Title III/Activity I:  Spring 2007 Mini-grant Project Proposal

Submit proposals electronically to Andrea Hardin, Title III Activity Director

 

DEADLINE:  February 19, 2007

 

 

Name:  Dr. Jan Lewis

Date:  2/19/07

Division/Dept.:  Fine Arts/Theatre

Phone: 757-5249

 

Specify if this is an application for:

 

Stipend, up to $1,500. 

 

One Course Reduction subject to Department Chair & DeanÕs approval.

x

Equipment, up to $1,800 per person listed on the application.

 

Narrative:  Please answer these questions:

 

  1. List all courses and/or other student-centered learning activities which you anticipate will be impacted if your proposal is accepted.

 

  1. Describe how the project will impact your teaching and explain any innovative strategies you have developed.

 

  1. Discuss how your project might have benefits extending beyond the proposed project period and scope.

 

  1. List all items needed for this project proposal and include the estimated cost of each.

 

  1. Will you require special training?  If yes, describe.

 

  1. Describe plans to assess impact on students.

 

In submitting this proposal you acknowledge that you understand that if your proposal is funded, you must provide an initial and a final report on your project.  Your initial report is due at the beginning of the semester immediately following the first full semester for which your equipment was available.  A final report is due one year from that date.

 

If you receive a stipend, you must submit a report at the beginning of the first semester after the work for which you received the stipend has been implemented.  A final report is due one year from that date.

 

If you need assistance, please contact Cathy Locks, 757-3772, clocks@wesleyancollege.edu

 

 

 

 

SPRING 2007

TITLE III PROPOSAL

JAN LEWIS

NARRATIVE

 

 

1.         Course Name(s) and Number(s) to be impacted:

 

THE 105 Introduction to Theatre

THE 125 Acting I

THE 225 Acting II

THE 233 Voice and Movement for Actors

THE 290 Exploring the Theatrical Past

THE 315 Directing I

THE 316 Directing II

THE 333 Acting III

THE 451 Directed Independent Study

HON 210 Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Performance

AND

Four Department of Theatre Productions annually, for which students receive credit under THE 235 Introductory Performance and Production and THE 320 Advanced Performance and Production

 

2.         Described how the project will impact your teaching and explain any innovative strategies you have developed.

 

As of Fall 2006, the Department of Theatre at Wesleyan reinstated the collegeÕs Theatre Major to accompany its thriving Theatre Minor.  Among the goals of the redesigned Theatre Major is to provide students with pre-professional training in all the theatre arts, raise the quality of the departmentÕs productions, and thereby make the Wesleyan Theatre program competitive with those at other colleges.  My mandate as the new faculty member in Theatre includes creating and teaching THE 105; upgrading and teaching the performance and production courses THE 125, 225, 233, 333, 315 and 316; teaching new critical thinking courses; directing students in productions; facilitating sound and music for productions; advising student directors and supervising their productions; mentoring theatre students; designing and updating the Theatre Dept. web pages; and recruiting new students to the College and the Theatre Department.  Most of these duties require computer equipment and software which are not currently available on the Gateway computer located in my office, which is slow at 863 MHz and, with 512 MB RAM, contains insufficient memory.  The new equipment I am requesting will resolve speed and memory problems and facilitate all of my academic and production duties.

 

In order to study the performances, directing, and/or design of professional productions from around the globe in THE I05, THE 125, THE 225, THE 290, THE 315, THE 316, and THE 451, I need to access on-line graphics and DVDÕs of various productions and images and edit them into succinct classroom presentations.  With material in such a technically-advanced visual and aural format, students will learn more easily and more thoroughly about theatre production in various world cultures through comparison and contrast of recorded events.  In addition, in Fall 2006 our department acquired access to a video camera, one purpose of which is for faculty to record student performances and student-directed productions, edit them onto DVDs, and use them to illustrate to students in the acting and movement sequence (THE 125, 225, 233, and 333), the directing sequence (THE 315, 316), and in various Independent Studies the specific strengths and weaknesses in their performative and directorial efforts.  The equipment requested in this grant will permit me to incorporate this teaching method into these courses.

 

Further, the Department of Theatre faculty cannot currently download and edit music and sound effects for our four annual productions, which is a tremendous lack.   For example, during late January and early February 2007, we reached a crisis in this regard when Theatre faculty were unable to create the edited music component required for the Department production Late Bus to Mecca/Railing It Uptown, directed by Dr. Lively.  Finally, we found a student (who already had a rather massive assignment for this production) to accomplish this task on her personal Macintosh computer which contained the program ÒGarage Band,Ó an easy-to-use music editing software.  This student had to continue the editorial process on the showÕs soundtrack during the final week of the productionÕs evolution, which was an imposition on an already overtaxed student.  The iMac which I am requesting in this application comes with the same Garage Band software, which would permit me, Dr. Lively, Michael McKinney, and other directors to edit and re-edit soundtracks for all of our productions.

 

3.         Discuss how your project would have benefits extending over time beyond the proposed project period and scope.

 

From the moment it is acquired until it becomes completely obsolete, this new purchase will impact every course I teach, every student I mentor, every play which Wesleyan Theatre students or faculty direct, every member of the Wesleyan community who attends these plays, and all members of the off-campus community who also attend our productions.  Since my classes contain from five to twenty students, and our audience figures total between 800 and 1000 annually, I anticipate that several thousands of Wesleyan students, faculty and staff, as well as members of the public, will reap its benefits over the coming years.

 

4.         List all items needed for this project proposal and include the estimated cost of each.

 

For this grant, I am specifically requesting Macintosh/Apple equipment and software as itemized below, because this package includes iLife, a user-friendly, self-explanatory, multimedia software package which allows one to easily edit video, audio, and photography.   As described above, I need this software in order to fulfill my obligations to the Department of Theatre.  The increased speed and memory will greatly facilitate all of my work on this computer.  The excellent graphics processor is standard with this computer.  The iLife program does not run on a PC.  Similar programs for the PC are more complicated and require a great deal of training, which would be difficult for me to undertake, given my present schedule and obligations to the College.  On the other hand, I have used Macintosh computers for over twenty years and, because they are quite user-friendly, I have never needed special training to run any of their software applications.

 

Please do not substitute PC materials for the Apple items requested in this grant proposal.

 

iMac (Macintosh) package, 20Ó monitor included, containing:

            2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor

            1GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM – 2x512 Memory

            250GB Serial ATA Drive

            ATI Radeon X1600/128 VRAM (standard and included)

            iwork Õ06 preinstalled

            Apple Keyboard & Mighty Mouse + Mac OS X (US English)

            AppleCare Protection Plan for iMac

 

Total cost, with educational discount: $1,792.00, plus $125.44 tax, equals $1,917.44.  Shipping is free.  (This request is slightly higher than the $1800.00 limit for this grant, but the equipment proposed is the best package to satisfy the needs described above.)

           

5.         Will you require special training?  If yes, describe.

 

As noted above, I have worked on Apple/Macintosh computers since 1985 and am quite familiar with that technology.  Macintosh programs are extremely easy to learn and run.  With manuals and online help, I doubt that I will need much special training, although I plan to consult with Dennis Applebee, Dr. Deidra Donmoyer and other Macintosh users on campus when necessary.

 

6.         Describe plans to assess impact on students.

 

I plan to give students survey forms which will ask if and how the uses of specific technological improvements in specific courses have impacted their learning in that subject area.   The same will be true of students involved as actors, directors, designers, stage managers, and crew members in Theatre Department productions.  Thus, I will be able to assess results semester by semester, course by course, and production by production.  In addition, during my mentoring and independent studies work with students, I will inquire one-on-one if and how individual students have been affected by the advanced technology in my classes and in departmental productions.