Troupe to dramatize conflict in the classroom as part of UW-Madison forum

The scene: a university classroom. The characters: the teacher, assorted students. The action: A well-thought-out, well-intentioned discussion section meant to introduce a statistical correlation turns into a shouting match between a few of the students.

The catalyst for conflict: the example the teacher had chosen to illustrate the statistical point.

How do you feel and what do you do if you happen to be the teacher? How might specific actions you might take influence class meetings for the rest of the semester?

What if you’re one of the shouting students? Or what if you are one of the class who isn’t shouting but merely observing?

Conflict in the classroom will take center stage as the University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) brings its traveling theater troupe to the UW–Madison for an interactive evening dedicated to promoting inclusion and effecting positive change on campus.

The CRTL Players use vignettes based on everyday classroom occurrences. Players invite their audiences to discuss situations with in-character actors. A trained facilitator guides the discussion, providing professional experience and research-based information about the topic. The characters may revise the sketch, incorporating audience suggestions into the action. In some cases, audience members themselves take a turn on stage.

Since its inception four years ago, the CRLT Players have performed more than 100 theater workshops and have reached over 5,000 instructors. The troupe has developed 13 different scripts that incorporate such topics as women in science, classroom experiences of students of color, gender dynamics in faculty meetings, responses to students with disabilities and more.

The UW–Madison theater workshop, free and open to the public, will take place on Wednesday, May 25 at 7:30 p.m. in the Wisconsin Union Theater. For more information on the CRLT Players’ Madison appearance, contact Kitch Barnicle at (608) 262-9174/info@cirtl.net.