Theatre as Pedagogy:
A Conversation with Victoria Rue
In Part One, Victoria talks about her theatre background and the major influences on her work.
In the second half of our conversation Victoria Rue talks about the importance of theatre in the classroom as a way to break out of the ruts and old habits of traditional teaching. She offers suggestions for tools on the journey, as well as stories of her own experiences of transformative teaching and learning with students. Rue, like Marc Weinblatt in the previous podcast in July, calls attention to theatre as a necessary pedagogical method for social justice education.
about our guest/s
Victoria Rue is a professor, author, playwright, theatre director and workshop leader, and Roman Catholic womanpriest. She has taught at San Jose State University from 2004 to the present in Comparative Religious Studies and Women’s Studies. In the Fall of 2018 she will be at Dar Al Calamar University College in Arts and Culture (http://www.daralkalima.edu.ps/en) Palestine as a Fulbright Scholar. For Rue learning is an encounter with the self and others, and theatre is a way to engage the whole person in critical thinking and engaging stories. She uses theatre as a way to teach cooperation, community building and somatic learning (embodied pedagogy). Through theatre games, improvisation, writing exercises, and the performance of plays, Rue creates learning communities that explore new possibilities for social change. Her work addresses issues such as HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, lgbtq issues, and homeless youth. With Augusto Boal, Rue sees “theatre as rehearsal for revolution.” According to Rue: “Theatre is an arena in which we can dream what we want in our society.” Her book, Acting Religious: Theatre as Pedagogy in Religious Studies (Pilgrim Press, 2005) has both theory and practical examples of her pedagogy and theatre work. For more information see her website: www.victoriarue.com.
resources
Victoria Rue’s website:
Victoria Rue, Acting Religious: Theatre as Pedagogy in Religious Studies (Pilgrim Press, 2005).
Augusto Boal, Games for Actors and Non-Actors, trans. Adrian Jackson (Routledge, 1992).
_____, Theatre of the Oppressed (Urizen, 1979).
Sandra Butler and Barbara Rosenflum, Cancer in Two Voices (2nd Ed., Spinster Ink Books, 1996).
Joe Chaikin, The Presence of the Actor (Theatre Communications Group, 1972).
Maha Elgenaidi, founder of the Islamic Networks Group (ING):
https://ing.org/maha-elgenaidi/
Vsevold Meyerhold, Meyerhold on Theatre (Bloomsbury Meuthen Drama, 1978).
Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference:
Anna Deavere Smith, Fires in the Mirror (Anchor, 1993).
Viola Spolin, Improvisation for the Theatre: A Handbook of Teaching and Directing Techniques (3rd Edition, Northwestern University Press, 1999).
Theology Resources Mentioned in the Podcast:
James H. Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation (Orbis, 2010).
Beverly Harrison, Making the Connections: Essays in Feminist Social Ethics (Beacon, 1986).
_____. Our Right to Choose: Toward a New Ethic of Abortion (Beacon, 1983).
Carter Heyward, God in the Balance: Christian Spirituality in Times of Terror (Pilgrim, 2002).
Dorothee Soelle, Thinking about God: An Introduction to Theology (Wipf & Stock, 2016).
Additional resources for theatre of the oppressed:
Bell, Lee Anne, Storytelling for Social Justice: Connecting Narrative and the Arts in Antiracist Teaching (Routledge, 2010).
Melisa Cahmann-Taylor and Mariana Souto-Manning, Teachers Act Up!: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities through Theatre (Teachers College Press, 2010).
Cohen-Cruz, Jan, Local Acts: Community-Based Performance in the United States (Rutgers, 2005).
Hannah Fox, Zoomy Zoomy: Improv Games and Exercises for Groups (Tusitala Publishing, 2010).
Katherine S. McKnight and Mary Scruggs, The Second City Guide to Improv in the Classroom: Using Improvisation to Teach Skills and Boost Learning (Jossey-Bass, 2008).
Stanley Pollack and Mary Fusoni, Moving Beyond Icebreakers: An Innovative Approach to Group Facilitation, Learning, and Action (The Center for Teen Empowerment, Inc., 2005).
Michael Rohd, Theatre for Community, Conflict & Dialogue: The Hope Is Vital Training Manual (Heinmann, 1998).
Mady Schutzman and Jan Cohen-Cruz, Playing Boal: Theatre, Therapy, Activism (Routledge, 1994).