By Jade Fadrowski & Kayla Hunt
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writers
The Problem
In THEA 101, an introductory class at Towson University, students learn the fundamentals of acting through improvisation, exercises and simple scenes. One common exercise includes students acting out several monologues with a different partner throughout the course of the semester.
When the global pandemic hit in March 2020, universities and colleges worldwide were forced to close their doors and shift to a fully virtual format. As a result, professors had to adjust their lesson plans and assignments to accommodate the change in course delivery.
That adjustment has been particularly difficult for professors in the arts given that classes are hands on and rely heavily on interpersonal communication. Theater classes involve staging, movements and voice work — all of which are much easier in person than online. Not surprisingly, engagement in online theaters courses has been sagging.
According to a survey conducted by the Educational Theatre Association, 25 percent of educators reported that they had fewer than 25 percent of students participate in virtual classes for the Spring 2020 semester, while 58 percent reported that they had at least half of all students participate. Among the main reasons for the drop in participation is the pass/fail assessment model and lack of access to computers or high-speed internet.
The THEA 101 course at Towson went on as scheduled over the past year, but engagement at times was lower than it likely would have been had the class taken place in person.
Online, classes can be long and draining. Furthermore, acting out monologues in front of black boxes on a screen isn’t the same as doing so in person.
“That real-time interaction with another human being, you still need another person in the same room with you so that you can respond honestly to one another — that was a big hurdle to get over,” said Mallory Kubicek, an adjunct professor at Towson who teaches the acting course.
The Solution
To make THEA 101 engaging for students, Kubicek had to think outside the box.
“Acting is an art form that is dependent on human-to-human contact and whole-body involvement,” Kubicek said. “It’s taking something already abstract and making it more real with the specific limit you’ve been given.”
Without the ability to be face-to-face, Kubicek instead decided that the best way to run the class was to replicate in-class activities online and spend extra time focusing on exercises such as creating improv scenes and using the Meisner technique of thinking less and relying to instincts and emotions.
Kubicek begins every class with a warm-up consisting of dancing, stretching and a relaxation exercise. Students are required to have their cameras on and follow along. She plays song such as “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire or something instrumental, depending on the day. The dance moves are simply moving left to right, walking in place and spinning in circles.
Some of the stretches include students touching their toes and doing lunge hip stretches. After stretching, students run around their house for 30 seconds. She then leads a deep-breathing exercise and guided meditation lasting no more than five minutes. This allows students to relax and get their body ready.
One of the many energy exercises includes working together to throw an imaginary ball of energy to one another. Students gather energy into an invisible ball with both hands, once it feels too intense they throw it to someone else. This helps students focus on their energy and get their body moving.
The class consists of typical THEA 101 coursework such as monologues and play scenes. However, Kubicek promotes a sense of connectedness with partner work and breakout rooms. Students are assigned two partners during the semester. They work with one partner for the first half of the semester and a different partner for the second half of the semester. Their homework relies heavily on meeting for an hour outside of class to prep for scenes to share with the class as well as practicing Meisner pong, creating improv scenes and character development.
The breakout rooms allow relationships to grow. When students are in breakout rooms they work on Meisner pong, which is a repetition exercise believed to be the foundation for emotional connection. This exercise has two people repeat what the other says without thinking. It can be an observation as obvious as “your shirt is blue,” “you’re smiling” or “you’re wearing a sweatshirt.” They go back and forth like a game of ping-pong stating the observation. This requires active listening.
Improv scenes allow students to get to know each other because they’re given the opportunity to collaborate and have fun. They make a collaborative effort to create scenes and characters based on the instruction they’ve been given.
Partner work, breakout rooms and improv scenes allow students to get to know each other on a deeper level and learn how to trust each other.
Insights
Acting online comes with its own set of challenges, but they are not insurmountable. Kubicek said the key to teaching an online class is motivating students to come to class prepared and ready to share.
The pandemic isn’t a hindrance to acting online. It comes with its own set of challenges, but it can be seen as an opportunity for students to develop as an actor and adapt to the world around them. Actors, especially in improv, must adapt to the circumstances they’ve been given and find a solution. A quote by Sanford Meisner that students often hear throughout THEA 101 is, “Acting is doing things truthfully under imaginary circumstances.”
“The theater at its best is a reflection of where we are at any given time in society and that sense of truth at where we are societally we really depend on that,” Kubicek said. “The pandemic provides a great challenge but great material for actors who can use that sense of isolation and what they’re going through in the pandemic to understand character better.”
To better understand character students must know the who, what, when, where and why. Students in Kubicek’s class were assigned to read a poem of their choice from “Spoon River Anthology” by Edgar Lee Masters and write a character analysis of their chosen character.
They were allowed to look up information about their characters but were encouraged to make up information. They made up a back story, what they looked like, what their house looked like, their personality, etc. The more detailed and specific the better. Once students understood the wants and needs of the character they were able to convey the character authentically.
Kubicek said trying new things and not being afraid to make mistakes is the best way to conduct an abstract class like acting online. She recognizes the danger of exercises via Zoom to become a solo rather than a collaborative process.
Students perform what they did in the breakout rooms, whether it be an improv scene or Meisner pong. This ensures that every student participates. She has learned that as long as students are engaging in the content the class will be successful.
“Students are like a treasure chest to me where everything they need for acting is already inside themselves. It’s just a matter of pulling it out and accessing what they have,” Kubicek said. “That’s how I try to overcome all this online stuff. I bring the structure and they bring the content.”
Evidence of Effectiveness
Kubicek believes that the energy exercises that she has implemented are working. Despite the restrictions that teaching THEA 101 online brings, she has observed that students are more eager to establish that human interaction and energy in an online environment.
Several Towson students who have taken THEA 101 virtually said that the energy and warm-up exercises in the beginning of class are beneficial.
Some said the exercises help “wake them up” and feel more prepared to engage in the activities the professor has planned for the day.
Savage took THEA 101 virtually last semester and said he felt as though the class adjusted well to an online format. This was due to the different exercises that were implemented to help students feel more engaged.
However, he still prefers to take an acting class in person rather than online because he feels as though taking this type of class online has too many restrictions.
Limitations
There are a plethora of limitations that come with teaching an online theater class. Besides the expected issues such as limited time and technology challenges, the real limitation has been the lack of space and some students feeling uncomfortable.
Acting requires actors’ bodies to convey emotions and communicate what’s happening in the scene. Still, but students don’t feel completely disconnected from one another.
“I’ve come away feeling like we didn’t miss a step except what’s sad is we didn’t get the chance to be in a studio and move around the room and experience spatially what we’re talking about,” Kubicek said.
Kubicek said being in a box on a screen does not inhibit the human spirit to reach out.
The beginning of a semester is difficult for any student, but especially one taking an acting class. Acting requires putting oneself out there and subjected oneselves to potential judgments, which can be a nerve-wracking experience.
Initially students felt uncomfortable performing in front of virtual classmates but throughout the semester students have come out of their shells. Getting to know each other from partner work, breakout rooms and improv scenes help students grow together.
“Though confined to our own spaces I feel like we’ve done pretty darn well in both a rehearsal sense with a partner you would think that’s not valuable, but you almost forget you’re not in the room with somebody if you just do it,” Kubicek said. “The limiting thing becomes just the new thing. The new thing to cherish and explore and treasure.”