School of Drama lending helping hand to UWOnCue

By Nancy Wick
University Week

This quarter the School of Drama joins a campus group that has made a practice of being dramatic for the past four years. It’s UWOnCue, a group of students who act out scenes to promote learning.

Drama TAs Shontina Vernon, standing at left, and Shad Willingham, second from right, work with a group of UWOnCue students acting out a scene. Left to right the students are Molly Kastner, Chris Ramsey, Nikki Przasnyski and Simina Popa.

Take the School of Nursing’s class in family assessment, for example. A few UWOnCue members go to the class and portray a family with some problems. Two nursing students volunteer to assess the “family,” and a class discussion follows in which the students learn valuable lessons about how such an assessment ought to proceed.

The students doing the role-playing are volunteers who have been specially trained for the work, and that’s where the School of Drama comes in. Starting this quarter, two members of the Professional Actor Training Program (PATP) will be working as teaching assistants with UWOnCue to provide training for troupe members.

“We are really excited about the Drama School getting involved in this effort,” said George Bridges, associate dean in undergraduate education. “We have one of the best actor training programs in the country, so this provides UWOnCue with expert training in acting. It also gives the PATP students an opportunity to extend acting into a service to the University.”

Shad Willingham, one of the PATP students participating, is equally happy to be working with the group. “I love teaching,” he said. “I think, more than anything, I will be passing on my passion. I want to help the students become better actors, but I also want to instill in them a respect for the art.”

It was Bridges who worked with PATP head Steve Pearson and Drama Professor Robyn Hunt to arrange the assistantships. UWOnCue, which has operated mostly as a volunteer group with some funding and other support from the School of Communication and the Graduate School, found a home in Undergraduate Education as of fall quarter. Bridges, who has used the company in faculty development workshops - where they play the roles of students with problems - is a big fan of the group.

“One of the first things George asked me to do when UWOnCue came into Undergraduate Education was to prepare an expansion plan,” said Jim Boggs, UWOnCue founder and a UW graduate student. “Up to now, there has only been one company, but in spring quarter, we hope to increase that to two.” The PATP students will serve as artistic directors for those companies.

UWOnCue membership has so far varied from 20 to 40 at any given time, Boggs said, but the hope is to have two companies with from 20 to 30 members in each. This quarter, the two PATP TAs are learning about UWOnCue so they will be able to step into their leadership roles.

The reason for the expansion is straightforward: There are more classes that could benefit from UWOnCue’s services than one company can accommodate. Already, the group has performed for about 8,000 students in more than 300 classrooms.

“This is a group of students who can literally transform the way an instructor is able to cover material,” Bridges said. “It introduces a dramatic element that most faculty members don’t have experience in, so they have something new to add to their portfolio of teaching skills.”

It’s that “something new” that is particularly attractive to Willingham. “I’m a high school dropout,” he explained. “In looking back on that experience, I think if the teachers had included tools like dramatic scenes in their classes, I would have been less turned off toward school. So I’m really enthused about presenting class material in new and challenging ways.”

Arranging a UWOnCue performance works like this. A faculty member who thinks a dramatic presentation might enhance his or her class contacts the group and requests a consultation. Then a team leader and director hold a “creation meeting” with the faculty member, asking about the objectives of the scene and so forth. Sometimes, Boggs says, the faculty member already has an idea about what the scene should be and sometimes the group simply explores what might be done.

After the initial consultation, the UWOnCue members do some research and propose a scene to the instructor. With the faculty member’s approval, UWOnCue then works up the scene. The instructor is also invited to the final rehearsal and given the opportunity to do some tweaking before the scene is presented.

In addition to the actors, UWOnCue assigns a facilitator to each scene who will conduct the discussion after its presentation. All the students involved in the scene are very aware of the instructor’s objectives and work hard to make sure they are met, Boggs says.

After the presentation, UWOnCue creates a file for it including all the preparation that was done. That way, if the instructor wants a repeat performance at a later time, the group doesn’t have to start from scratch.

Although most of the students in UWOnCue are volunteers (there are a few paid positions), they can get academic credit for their work, and they also get - in Boggs’ words - “a lot of stage time.” That’s particularly valuable to performing arts students, but Boggs says he has also received letters from graduates of the group who have found the experience helped them in unrelated jobs.

“The UWOnCue experience really is good for everyone - the performers, the professor and his or her class,” Boggs said. “It’s what I call a social application of the arts.”

To get more information about UWOnCue, go to http://depts.washington.edu/uwoncue.