A Case for Praxis: Teaching Gender and Performance

In a recent edition of Theatre Topics (March 2002) devoted to “praxis,” the editor describes how the essays “all consider practice theoretically and ground theory in practice” (1). In this paper, I discuss this pedagogical approach to the discipline by reflecting on a course in Gender and Performance, in which students study theory and play texts in the first half of the course and then apply their knowledge in the second half of the course in workshops, projects and applied study. In this paper, the theory discussed and the approaches used in class will be presented with examples drawn from both instructor-and student-initiated work. In embodying theory, students learn how to make use of their academic studies in their theatre practice. In addition, their theorizing of texts can be enriched with a more indepth understanding of how performance shifts the meaning of texts. In conclusion, this paper will also consider the paradox of the current climate, in which granting agencies such as SSHRC and Canada Council consider initiatives which bring theory and practice closer together while the exigencies of the projected increasing enrollments in universities preclude opportunities to foster such an integration in faculty and student development and research.