Cason Murphy:The Show doesn’t have to go on: Making a Case for “Necessary Incompleteness”
Channel: GIRES-Global Research Institute
Date: 2022-05-20

Cason Murphy is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Iowa State University where he teaches classes in acting, musical theatre, and introduction to performing arts. He holds his M.F.A. in Theatre Directing from Baylor University and his B.A. in Theatre Arts from UCLA. He is the author of "The World at Play: Performance from the Audience’s Perspective" published by Kendall Hunt Publishing Company. As a scholar, he has presented his scholarship at national and international conferences, and published in prestigious journals including Theatre Topics, Theatre Journal, Shakespeare Bulletin, Theatre/Practice, & the Journal of Film and Video. 

ABSTRACT
Although some degree of in-person theatrical performance has returned to post- secondary institutions across the country and the globe, those of us who teach and create theatre continue to wrestle with the cumulative impact of several years of disruption to our industry. Through production delays and cancellations, and reconfigured courses, many graduating student performers and designers have not had opportunities to develop skills and showcase their creative work, and performance and design faculty have had research agendas and creative trajectories severely disrupted. And yet, this rupture has opened space for reconsideration of our outdated artistic traditions which are largely rooted in unfair labor practices, as well as sexist, ableist, and white supremacist ideologies.
As Dr. Murphy considered projects to direct for his department’s 2021-2022 season, he wondered: “if we were going to make art in an uncertain moment, could we not lean into that feeling of uncertainty and use it to rupture my own bad theatrical habits—and in doing so, keep from passing them down to my students?”
This presentation will consider his wrestling with disrupting an inherited legacy of problematic theatrical “wisdom” by embracing “necessary incompleteness.” He will trace an arc of “incomplete” solutions which have allowed for new definitions of “success” in educational theatre—from curating an “imagined performances,” restructuring production teams to include student producers, and embracing “workshopping” for a new musical at Iowa State University in spring 2022.

CONFERENCE INFORMATION
"Lessons from a Crisis: Education in a Time of Virtual Learning"
Organizer: GIRES-Global Institute for Research Education & Scholarship  
Date: 14-15 May 2022
Place: Amsterdam (Virtual)
More information: https://www.gires.org/activities/conferences/lessons-from-a-crisis-education-in-a-time-of-virtual-learning/