Learning the discipline of play as it is taught by traditional physical comedy techniques teaches us how to be resilient in the face of the inevitable failures that come with true innovation, and helps us welcome those failures as essential guideposts on the path to success. Whatever your work might be—teaching, creating, learning, researching—infusing it with your personal brand of fun will lift your work to new levels of discovery and productivity. This class will teach you to play as if your life depended on it, to risk breaking the rules and being a fool, to go beyond the bounds of normal and access the infinite resources of fun that exist inside us all to work and live better.

This course is hosted by the Arts & Design Research Incubator (ADRI) and is open to all disciplines. The course culminates with individual and group projects applying play to your particular field.

About Sandi Carroll:

Sandi has appeared on and off Broadway, in independent and major studio films, and written, performed and produced her own shows on both coasts and internationally. She has taught at New York University, Emerson College, University of Virginia, Brown University, and The Public Theater.  She is a research scholar at the ADRI, and has her BFA from Boston University, and MFA from University of Virginia.

MORE DETAILS:

Credits: 3
Meeting time: Tuesdays,  6-9pm
Class limit: 12
Course number: AA 497
Class Location: Borland 16

The primary question this course proposes is, how would your work change if it required that you have fun in order to succeed? 

In the first half of this course, you will discover and develop your unique approach to the hard work of the Art of Play and the Discipline of Fun through following a progression of games, exercises and assignments based on the European tradition of physical comedy developed by Jacques Lecoq at his school, L’École Internationale de Théâtre. In the second half of the course you will develop a unique project, either individually or in collaboration, applying the Art of Play to your specific field.

If you are an artist, you might develop a piece or artistic entrepreneurship project incorporating play; an architect might explore how to construct a landscape that invites inhabitants to interact; an educator might investigate the impact of play on pedagogy from both a teaching and learning perspective. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

To find out more, email Sandi Carroll at slc58@psu.edu.