Teaching Philosophy

There are many ways of acquiring knowledge. Because of the significant amount of research required for my productions, each play or books is just about its own PhD. But, while most academic learning occurs through reading books and through subsequent classroom discussions, this type of research is only my first step. I then have to seek the living perspective to the story, which includes interviews, discussions, oral histories, and just plain staying in a place and observing life unfold.

From this multi-faceted and living research comes a product not completely unlike a historian's paper or the essay of an English major, except expressed in a creative and dynamic form. My plays, stories, and books contain worlds of people and places that allow the work to resonate with insight that the creation of characters can uniquely provide. Their creation requires the same processing of information inherent in the academic process, only taken a step further.

Because my process involves taking the research of the social sciences and creating a product of the arts, there are any numbers of ways in which students from a variety of backgrounds can be engaged in a meaningful and contributory way. As my process of play writing is inherently collaborative, it allows for unique educational opportunities for students who engage in that collaboration. These students have an opportunity to explore a creative outlet for their research and learning. In doing so, I hope to provide all students with an important insight into the arts which will, at the very least, fill their leisure hours and give their lives a greater depth and perspective

For students of the arts, I try to give them a deeper perspective on their work by connecting it to the humanity from which it is inspired. Most all of my work involves the creation of new plays, which is the process at the very heart of theater.