Chabot College

Academic Program Review Report

Year Two of

Program Review Cycle

Theater Arts

“Be More Alive”

Feb. 28 2013

Rachel LePell and Dov Hassan

Final Forms, 1/18/13

Preamble/Introduction

This Program Review follows the format provided, as well as possible. But before jumping into the official documents, we want to remind you, dear readers, of some of the basic tenets of Theater Arts at Chabot College. Therefore, we are including some information from our previous program reviews.

Description of the Unit

The Theater Arts Department at Chabot College is a vital, integral, and active participant in the creation and maintenance of the cultural vibrancy of the college.

The Theater Arts Department is dedicated to educating the community college student as a whole person with an emphasis on story-telling as key to the art of the theater: story-telling has been and always will be central to the health and evolution of our culture, as our values, our ideas, our very identities shape--and are shaped by-- the stories we tell in various forms. Embedded in these stories, are always resonant and often timeless questions that demand reflection, invite exploration, and invoke possible change. And so, our goals in theater are often no less than this: we aim to change the audience, and we start by changing ourselves.

Theater Arts supports and produces original plays, as well as a more traditional season of work. We produce Emerging Work, a series that is dedicated to developing new work; this is linked to our dramatic writing course, which is the first stage in this process. We also produce previously published plays (classics and contemporary work), small and large musicals, as well as children’s shows and plays for teenagers. We have produced an average of 13 shows a year for the past decade.

Theater Arts cultivates and practices creative work, while we simultaneously demanding critical thinking. Sometimes these two activities appear to run counter to each other. But they can be, and perhaps should be, merged in the mature artistic endeavor. Creativity is not void of critical thought, and critical thought need not be void of creative expression.

Story-telling is not “child’s play.” In our classes and in our productions, we ask these questions: What does the story mean? How is it being told? Why is it being told? Who’s telling it and to whom is it intended? How do the lines, the actors’ choices, the lights, the set, the costumes, the props, the very poster and program designs contribute to the audiences’ ability to receive this story in its fullness and complexity? Why bother telling this story? What’s at stake if we fail to tell it? What does this story have to do with me, with others, with the community in which I live? How does this story connect to other aspects of our lives, are there analogies, metaphors, echoes of meaning?

We educate the whole person. We educate students in acting, writing, design, research, technical theater, directing, and management. But moreover, we engage them in team-building and collaboration. Second to this is our commitment to critical thinking. We dp not “train” actors in a particular school of acting, but emphasize the whole of playmaking, so that when students leave our program, they are inspired and educated to make theater happen or use the theater as a way of learning, a way of exploring ideas. Therefore, students in our program practice all parts of theater. They may apply these skills to a theater program in a 4 year school, or they may apply these skills within their future jobs, or they may find a career in the theater or a related field. Whatever their paths, these students will have a solid foundation of practicing the art of theater, of story-telling; therefore, they may live deeper and more enriched lives.

Part II Accomplishments

Our most important accomplishments for the past two years: (from 2012)

Establishment of an AA in Theater Arts.

Guest Artists to discuss future career paths for our students.

Establishment of a Wheel wherein students can complete the major in two years.

Development of additional acting classes to fill out our acting training curriculum.

The continuation of outstanding theater productions, including an increase in the number and quality of the student original plays.

The expansion of our performance venues with shows in our rehearsal room, 1328.

The establishment of a student theater club, wherein students can produce their own projects.

An increase in visibility due to doing performances for school audiences in the PAC.

Completion of SLOs for each course, the establishment of PLOs, and drafting an SLO schedule.

Progress has been made on the assessment part of the loop: one of our most common SLOs, the development of teamwork, has been assessed in two courses.

Finding outside support for our program –

1 The collaboration between The Hayward Library and Chabot Theater Arts in the production of Ultima.

2. The collaboration between our Theater Arts programof the Hayward Little Theater, otherwise known as the Douglas Morrison Theatre.

An increase by 200 percent in our number of students participating in the American College Theater Festival Regional conference.

Progress is being made on the Theater Arts Department website. The site is currently underway with the collaboration of lead faculty and the web master.

Table of Contents

Section A: What Progress Have We Made? 1

Section B: What Changes Do We Suggest? 2

Required Appendices:

A: Budget History 3

B1: Course Learning Outcomes Assessment Schedule 4

B2: “Closing the Loop” Assessment Reflections 5

C: Program Learning Outcomes 9

D: A Few Questions 11

E: New Initiatives 12

F1: New Faculty Requests 13

F2: Classified Staffing Requests 14

F3: FTEF Requests 15

F4: Academic Learning Support Requests 16

F5: Supplies and Services Requests 17

F6: Conference/Travel Requests 18

F7: Technology and Other Equipment Requests 19

F8: Facilities Requests 20



A. What Progress Have We Made?

Complete Appendices A (Budget History), B1 and B2 (CLO's), C (PLO's), and D (A few questions) prior to writing your narrative. You should also review your most recent success, equity, course sequence, and enrollment data at http://www.chabotcollege.edu/ProgramReview/Data2012.cfm.

In year one, you established goals and action plans for program improvement. This section asks you to reflect on the progress you have made toward those goals. This analysis will be used by the PRBC and Budget Committee to assess progress toward achievement of our Strategic Plan and to inform future budget decisions. It will also be used by the SLOAC and Basic Skills committees as input to their priority-setting process. In your narrative of two or less pages, address the following questions:

What were your year one Program Review goals? A. What Progress Have We Made?

“whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” (Neitzche)

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· What were your year one Program Review goals?

The following is from our program review one year ago: Keep in mind two things– our program review was improvised last year, as we had no supervisorial assistance a year ago. Moreover, we have been consumed by four major obstacles/activities this past 12 months, that are not fully represented in previous years’ Program Review Documents.

1. Our facilities have been offline, so scheduling of classes, shows, rehearsals, etc…has been a great challenge. The completion dates have changed, adjustments have to made on a constant basis. One could say that just “getting through our construction period” was one of the goals this past 2 years. In addition to this, the actual construction plans have needed several consultations, some with positive results, but mostly with negative results.

2. Our formal curriculum is being revised in order to deal with the issue of repeatability. This has required many meetings within our area, as well as our division, as well as with LPC, as well as with other disciplines across campus (i.e. P.E.)

3. Our dean was ineffectual in keeping us up to date with college needs and demands. One of the crossroads listed from last year’s report (see below) seemed to be brainchild of his, and it has led nowhere. It was, in retrospect, no “crossroad” at all. Moreover, it does not appear that we followed “year one” guidelines: I remember asking specifically and repeatedly for more guidance on the program review, since I am the one who manages its completion, but this was never delivered. Thus, last year, we “punted.”

4. Like all of us, the panic of prop 30 put us in damage control as opposed to striving to reach our goals: during that period, lead faculty (Dov Hassan and myself, Rachel LePell) considered “exploding” our current program and “re-visioning” it from the ground up, in order to keep up (in this case “down”) with the changes in state wide goals for community college. This kind of conversation has borne plenty of fruit on which to chew…however it is not “low hanging fruit,” believe me.

(From the TA Program Review 2012)

Theater Arts is at an important crossroad. We are in the process of evaluating the costs and benefits of converting our program to a Vocational ed. Program. The discussions and prospects of this are in the beginning stages, thus making this question have 2 possible answers.

IF we go in the direction of Vocational education, our goal would be to shore up our technical theater courses and enrollments. We might also shift our acting classes from stage to film/digital media projects. Our original student work program might become more focused on digital media project scripts and less on traditional, live audience forms.

On the other hand, IF we go in the direction of a transfer/general education/traditional curriculum, our program will continue to grow in the areas that we have been growing this past 5 years. We will continue to grow our enrollments and meet our mission goals of engaging each student in the art form of story-telling (this is explained in our mission/vision of our program review(attached). One area that may grow in the next five years is to use theater arts to better prepare students for the job market by exploring interview skills, inter-personal skills, collaboration skills, creative thinking skills (out of the box thinking), that are demanded in most jobs and professions.

Short term (5 years)

We will have certificates for acting, technical theater, and dramatic writing.

We will increase the number of theater majors by five times.

We will have a thriving Theater for Young Audiences program that is integral to the curricula of its various school audiences. We want to be a competitor with CTC and Theaterworks, which are both touring companies that come to Chabot. The Theater for Young Audiences could include extended outreach to local high schools to help produce theater projects inside their schools, or have them participate in our programs.

In either direction, we plan on exploring on some alternative delivery methods, including a few distant education courses, when appropriate (i.e. theater appreciation, dramatic writing, film as art and communication).

In addition to this area of change, over the next five years we plan on continuing our connection to the professional theater market by having working professionals on staff who can help students find internships and other kinds of work as well.

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· Did you achieve those goals? Specifically describe your progress on the goals you set for student learning, program learning, and Strategic Plan achievement.

As you can glean from the above, our goals did not address student learning, program learning, or the college strategic plan. However, we are currently working on, discussing, and executing these projects on a regular basis. So, in terms of last year’s goals in these areas? We failed. We failed because they were not part of our list. But as of today, this is our progress:

Student learning – we have talked at length about our SLO for each course, and agreed to them, in general. We also agreed that SLOs in our area are hard to define due to the nature of creative expression, still…we press on.

Program learning -- We have been sharpening our focus of the program, with an emphasis on teamwork/collaboration as a top Program goal. We have others as well, but these explorations and collaborations have been quite productive between faculty members.

Strategic Plan Achievement – We are discussing how we can assist our students with the new emphasis on moving through the college and “getting on” to whatever is next for them. We have done the following:

The development of an AAT degree in Theater Arts

Counselor/faculty/student receptions to look at career/transfer options.

Individual questions in each class in terms of areas of study and educational plans.

Exploring mentoring options for theater arts students

Exploring academic support – i.e. math and English tutoring for Theater students, either in house or through the tutoring center.

Exploring how TA can more fully integrate some basic skills instruction into more of its courses, to increase student success in other areas.

Revision of the TA curriculum to address “family” groupings, and repeatability issues

In terms of the goals from 2012 (see Program Review from 2012)

We have continued to make progress in increasing the number of theater majors, from 5ish to 89!

We have strengthened our connection to the professional theater market by hiring an instructor who is an alum and is currently working in local professional theaters. Plus, some of our students earn auditions, enrollments (PCPA), and other opportunities due to faculty professional connections.

We obtained a FIPSE grant to explore and research Theater For Young Audience possibilities in our service area. Linda Amayo-Hassan has been conducting this work, and she is our current artistic lead on this project, as well as being an instructor in the department.

· What are you most proud of?

We are most proud of the constant evolution of our department’s strengths, and the continued success of our students. Because of the aforementioned “obstacles” alluded to in the introduction to this document, we have been faced with more and more necessary collaborations. The faculty (both full and part time) have really come together to face these challenges square on, communicating often (once or twice weekly) to discuss all aspects of the theater program, from where we are going to rehearse that afternoon, to what is the overall philosophy of the program? Where has it been, where is it now, and where is it going in the future. If you—dear committee members and administrators—ever worry that Theater Arts is not working as a team in facing these changes coming down the pike, then you would be greatly mistaken. We talk constantly, we agree, we disagree, but always with respect and integrity.