Teacher-to-teacher wisdom for theatre classrooms.
THED Talks is a theatre education interview series centered on the realities of teaching drama in schools and theatre education settings. Its conversations move between classroom practice, production choices, student care, and the stamina required to keep showing up for students.
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THED Talks is a theatre education interview series focused on the working lives of people who teach drama, direct school productions, and build performance spaces for young people. Its center of gravity is the classroom. Episodes spend real time on how teachers structure rehearsals, choose shows, scaffold speech assignments, respond to student needs, and keep theatre meaningful inside changing school climates. The show is warm, but it is also practical. A conversation about trauma-informed practice can move from a broad idea about student experience to the concrete question of how adults set the emotional temperature in a rehearsal room. A discussion of performance with children can become a careful look at stillness, gesture, archetypes, and the kinds of acting choices children can actually make. That classroom specificity gives the series its value. Guests bring programs, schedules, challenges, and examples rather than abstract advocacy alone. Sarah Palmer describes a school theatre program that spans Annie Jr., Frozen Kids, Willy Wonka Jr., and Moana Jr., while also showing how students can appear differently in academic and performance settings. Madison Gillis speaks to public speaking, EL students, special ed speech, mock interviews, scaffolding, and the varied expectations that come with mixed classrooms. Cody Riker’s conversation reaches into the strain around school productions and the importance of letting students encounter lives beyond their own. Floyd Rumohr’s episode turns rehearsal process into something concrete enough for teachers with limited experience to use. The show also follows educators working internationally, including Jason Lasky’s path through drama teaching and creative ventures. Through it all, Dr. Jimmy Chrisman frames theatre teaching as both craft and care. The pacing is relaxed. The questions leave room for stories. Listeners hear the pride, fatigue, improvisation, and conviction that sit behind school theatre programs. THED Talks is especially useful for teachers who want language they can carry back into class, but it also works as a portrait of the profession. It treats theatre education as a place where artistry, identity, pedagogy, and student welfare constantly meet.
Made for: THED Talks is for theatre teachers, theatre education students, teaching artists, and arts educators looking for field-tested classroom and rehearsal insight. It especially suits listeners who want practical examples tied to student care, production work, and pedagogy.
What sets it apart: The show stands out by staying close to actual theatre education practice: speech scaffolds, rehearsal choices, trauma-informed rooms, and school climate pressures. Its interviews sound less like promotion and more like experienced educators comparing what works.
THED Talks is a podcast for theatre teachers and theatre education students. Dr. Jimmy Chrismon, Theatre Education professor at Illinois State University, brings you stories and interviews from experienced K-12 theatre teachers, current theatre education majors, and professors of theatre education that will warm your heart, renew your faith in teaching, and provide resources to better your practice in your theatre classroom. Pour the coffee, relax, and join us for heart-warming conversations and practical advice from practitioners making a difference in students' lives each and every day!
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Detailed practitioner interviews connect theater craft with the everyday judgment required to teach, rehearse, and care for students.
THED Talks turns theater teaching into a sustained conversation about choices made in classrooms and rehearsal rooms. Dr. Jimmy Chrisman gives practitioners space to describe their work in detail, then follows the practical questions: how to scaffold public speaking across…
A theater classroom becomes the rehearsal room, and your teaching instincts get blocking notes.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical, humane look at teaching theater without losing sight of the people in the room.
Matt Webster talks with Adam Carter and Jimmy Chrisman about their new book, and the conversation settles into a useful balance between rehearsal demands and the duties owed to young people.
A clear look at a teacher balancing academics, after-school theater, and student growth through the school year.
Sarah Palmer talks about the overlap between school life and theater, and that overlap gives the piece its shape. She teaches academic classes during the day and then keeps the theater program going after school, which she clearly treats as her own.
A Melbourne conversation about theater teachers, classroom pressure, and why students benefit from seeing one another.
Dr. Jimmy Chrisman speaks with Cody Riker in Melbourne, Australia, about a theater educator path that did not follow a straight line and about the pressure teachers are carrying right now.
A theater teacher talks scaffolding, mock interviews, and the daily puzzle of mixed-readiness classes.
The episode offers a practical theater-education conversation with Dr. Jimmy Chrisman and Madison Gillis of Glenbard North High School in Illinois, and it stays focused on what teaching looks like in day-to-day use.
A practical theater-education conversation about rehearsal choices, stillness, and Shakespeare in schools.
The piece follows Floyd Rumor and his educational theater work across New York, Philadelphia, and Florida, alongside his new book, Stage It, Making Shakespeare Come Alive in Schools.
Héctor and Beto dissect Mexican grammar, slang, and news in native-speed Spanish conversations.
Small habit changes meet hands-on AI experiments.
A call-in helpline where listener questions turn into reported science and history investigations.
Thed Talks 7.37 centers on Trauma-Informed Practices for 9-12 Theater Education, with Dr.
Sarah Palmer of Massachusetts talks through her work at St.
Dr.
Madison Gillis, a fourth-year teacher at Glenbard North High School in Illinois, traces her path from Illinois State University to student teaching during COVID and landing in the same district.
Thed Talks 7.16 centers on Floyd Rumor's book Stage It!
Host Jimmy Chrisman interviews theater educator Jason Lasky about his international teaching journey and upcoming move to Moscow.
A podcast for theater teachers and students, featuring interviews and stories to inspire and provide resources for theater education.
This episode introduces a podcast for theater teachers, featuring interviews and resources to enhance theater education, and promotes trauma-informed teaching courses.