Practical Education for the Unimaginable
Essays on Theatre and the Liberal Arts

by Jonathan Levy

Essays for theatre practitioners and educators, 112 pp. $ 11.95

This all-new book of essays by the author of A Theatre of the Imagination delves into all the arts of teaching and learning. They draw on the insights of historical research as well as practical experience in the professional theatre (the sections on "The Theatre vs. the Profession" and "The Profession vs. the Theatre" will be treasured by both sides). They explore the history of theatre education, not only in America but throughout the western world, with sidelights into such topics as the role of theatre in moral education, assessing theatre students, teaching playwriting in secondary schools, and developing new games to encourage flexibility in a world with unforeseeable new demands.

Levy the scholar and Levy the playwright merge in his provocative "Letters to a Young Teacher," which should be required reading for all prospective teachers. And in the final essay, "Re-Thinking the Liberal Arts," he sets out a proposal for a new Trivium and a new Quadrivium that will meet the needs of the 21st century. What Levy gives us, in the course of these essays, is nothing less than a blueprint for modern education with theatre at its heart. It makes essential reading for anyone studying, teaching, or planning to teach, theatre or, indeed, any of the liberal arts.

Jonathan Levy's remarkable new book illuminates both art and analysis of art. His is a mind in motion, moving others, calmly inciting to insight. He thinks as bravely as a child and as elegantly as Bronowski, drawing on rare resources of experience and knowledge that have somehow cost no loss of innocence. The collection is rich, ripe and ever-green, complex simplicity.
Virginia Glasgow Koste
Playwright

From its provocative title to its elegant epilogue, Jonathan Levy's collection of essays is lucid and learned, witty and wise, and extraordinarily useful. On page after page, the reader benefits from Levy's grounding in history, wide knowledge of relevant scientific and educational findings, and decades of experience as a man of the theater.
Howard Gardner
Harvard University Graduate School of Education