Charles Adams

Charles Adams is a dramaturg, director, playwright, theatre historiographer, teaching artist, facilitator, and Theatre of the Oppressed Joker. At the University of Minnesota he mostly teaches TH1101-- Introduction to Theatre, but he has also taught history/criticism classes such as Script , Theatre Histories, Devising Theatre, Children’s Dramatic Literature, Performance and Social Change, Theatre Theory and Practice, Playwriting, Dramatic Activities in the Classroom. Theatre in Education (TIE), and Theatre of the Oppressed. His research interests include theatre and social change—especially in the fields of TIE and critical performative pedagogies, theatre and young people, community-based theatre, and Theatre of the Oppressed. Charles enjoys exploring questions such as “What is the labor that theatre does;” “How can theatre transform the world;” and “How do history and the present moment intersect to create meaning?” His academic writing can be found in Theatre Journal, Learning through Theatre (3rd edition), and The Routledge Companion to Theatre of the Oppressed.

As an applied theatre artist, Charles has worked in numerous unusual-seeming partnerships, including with the Minnesota Vikings! Charles spent five years as a playwright in residence, four years as a member of an improv-based theatre company for young people, and over 25 years as a teaching artist, training novice teaching artists and Joker/facilitators. He has also trained educators in embodied pedagogies working to resist the dehumanizing effects of banking model types education. Since 2007 Charles has been the treasurer of the board of Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed and helped to organize annual conferences and gatherings to connect community organizers, teachers, artists, Jokers, and activists working to engage the arts and education as forces for social justice and transformation around the world. He has also been a fan of Doctor Who since he was 12 years old. Charles holds a BA in English and French and an MSE in English and Drama from Harding University, an MFA in Drama and Theatre for Youth from the University of Texas at Austin (with emphases in playwriting/dramaturgy, directing, and Theatre in Education), and a PhD in Theatre Historiography from the University of Minnesota.