The metaphors we use to talk about teaching are important. I like to think of the university as a garden where we help a variety of plants to grow. That leaves professors as the gardeners, playing a nurturing role in the lives of the students who grow and ripen until they are ready to move on from the garden.

I can teach classes in nearly every part of theatre except design. My experience rests mainly in the realm of history, dramaturgy, directing, and playwriting. That said, I have taught acting outside of academia while running my theatre company, which gave me experience in arts administration as well. 

I really enjoy teaching interdisciplinary dramatic literature classes. One such class, Science and Theatre, involved reading a variety of plays that intersected with the sciences and discussing them in class. Students were then challenged to write their own one-act plays that dealt with science in some capacity.

To me, the ideal situation for theatre history would be over three semesters. This would allow you to use a breakdown similar to that from the Theatre Histories textbook. The first course would cover theatre in oral and written cultures, the second in print cultures, and the third in globalized, mediatized cultures. By breaking things down by mode of communication instead of a strict chronological method, oral culture practices now could be taught without seeming necessarily primitive.

Other specialty history courses could be offered (such as Asian Theatre or African American Theatre History) but not at the expense of not teaching those theatres as integral to an overarching view of theatre’s history.

I consider it of tantamount importance to support students who have traditionally been underrepresented. In a world where current power structures promote the improvement of white males over all others, providing extra support for those who don’t fit that mold is increasingly important.

This fostering must be approached on both mentoring and pedagogic fronts.

First: providing additional support in and out of the classroom to help students who may not have had the same preparation opportunities of others. 

Second: Constantly reevaluating possible biases to ensure that grading and other forms of evaluation are equitable.

Third: Adjusting course material to appropriately represent a wider range of experience historically and currently than that of white males.