Written by Eric Schroeder

 

“OK, Jesse, you say here that you can juggle. Could you step up on stage and juggle for us?”

Jesse didn’t expect this and looks back at me blankly. “I don’t have anything to juggle.”

“Can someone help him out?”

My tutors rummaged around in their backpacks. One tossed him an orange. Another an apple. A third a can of soda. It turned out Jesse was a good juggler.

“Can you juggle chain saws?” I ask him.

He looks dumbfounded and shakes his head no.

With lessons on shuffling chairs, performing Colombian hypnosis, and creating a human tableau, UHP's Theatre, Performance, and Culture class exemplifies 50 years of interactive, interdisciplinary, experience-based learning.

Drama 1 professor Larry Bogad highlighted the work of Augusto Boal, an influential Brazilian theater practitioner and political activist, specifically his books, Games for Actors and Non-Actors and Theatre of the Oppressed.