Closure

A GLORIOUS FAILURE
By Stacy Parker Joyce

I believe that theatre should be THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER or a GLORIOUS FAILURE. There should be nothing in between. And so I say with pride that my first foray into the world of online education was a most glorious failure. However, I still believe that this can be an interesting and useful way to provide an online option to class work in Acting, a subject that by its very nature requires personal interaction. I also think it CAN provide a peak into the world beyond the typical college student's small college town and connect them to artists all over the country, or even the world. This experience has simply illuminated some issues that must be addressed in order to move forward.

1. Student & Outside Artist commitment- I think my biggest problem was student and outside artist commitment to the project. The majority of students seemed very excited by the project at the outset, though there were some "what does this have to do with me" concerns (more on that later), and the guest artists seemed concerned about time commitment, but game to try, (though some ensemble members just flat out admitted they would not be participating because they do not enjoy communication through blogging. So the subject pool was more limited on that end from the outset). After deciding to apply for a grant and taking 8 hours of online courses on how to set up an experiment, I think I became too worried about having an "unpolluted subject pool". I didn't want to force anyone to do it. How could I measure if it was successful if I was forcing people to participate? Ah, BUT what I lost sight of is that in education we force students to do things for grades. I mean that's what they pay me the big bucks for. Do they WANT to do a research paper on Crime & Punishment in Elizabethan England? NO! Do they WANT to read a Chekhov play? NO! But I force them to do it. Some still hate it, but some are surprised to learn they find the task interesting and everyone learns something whether they want to or not. So, mistake #1 was not making the Blog (reading & commenting on it) mandatory for all students in my class. Now of course I can't dangle a grade over the head of the outside artists, but to ask them to commit their time to this project, time that many of them just do not have, without any kind of compensation was foolish. I should have waited to start the project until I secured funding to pay 5-6 guest artists to "work" the blog. Then, they would have additional motivation for continued participation and if they didn't participate, I would not feel bad at all harassing them to do so. I would hope EVENTUALLY students and guest artists would ENJOY doing this and not be worried about grade or pay, but this kind of commitment and connection takes time to foster and grow.
NEW PLAN: MANDATORY BLOG PARTICIPATION for STUDENTS, PAY for GUEST ARTISTS

2. Blog Content- When I first spoke to Michael Dailey (Assoc. Artistic Director at Strawdog) about this idea, it was literally "Hey, let's make a blog between your students and the company" "Yeah, that sounds fun!" And we thought that everyone would just, well, I don't know, talk...about...stuff...you know, whatever the people talk about on blogs. But then I took that flippin' online course and again I began to second guess myself. How can we gauge learning if there is no structure? What do I hope the students to learn? How can I make sure they DO learn and don't just talk about celebrity gossip and last night's episode of Project Runway? Now, I think the initial "Let's talk about, uh, stuff" plan was indeed too vague, however I think I went too far in the other direction and provided too much structure which turned many people off and made the Blog feel, to many, like a chore rather than something they would want to check and be a part of. And since it was wrapped up in the two shows each "company" was producing, I fear that those who were not a part of either of those productions were less inclined to be part of the blog even though my theory was that the productions were to just be a jumping off point for discussion. I think I needed to trust the students and guest artists to just TALK to each other about what is on their mind in a forum that is dedicated to emerging and existing theatre artists.
NEW PLAN: EVERYONE WILL BE INVITED TO POST. EVERYONE WILL BE INVITED TO COMMENT. I WILL TRY TO CHANGE TO A FORMAT THAT PROVIDES "TOPICS" that can be started and then people comment to those different topics. I guess this is considered a "forum" or "discussion board". (http://thelivingcanvas.com/tedforum/ or http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/ would be examples of formats to possibly try) AS MODERATOR/EDUCATOR I can start discussion threads on topics I hope the group to explore together, but ANYONE would be able to start their own discussion threads.

3. Personal Interaction- I had always hoped to bring together the students with the guest artists, live and in person, at some point during or after the project. Due to the timing of the grant I was applying for I knew I would have to wait and hopefully get money and then hopefully get the face time in late spring. However, I now believe that in the future I need to secure funding FIRST and BEGIN the project with some kind of Workshop or Panel Discussion so that everyone can meet face to face first and then move to the cyberworld.
NEW PLAN: GUEST ARTISTS WILL BE INVITED TO MSU FOR WORKSHOP OR PERFORMANCE PRIOR TO THE ON-LINE COMMUNITY GOING LIVE.

I continue to believe in the potential of this project and I look forward figuring out how to implement what I have learned from this experiment in future projects.