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As theatre educators, we
understand the inherent
flexibility of our form. As
the great pedagogs and
theoreticians of our craft—from
Augusto Boal to Peter Brook to
Viola Spolin to Jerzy Grotowski—
have embraced, the theatre
is a place where the essential
resources are of genuine human
connection. A theatre education
is not about where you go; it’s
about what you do there.
Further, in America, we have
the groundwork of the 1960s’
regional theatre movement
instilling the spirit that America’s
national theatre need not live
in one or two coastal cities, but
instead in regions around the
country.
These points are greenlights for
a higher education revolution
in American theatre—where
our field can encourage an
ecosystem of debt-free theatre
students in locations around
the country. Such a revolution
can open up the opportunities
for institutional competition;
whichever program can provide
the most valuable (and least
costly) training can become the
most desired in the field. Fully-
funded graduate programs
imply a respecta