Bringing it all together online: Performance, Outreach, and Education: The model of the German Theater Project at Indiana University

Juliane Wuensch; David Bolter; Nina Morais

doi:10.33178/scenario.16.2.4

Authors

Juliane Wuensch Skidmore College
David Bolter Denison University
Nina Morais Indiana University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33178/scenario.16.2.4

Keywords:

outreach, online education, German theater project, student workshops, festival format

Abstract

Every year, the Department of Germanic Studies at Indiana University hosts a theater project for high school students from across the state. 2021 was the 8^th consecutive successful year of the festival, and the second time it was held online. The main incentive of the project is to give German students of all levels a creative way to engage with the language through performance. In our article, we explore how to move the festival to a digital space during the pandemic, as well as how the project is organized in general. We write about difficulties and successes with the format, and show examples of student projects and educational workshops. The festival has thrived as an outreach program for the department, attracting more and more learners to German. Even though the project was switched to an online format, every year, an increasing number of high school students enthusiastically participate and use it as an outlet to show their love for language, culture, and performance.

Author Biographies

Juliane Wuensch, Skidmore College

Juliane Wuensch is Assistant Professor for German and German Program Coordinator at Skidmore College, NY, USA. She holds a PhD in Germanic Studies from Indiana University, Bloomington, USA. Her research interests are language pedagogy, curriculum development, and German-Jewish female identity. Before coming to Skidmore in Fall 2020, she taught German as a foreign language in Germany, the U.K., El Salvador, and the United States.
David Bolter, Denison University

David Bolter is a Visiting Assistant Professor of German at Denison University. He received a PhD in Germanic Linguistics and Philology from Indiana University in 2022 with a dissertation entitled “Liquid Enhancement, Liquid Polarization, and Bavarian German l-Rounding." He has also studied at the Philips-Universität Marburg and at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. His research interests include Germanic linguistics, general linguistics, dialectology and language pedagogy.
Nina Morais, Indiana University

Nina Morais is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Germanic Studies at Indiana University. Her research focuses on questions of transculturality, hybridity, and anthropophagy as transcultural literary strategies. Specifically, she is looking at the relationship between Germany and Brazil starting from early travel logs, collected tales from Theodor Koch-Grünberg, the Brazilian modernist Mário de Andrade, up to the theater of Milo Rau. She is also interested in the study of Fairy Tales, transnational literature, literature and migration, as well as Germany-Africa relations.

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