GTA Enhancement Seed Grants: The Department of Theatre

Seed Grant Final Report

Submitted by Lesley Ferris, Chair

1. List and description of program elements:

  • Expanded period of GA and GTA orientation (one week)
  • Included micro-teaching, all day NCBI Diversity Workshop, "Grads Orienting Grads" panel
  • Arts tour of Columbus: Columbus Art Museum, Schiller Park, Columbus theatres
  • Quarter long Pro-Seminar: Theatre 995: Teaching for the Artist/Scholar
  • Active participation of FTAD Fellow through out orientation and pro-seminar
  • Attend productions at Wexner Center and CATCO

2. Itemized budget

  • The funding was sufficient to accomplish our goals
  • Major expense was the all day Diversity Retreat at the Blackwell
  • Other expenses were the purchase of the Chicago Manual on teaching, theatre tickets, and stipends for micro-teaching sessions.

FUNDING / $5,000.00
USES
Amazon - 40 Books / $ 324.00
Blackwell Inn / $2,787.81
(Diversity Workshop & Lunch)
Columbus Museum of Arts / $ 96.00
(Admission and Parking)
Convention Center Parking / $ 3.00
GTA Lunches / $ 126.00
(18 @ $7.00 Tour of Downtown)
GTA Theatre Tickets / $ 312.50
Carrie Devito / $ 150.00
Jeanine Thompson / $ 250.00
Mo Ryan / $ 175.00
Bruce Hermann / $ 175.00
GTA Copenhagen Tickets / $ 80.00
Red Herring and CATCO Tickets / $ 505.00
(Season Students, 2 Flex)
TOTAL USES / $4,984.31
BALANCE IN GRANT / $ 15.69

3. Assessment of project:

  • Feedback was collected by FTAD Fellow Lise Evans who wrote a full report submitted to FTAD and the Department of Theatre
  • Feedback came from discussion and a formal questionnaire
  • Major success-the ProSeminar gave the opportunity to share ideas, get to know each other, and to learn of others' experiences; learning about the arts in Columbus and attending various performances; created a sense of community and collaboration
  • Partial Success-good beginning for creating space for teaching discussions; a certain amount of collaboration between the areas (acting/directing, design/technology, and history, literature and criticism) was fostered
  • Issues-some students felt the course needed more focus; not enough time to accomplish goals

4. Reflections on future

  • Next steps: Continuation of the program with some changes
  • Changes include: adjusting the fall orientation and ProSeminar to meet the specific needs of the new cohort of students. For example, this year we have a much smaller group since we only admit MFA actors once every three years.
  • Continue the FTAD Fellow; make clear the relationship of the Fellow to the ProSeminar as a TA to the course
  • Try and get more faculty involved and committed to the ProSeminar
  • Find a more suitable time for ProSeminar class meetings
  • Develop strategies for more focused discussions on teaching and utilizing the arts in the classroom
  • Continue the "Grad Orienting Grads" and the "Nuts and Bolts" of the department panels as part of the ProSeminar and/or orientation week
  • Hope to develop a "Certificate of Teaching" that would be awarded to grad students who fulfill various criteria. Will work with FTAD Fellow and Faculty Advisor to develop this during the 2004-2005 year.
  • A realization that it is impossible to have too many outside arts activities, that we should spread them out over two or three years. The art events should take place in the fall quarter, while other quarters focus on professional development and teaching strategies. Thus in the fall of 2004 (as part of the department orientation) we plan to have a visit to the Ohio Arts Council. We had hoped to do this last year, but we had to cancel because there was just to many conflicts. After three years in the department graduate students will have encountered all the major art institutions in Columbus this way, instead of attempting to do so in the first year only.

5. "Lessons learned"

More detailed orientation week in the department with a focus on training teachers was greatly appreciated. While we pride ourselves on always having a strong department orientation, the FTAD funds made it possible for us to see other approaches and aspects of training and orienting students. It gave us a creative opportunity to think of more embracing and inclusive ways of working with students. For example, the MFA design students primarily have their GA hours assigned to supervision of studios (costume/lights/scenic). Little attention was paid to teaching for these graduate students. Now they have a sense of the studio as a site for student learning, its connection to teaching, and several of the students from last year's ProSeminar have asked to do directed teaching for courses with a view to teaching in the future.

The budget of $5000 made it possible to do things we could not normally do. Although you will not have the funding in the following years, the first year makes faculty, students and staff see what is possible and a willingness to find other means to continue in future years.

The FTAD Fellow is an excellent means of giving focus to the program. The Fellow serves the role as a student advocate for both FTAD and for teaching in the department. It is important for us to continue with this position. We have now listed it in our Graduate Handbook with a position description.