PENN FACULTY ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Enhance your curriculum by bringing students to performances, suggesting guest speakers, leading discussions or helping organize complementary academic programming.

Bring Your Class to a Performance

Penn faculty interested in bringing a group of students to a performance as part of a class, club, campus program or College House may contact our Box Office at 215.898.3900. Penn student tickets are available for only $10.

Integrate a Performance into your Curriculum

Our performances make direct and meaningful connections with a wide variety of classes and curriculum. Might your course be enhanced by engagement with our artists and seeing relevant ideas or themes explored on stage? Learn more and schedule a conversation with Leah Falk, our Director of Education & Engagement, at leahfalk@upenn.edu.

Recent example:
In fall 2023, classics professor Sheila Murnaghan’s course, The Odyssey and Its Afterlife, made The Acting Company’s production of Odyssey a cornerstone of the syllabus. In the weeks leading up to the performance, students read Penn faculty member Emily Wilson’s translation of Homer’s The Odyssey as well as part of Virgil's "Aeneid," the ancient epic that recasts Homer’s story of homecoming as one of exile and migration. The classics department purchased student tickets to facilitate the requirement that students experience and respond to the performance. » Read more about this production on PennToday

Bring an Artist to your Class

Artists-in-residence, such as those supported by our Accelerator Program, are sometimes available for class visits, discussions, guest lectures, workshops and other appearances. Faculty have also worked directly with artists on special programming relevant to their discipline and/or current courses. Please contact Leah Falk, our Director of Education & Engagement, at leahfalk@upenn.edu if you’re interested in exploring these options.

Recent example:
Senior Lecturer in Theatre Arts Brooke O’Harra hosted playwright Cynthia Grace Robinson as part of a unit titled “Writing for Time and Space (and Stage Directions)” in her fall 2023 Experimental Playwriting course. Robinson was one of two playwrights we commissioned for the Negro Ensemble Company's one-act play festival, No Policy, No Justice. Before Robinson’s visit, students read her one-act play, Breathe, which was included in the festival. After the students attended the performance, Robinson engaged them in a writing exercise over Zoom and an in-person discussion about her treatment of time.

Host a Pre- or Post-show Discussion

Several of our performances feature a pre- or post-show discussion with the artists and/or creative team, often facilitated by Penn faculty or doctoral students in music, theatre arts or the humanities. If you’re interested in learning more and volunteering in this capacity, please contact Leah Falk, our Director of Education & Engagement, at leahfalk@upenn.edu.