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Teaching Theatre in Precarious Times: Strategies for Survival in the Liberal Arts Curriculum

Over the last several years, I have spearheaded the design of multidisciplinary symposia to coincide with and complement a specific play in the production season of the Theatre Department at Davidson College. This essay offers a critical examination of my work curating these symposia and the strategies I have devised to engage communities, both on campus and beyond, in intellectual and artistic explorations that depend on a theatrical production as inspiration and touchstone. My analysis considers the strategic goals of such work in the context of these economically “precarious times,” which have seen the dissolution of theatre departments and programs across the country, and a more general attack on the relevance of a liberal arts education. I explore the pedagogic and collaborative strategies deployed and how they intersected with institutional priorities to strengthen the artistic work taking place in our rehearsal rooms and theatres. My essay is directed at others who are interested in similar work, and thus I intend to point out strategies that yielded the most successful and rich collaborations, as well as my own missteps and challenges, along the way.