A Note From Dr. Susan Russell
Hello readers, thinkers, makers, and humans. This short greeting is to welcome Prompt to The Center for Pedagogy in Arts and Design, https://cpad.psu.edu/ and to commit our relationship forward to a joint investment in ideas and human beings. At CPAD, we are devoted to expanding and exploring ideas about teaching and learning through arts pedagogy, and our core idea is very simple: arts and design make ideas visible, and where there is visibility, a possibility is sure to follow. Our CPAD Teaching Lab is a physical space where arts-based technology sets any student and instructor free to imagine new possibilities, and our teaching and learning community is an open door into researching and experiencing undefined edges of knowledge and expression. CPAD and Prompt are natural collaborators, and we look forward to seeing and experiencing what is possible now.
I spent 25 years as a professional actor, and, to me, CPAD and Prompt represent gaps in theatre discourses, which, to me, represent gaps in all discourses. Some of those gaps are in practice and pedagogy, but all the gaps represent the humans inside the discourses. Prompt is a visible representation of human beings filling in some gaps so other human beings can, on a very good day, catch a glimpse of a new possibility. In a world that seems focused on practice and required skills sets, Prompt is an expression of CPAD’s highest goal, which is the celebration of the art of being human. There is no single word that can express the possibilities of that celebration, but there may be a collection of words that can open a door onto a fresh landscape. Prompt is that door, and the mind of those who journey within its writing and reflections are, indeed, that landscape.
All of us in the CPAD Community welcome Prompt to the family, and CPAD thanks Prompt for inviting us to join you at your dinner table. It’s all about those dinner time conversations, isn’t it? And every exciting conversation begins with a really engaging question. My question for all of you readers, thinkers, makers, and humans is…what do you want to talk about?
With appreciation and gratitude,
Susan Russell, PhD
Director of The Center for Pedagogy in Arts and Design
College of Arts and Architecture
Penn State University, University Park, PA
Susan Russell
Susan Russell is an Associate Professor in the School of Theatre at The Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate literature/criticism, and Playwriting. She received her PhD in Theatre Studies from Florida State University’s School of Theatre in 2007, her Master of Arts degree from Florida State University in 2003, and her BA in Theatre from St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, NC in 1979. She experienced a twenty-five-year career as a professional actor on and off-Broadway, and her plays have been produced by Emerging Artists Theatre, Lincoln Center, and Penn State University. Dr. Russell is co-founder and co-Director of The Center for Pedagogy in Arts and Design, cpad.psu.edu which is a unique place where information and the arts collaborate in extraordinary ways.