Teaching Philosophy

I am a teacher who works with their students to understand their needs. I believe in creating a space where students will be able to explore different worlds and to examine human nature. It is my job to provide opportunities to my students to create theatre that is relevant to them and their communities. I not only want to educate, but foster a community (a home) to students who need a community. Students should have autonomy of their education, and I want to provide my students the opportunity to teach me. I am a teacher who want to shape my lessons and teaching style to best fit the abilities of all of my students. I values opinions and unpacks critiques in order to improve myself and future students as theatre-makers. A theatre education should be something that is accessible to all regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic statuses.  

Teaching theatre is about giving all people the opportunity to create and form communities. Theatre should challenging the norm, and tell stories of marginalized groups. It is my job to help my students grow and succeed in any way that I can by provide a safe and structure learning environment for my student. It is also my job to remove my own biases and understand my identity markers in order to engage in culturally responsive pedagogy practices. Teaching theatre is not about just playing games and producing shows, but unpacking metaphors and understanding the “why here, why now?” of a piece of theatre. Teaching theatre is learning not just from the teacher, but from others in the class. By learning and discussing the students lived experiences and understanding their perspective/identity markers. Theatre then will create a community.

Theatre is creating art when there feels like there is no joy.  Theatre is growing and learning from your mistakes. Theatre is my passion and teaching is how I share it.