The role-playing is pleasantly appropriate for a theatre arts course, but it also provides a means of active learning. It is one thing to read a book or listen to a lecture and memorize how a company assembles a production, but anyone learns more effectively when faced with a problem to solve; the information serves the task. The student pretending to design costumes must study the play for ideas, respond to the director, appeal to the producer for funds, figure out what the characters should wear, and explain—even defend—the costume choices to the other group members as well as to the entire class.

For each round—choosing a play, choosing a theatre, and making a major contribution to the production—each student writes a short paper. In addition to rewarding competent writing, I evaluate each paper in terms of how creatively the student addresses the problem at hand and demonstrates command of the relevant issues and information. Altogether, these papers comprise 30% of the quarter grade, and the Broadway experience can contribute up to 10% more through the participation grade, which allows me to reward the energy and enthusiasm of people who speak up in class. I don't assign group grades, watching instead for above-average group interaction as well as situations in which an individual is trying to excel in spite of lackluster work by the others.

My only wish for the website is that someday it might include a plethora of graphics—photos, drawings and slick artwork—to address the fact that theatre is partly a visual medium. However, I'll wait until I know that the images won't slow down the pages as they load on the students' computers.