A tribe for coordinating and talking about subject and material and teaching methods and delivery for renaissance workshops.

Back when I first started faire, my friend pointed out a curious aspect of workshops. "Supposedly," he mused, "you're taking classes and the end of the process is that you have a 'recital' that happens to be a [then] 7 weekend performance. But you never matriculate from these courses." He's right, still, today. You don't matriculate; you'll never graduate no matter how many times you take "Country Dances I."

But there's something more insidious about how the workshops aren't designed with The Big Picture. "Get the big picture," Mr. Hertz likes to say as his rule no. one. So many people do not get the Big Picture, and that function shows in the workshops.

So, stay with me here, one aspect of the workshops is that many of the instructors don't speak with other instructors about what and how they're teaching. Ideally, the workshop experience should teach each adult every piece of information they need in order to be a functioning actor in a big show. Workshops aren't rehearsals and cannot replace them, but they should supplement rehearsals and should support the development of the final product (the entire show).

To that end, I invite like-minded individuals to join here in discussing what workshops you are interested in teaching, what your basic subject matter may be, and then inviting a discussion of how to integrate the workshops so they all work together as interlocking pieces of a puzzle to create the Big Picture. Shouldn't an improv class meld with a history class which melds with a language class which melds with more acting classes?

I also invite discussion of concepts which may be more radical in deviating from the norm, that is, creating the class that is about improv and history together, or other similar endeavors that might take and improve formerly dry subject matter.

http://tribes.tribe.net/renworkshops