Session Block 8

Sunday, August 2nd, 1-2:15pm(EDT)

All of the Session Blocks will be hosted on Zoom Meeting. You will be sent an email, 24 hours prior to the next days events, which will contain all of the log on details for each event. As in a in-person Conference, please feel free to select whichever workshop you would like to attend in the moment.

Network: College/University/Research

Dramaturgy and Design: How one can teach Dramaturgy Through Design
Session Chair: Sarah Lee Chic

Dramaturgy is a foundational element when it comes to creating theatre- but how does it work for designers? How can theatre artists and educators introduce dramaturgy to lead them to do their best work as creators? This workshop will hone in on these questions- specifically in learning through a designers point-of-view, through a brief lecture and hands-on experience with a script, research, and coming up with design ideas. (Pencils and something to color with (colored pencils, etc.) are highly recommended).

Network: College/University/Research

Engaging Our Practice: (Re)envisioning Theatre and Education for the future  
Session Chair: Amy Peterson Jensen

This session considers the ways that pre-service theatre teachers practice theatre and education in the diverse places in which they live, learn, teach, and practice their art including online environs. It also envisions what living, learning, teaching, and practicing as artists and educators might be like in the near  future and in the long term. Specifically, we will consider how emerging educators currently practice art and pedagogy in their current communities. We also consider how they might purposefully plan for the artistic and pedagogical work necessary to help their future and evlolving communities thrive. Throughout the session, all participants will dialogue about the current state of theatre and education (by sharing specific experiences from the field or reflecting on their general perceptions of what this work can or should look like). We will also imagine the future(s) of theatre and education through interactive discussion. In these discussions, pre-service educators, artists, teachers, and university teacher educators will share stories of their own participation in theatre and education spaces, including moments where they have succeeded and failed, helped and harmed, learned and remained stagnant. Participants will reflect on recent past experiences and collectively strategize about how they can effectively engage in future work that promotes mindful embodied practice within themselves, others, and in the field as a whole.This session continues the well-established AATE tradition of convening undergraduate and graduate students, teacher educators, practicing teachers, and others interested in pressing issues facing today's pre-service teachers as they prepare to advance in the field as professionals. This session, like those before it, explores traditional and innovative approaches; successes and failures; and ways theatre education praxis functions within particular educational and community contexts.This session regularly draws fifty or more participants from many universities. For a full list of faculty who have committed to participating and bringing their undergraduate and graduate students to participate in this session, see our response to the "anything else" question below. 

Developing Theatre Curriculum for Remote and Hybrid Learning
Session Chair: Dr. Jennfer Katona

As educators prepare to re-start the school year the looming question is how to best plan for an uncertain year.

With in-person instruction, online or the combination of both as likely possibilities, this session will provide guidance on how best to write and adapt your theatre curriculum for any learning situation. 

Network: Early Childhood

Resiliency and Social Emotional Development (Presented by Childsplay)
Session Chair: Jenny Millinger

How are we supporting our young people in their experiences of the pandemic? How will children’s experiences change how they show up and participate in class? Join early childhood behavioral expert Dr. Isela Garcia in a dynamic session focused on strategies to support children’s resilience. This interactive session will provide best practices to apply both online and in person and help us all to improve our language and practice when working with preschool and early elementary students.

Network: College/University/Research

Treasure Hunting: Stories from the Life and Work of Kathy Krzys 
Session Chair: Kathleen Pennyway

In this session, Archivist Emeritus Kathy Krzys will be interviewed by her former Research Assistant Kathleen Pennyway. The session will examine Kathy's many contributions to the field including the development of the largest archive in the world documenting the international history of Theatre for Youth back to the 16th century, the 130+ donors she's worked with, what she's learned about our history from primary source materials, and her mentorship of countless voices in the field. Kathy will offer perspectives on the past as well as thoughts and ideas about the future. Have a question you've always wanted to ask her? Send it via chat during the second half of the session. 

Network: Applied Theatre

Tinting Your Lens Red: Deconstructing Menstrual Taboos Through Theatre  
Session Chair: Danica Rosengren

Periods are IN! 

This generation more than ever is speaking up against period taboos, tampon tax, and false period gender binaries. So let’s be sure our practices are as up to date as theirs! 

Join this Period Positive Party as we discuss various ways to develop inclusive, celebratory practices, as well as learn hands on some ways to teach about periods through theatre exercises and techniques, which will include: 

1. Menstrually-mindful decision making in teaching and in theatre spaces
2. How Period Empowerment and performance practices make the perfect pairing
3. The Period-Quarantine Relationship- It’s complicated.  

So wear your favorite maroon shirt, blood red rouge, or crimson shoes as we celebrate the natural occurrence that for too long has been, hidden, shunned, and the center of too many micro (and macro) aggressions!