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Cason Murphy, assistant professor of theatre in the Department of Music and Theatre, was recently published in “Education in Crisis: Lessons from Today,” an edited collection released by GIRES Press. His chapter, “The Show Must Go On-Line: Shifting Modalities for Theatre Performance Classes,” outlines several specific teaching and pedagogical strategies employed by members of ISU Theatre in response to the rapid shift to online teaching in the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The chapter, which is an expansion of Murphy’s teaching brief “Serving up success: Devising a ‘class menu’ for online teaching,” published in early 2021 by ISU’s Center for Learning and Teaching (CELT) in the “Teaching Through the Pandemic” collection. As a presenter on an invited panel at the Education, Technology & Culture in Crisis: Secondary & Higher Education in a Time of Virtual Instruction conference sponsored by the Global Institute for Research Education & Scholarship (GIRES) in summer 2021, Murphy was able to further develop and share his findings to an audience of international researchers, teachers, and scholars.

Murphy teaches courses in acting foundations, musical theatre, acting for the camera, script analysis and introduction to performing arts. He is author of “The World at Play: Performance from the Audience’s Perspective,” a textbook that offers an audience-oriented view of theatre, dance, music, film, television, podcasting, video gaming, and other emergent contemporary performance forms.

Murphy is also the recipient of the 2021 ISU Early Achievement in Teaching Award, the 2021 LAS Cassling Family Faculty Award for Early Achievement in Teaching, 2022 Arts Educator Award from the Ames Community Arts Council, and the 2023 ATHE/KCACTF Prize for Innovative Teaching. In spring 2024, he will be directing Arthur Miller’s classic American drama “The Crucible” for ISU Theatre’s 2023-2024 season.