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This article addresses issues of text adaptation in full-scale ESL drama production. After choosing to present Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, participants in the English Drama Workshop at Padua University set about the task of adapting the play in order to make it more suitable for a group of non-native speakers of English acting in front of an audience made up predominantly of non-native speakers. Substantial changes were made during the adaptation process: as well as cutting and simplifying the text, certain characters were eliminated while others were doubled (or rather tripled) and one scene was totally rewritten. When implementing these changes, the group had to take account of both the student-actors’ linguistic competence and the size and composition of the cast, most of the members of which were female. It is argued that text adaptation in ESL drama is not only a way of creating a more appropriate product, but also greatly enriches the process leading up to the performance. The students gained deeper insights into the text and were also able to achieve a strong sense of ownership of the final production. This article addresses issues of text adaptation in full-scale ESL drama production. After choosing to present Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, participants in the English Drama Workshop at Padua University set about the task of adapting the play in order to make it more suitable for a group of non-native speakers of English acting in front of an audience made up predominantly of non-native speakers. Substantial changes were made during the adaptation process: as well as cutting and simplifying the text, certain characters were eliminated while others were doubled (or rather tripled) and one scene was totally rewritten. When implementing these changes, the group had to take account of both the student-actors’ linguistic competence and the size and composition of the cast, most of the members of which were female. It is argued that text adaptation in ESL drama is not only a way of creating a more appropriate product, but also greatly enriches the process leading up to the performance. The students gained deeper insights into the text and were also able to achieve a strong sense of ownership of the final production.

This mixed-methods interdisciplinary study explores the relationship between theatre skills and graduate teaching assistants' development as university instructors. The authors employ a critical lens to look at classroom interactions as acts of performance. Data, which they collected through surveys and interviews with graduate teaching assistants at a public university in the northeastern United States, reveal that there is a clear institutional need to provide meaningful support to novice teachers. The interdisciplinary research team concludes that the core tenets of theatre practice constitute important elements of the kind of support emergent teachers require.

This case study reflects on how Performative Foreign Language and Culture Education: (1) encourages students to be in charge of their learning processes through embodiment; (2) fosters community, sense of belonging, and the disruption of hierarchical norms by unleashing the power of discomfort; (3) brings to light the issue of assessment as a challenge within the institutional and capitalist 'belly of the beast'. The concept of 'script' is explored in relation to course design, maieutics, and the educational responsibility of planning our interventions so that they align with our institutional needs while also serving our students with equity and justice.

This article shares an experience with an “ungrading” experience in a radical political economy course at the University of Rhode Island (URI). Using qualitative data in the form of student narratives gathered from their written work, we argue that this form of student assessment empowers students to deepen metacognition, fosters their resilience and self-awareness, and privileges principles such as cooperation, collaboration, and sharing in learning, in contrast to the individualized and competitive atmosphere conventional grading creates. Student narratives also point to ways in which ungrading allowed them to engage deeply with the world around, to examine their own lives and work in the context of capitalism, and to uncover possibilities for resistance and action. Thus, ungrading can provide an entry point into anti-capitalist assessment practices.JEL classification: A20, B14, B50 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]