The aim of 'PLAYGROUND: The Improvisational Teaching Forum' is to get postgraduate students and early career teachers to practice improvisation and reflect on the performance of teaching. We believe that the best way of learning something is by doing it, that at least some of the best learning is unscripted, and that the best teachers are also improvisers. Each session of PLAYGROUND is structured around improvisation activities - but we also want to facilitate a discussion about how we encourage improvisational teaching practices in the universities.
Our workshops are aimed primarily at postgraduate students, both those already teaching and new teachers.
PLAYGROUND is funded by the Roberts Fund Open Competition and endorsed by the English Department Graduate Teaching Scheme, King's College London.
Philippe Roesle is a first-year PhD student in English Literature at King's College London. He is researching green spaces in Early Modern drama. Philippe has extensive acting and performance experience.
Maria Damkjaer is a second-year PhD student in English Literature at King's College London. Her research topic is domestic time in Victorian literature and culture. She has a warm interest in improvisation and has visited the Eastside Institute in New York and participated in their bi-annual conference Performing the World.
