I believe in experiential and participatory learning.
Theatre, as an inherently interdisciplinary and collaborative art, is the perfect medium for such learning.
I am constantly impressed with the bravery of theatre students to ask important questions of themselves and their art. I embrace this audacity and challenge them to: perform their feminist identity, perform a political speech (from someone they disagree with), stage a poem without words, or even adapt scenes from The Ramayana.
I enter the classroom with resources and genuine questions, and design rigorous and flexible syllabi that respond to the needs of a group of students, challenging them to think outside their own experiences and connect their ideas to an ever-expanding community of artists across time and place.
I’ve taught theatre and creative drama workshops to participants of all ages at: Hartford public middle and high schools, Hartford Stage, LSSE in Amherst, HALO Juntos Collaborative in Holyoke, and Amherst Montessori School. The Higher Education courses in dramatic literature, performance criticism, play creation and dramaturgy that I’ve designed and taught are listed below:
Capital Community College, Hartford
University of Massachustts, Amherst
Hampshire College, Amherst
Theatre, as an inherently interdisciplinary and collaborative art, is the perfect medium for such learning.
I am constantly impressed with the bravery of theatre students to ask important questions of themselves and their art. I embrace this audacity and challenge them to: perform their feminist identity, perform a political speech (from someone they disagree with), stage a poem without words, or even adapt scenes from The Ramayana.
I enter the classroom with resources and genuine questions, and design rigorous and flexible syllabi that respond to the needs of a group of students, challenging them to think outside their own experiences and connect their ideas to an ever-expanding community of artists across time and place.
I’ve taught theatre and creative drama workshops to participants of all ages at: Hartford public middle and high schools, Hartford Stage, LSSE in Amherst, HALO Juntos Collaborative in Holyoke, and Amherst Montessori School. The Higher Education courses in dramatic literature, performance criticism, play creation and dramaturgy that I’ve designed and taught are listed below:
Capital Community College, Hartford
- Introduction to Theater
University of Massachustts, Amherst
- Theater 100 & Theater 100H: Introduction to Theater
- Theater 120: Play Analysis for Production
- English 397DH: Navigating the Edinburgh Fringe Theatre Festival (Co-Taught 2013, 2014, 2015) website
Hampshire College, Amherst
- IA 107: The Absurd and the Magical
- IA 115: Everyone’s a Critic website
- IA 118: Plays by American Women
- IA 138 & IA 138T: Staging America
- IA 138: Staging the Ramayana (Co-Taught with Guest Professor Arshia Sattar)
- IA 156: Theatre for Young Audiences
- IA 213: A Century of British and Irish Drama
- IA 220: Playwriting Seminar
- IA 225: Practices of Dramaturgy
- IA 226: Using Theatre-in-Education for Social Change
- IA 233: Adaptation for the Stage
- IA 266: Reexamining Classic Drama
- IA 275: Documentary Drama
- IA 288: Feminist Theatre Practices website syllabus
- IA 332: Division Three (Senior Thesis) Theatre Seminar
A selection of Senior Theses (Division III Projects) advised:
Queering Tradition: Yiddish Theatre and the Politics of Adaptation (Staci Akselrod)
Write Me the Universe, Mother: Finding Inspiration for Fiction in the Lives of Real Women (Aimee Aubin)
MOM, BABY, GOD: Exploring the Anti-Abortion Movement Through Immersive Research, Theatre Performance & Writing (Madeline Burrows)
Aqua, Luchando: A Critical Examination of Tourism in Havana Through Spanglish Multimedia Documentary Theatre (Nico Chavez Courtright)
Queerness and Revolution in Contemporary Devised Performance (Sam Congdon)
Bursting the Bubble: Stories from the Working Class (Matthew Haley)
Poetic Everyday Theatre (Gregory Joselyn)
Dialoguing on whiteness and racism: a unique example emphasizing creativity and compassion (Nicole le Roux)
Writing and Directing in Collaboration (Ilse Lopez)
Complacency: A Theatrical Exploration of Audience Intervention (Jimmy Lovett)
Visual Interpretations of Theatre for Children (Sarah Morrison)
Relationships Through Form: A Son and Father in Three Mediums (Wesley Newfarmer)
Performing Feminisms (Tina Oza)
Watchers and Listeners, Often Willing: Experiments in Interactive Performance (Shannon Stockwell)
Designing a non-profit theatre program for at-risk youth (Ursula Strauss)
Performing Silence/Recovering Voice: Stories of Academic and Cultural Trauma (Ashley Young)
MFA Thesis Committee:
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: Sixty Years of American Dialogue on Sex, Gender and the Nuclear Family (Amy Brooks)
Queering Tradition: Yiddish Theatre and the Politics of Adaptation (Staci Akselrod)
Write Me the Universe, Mother: Finding Inspiration for Fiction in the Lives of Real Women (Aimee Aubin)
MOM, BABY, GOD: Exploring the Anti-Abortion Movement Through Immersive Research, Theatre Performance & Writing (Madeline Burrows)
Aqua, Luchando: A Critical Examination of Tourism in Havana Through Spanglish Multimedia Documentary Theatre (Nico Chavez Courtright)
Queerness and Revolution in Contemporary Devised Performance (Sam Congdon)
Bursting the Bubble: Stories from the Working Class (Matthew Haley)
Poetic Everyday Theatre (Gregory Joselyn)
Dialoguing on whiteness and racism: a unique example emphasizing creativity and compassion (Nicole le Roux)
Writing and Directing in Collaboration (Ilse Lopez)
Complacency: A Theatrical Exploration of Audience Intervention (Jimmy Lovett)
Visual Interpretations of Theatre for Children (Sarah Morrison)
Relationships Through Form: A Son and Father in Three Mediums (Wesley Newfarmer)
Performing Feminisms (Tina Oza)
Watchers and Listeners, Often Willing: Experiments in Interactive Performance (Shannon Stockwell)
Designing a non-profit theatre program for at-risk youth (Ursula Strauss)
Performing Silence/Recovering Voice: Stories of Academic and Cultural Trauma (Ashley Young)
MFA Thesis Committee:
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: Sixty Years of American Dialogue on Sex, Gender and the Nuclear Family (Amy Brooks)
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You should know that I use the tools that you gave me while I was your student every single day. My life goal is pretty much just that someone will be able to say that about me. – Robyn Spateholts (Fulbright scholar/artist) |
Without hesitation, I can enthusiastically say that my four-year academic discourse with Hampshire Professor Talya Kingston, served as a pivotal launching ground for my current success as a working director in Austin, Texas. As a directing student and deviser of new work, I chose Talya to be my core adviser and collaborator throughout my entire Hampshire experience. Under her tutelage, I cultivated a strong artistic aesthetic focusing on movement theatre and creating highly physical new works. She guided me as I cultivated my skills and honed my approach for combining my passions of directing and choreographing. In Austin, I have won multiple critics choice "B. Iden Payne" awards and an Austin Chronicle "Best of Austin" award. My current success is based on performances, which I began devising sitting in Talya's office inspired from our lengthy conversations. Talya, always took the time to be available. Her finesse at putting a wealth of knowledge within my grasp, as well as guiding me to draw my own conclusions of how to apply this knowledge, hugely influenced and shaped the theatre director and deviser I am today.
– Kyle Zamcheck.
