Teaching Medieval Drama and Performance (colloquium)

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In 2016-17, the Folger Institute sponsored a year-long colloquium on Teaching Medieval Drama and Performance, welcoming advanced scholars whose research and pedagogical practice explore historical, literary, and theoretical dimensions of medieval drama from the perspective of performance.  Colloquium participants represented a range of academic specialties and experiences: senior scholars of medieval and early modern drama; a seasoned professor of acting; younger scholars experimenting with digital research and pedagogies; graduate students committed to incorporating medieval drama in broadly-themed literature courses.  Our group also included individuals actively engaged in producing medieval drama within and beyond college and university classroom settings.

Binding us together was a passionate belief that medieval drama 1) constitutes an essential chapter in the history of theater and literature; 2) speaks directly to modern and contemporary issues and concerns; and 3) through its immense variety of dramatic modes and techniques, translates to classroom study and performance. 

Rather than bringing to the table individual research or pedagogical projects, colloquium participants decided to collaborate on creating materials that provide informational background and contexts as well as practical suggestions for classroom teaching and for performances. To that end, we developed this multipart Folgerpedia archive on Teaching Medieval Drama and Performance.  We envision our target audiences as secondary school and college and university teachers, but the materials collected here are adaptable to other contexts.  The materials address both those who have never taught medieval drama but who would like to do so and those who have and will and would like to add to their classroom toolkits.  In keeping with the research mission of the Folger Institute, these materials also bring to bear on various contexts of teaching medieval drama and performance  significant advances in medieval drama scholarship made in recent decades. 

These pedagogical materials comprise six major areas, each of which focuses on an aspect of teaching medieval drama that colloquium participants identified as essential to and/or challenging for that endeavor.   We have succinctly articulated what we think aspiring teachers of medieval drama might want to and/or should know about the field and how that knowledge can inform pedagogical approaches as well as classroom activities.  Individual articles address the following topics:  Language; Religious, Textual, and Staging Contexts; Medieval Drama and Shakespeare; Performance-Based Pedagogies.