Teaching Writing Across Theatre and Performance Studies

From traditional play analysis and theatre history courses to creative writing courses like playwriting, writing is everywhere in theatre and performance studies. Yet, many of these classes fail to emphasize the tools common to rhetoric and composition classes and writing studies programs that help students generate and refine new work. Harnessing cross-field “writing in the disciplines” and critical university studies approaches, this collection of practical instructor-oriented resources from scholars teaching at a range of institutional types surveys both undergraduate and graduate theatre and performance studies classrooms to identify best practices and common pitfalls in writing instruction. Teaching Across Theatre and Performance Studies: A Resource Guide provides detailed lesson plans for teaching students the mechanics of research methods, editing, and revision, while offering course assignments to support instructors seeking to enhance student writing. Whether you teach playwriting, dramaturgy, theatre history, dance, design, or performance criticism, this guide offers adaptable strategies for making writing central to the work of theatre and performance studies.