my national profile as an artist.

The pandemic also helped complete the shift I began making several years ago: while I will always be an actor, my primary focus is now on directing. In some ways, it feels like the change happened dramatically fast; in other ways, it feels like the thing I should have been doing all along. My selection as a Drama League Fellow in 2018 singlehandedly changed my trajectory, and I was honored to have been asked to be a member of their inaugural Director's Council, which helps set policy for directors across the country. In my directing work, my focus is on reinvigorating existing plays to explore diverse perspectives; as well as developing new work centering underrepresented voices. I'm fortunate to have multiple plays in development with playwrights of national renown, such as Inda Craig-Galván and Idris Goodwin, and I'm working with theaters both nationally and locally to mount world premieres of these productions in the next couple of seasons. Although I made the decision in late 2020 to step down as the artistic director from the Ashland New Plays Festival in order to focus on my duties at CMU, I remain involved with the organization as an Artistic Associate. It keeps me firmly rooted in the world of new play development. The shift to directing has allowed me to be more selective in the roles I pursue as an actor. I still very much enjoy acting, but it's harder to juggle an extended run with my academic and administrative responsibilities. Roles like the lead character I played in Chimerica weren’t offered to Black male-identifying actors as recently as five years ago, so I feel a sense of responsibility when I do take them on. Another project that I’ve been developing is a project centered around Lady Macbeth with Colorado’s Local Theater Company. Although most of my stage work happens locally, it’s nice to be able to be part of the conversation as an actor in other communities in the country.

This shift in focus has also allowed me the flexibility to finally pursue television and film with my securing of a Pittsburgh-based agent right as the pandemic hit. I look forward to these opportunities as productions return. Finally, I'm very interested in facilitating work for other people. In February 2022, I was the CMU applicant for a NEA GAP Grant for a new incubator I've conceived of called ColLABo. This is designed to be a theater laboratory that financially supports teams of artists coming together to wrestle with production questions in space before going into rehearsal. This director-centered or design-led process will allow artists up to two weeks to experiment, iterate, and flesh out ideas for production, without the pressure to immediately polish their ideas for audiences. My hope is that ColLABo will be another vehicle where I can bring CMU and Pittsburgh artists together with people on the national theater scene, and continue to influence the diversification of storytelling in this country.