SHERRICE MOJGANI LIGHTING DESIGN
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In 2017 I joined the faculty of George Mason University's School of Theater. I teach undergraduate courses in design, technical theatre and collaboration skills. Specific research topics include, script analysis, collaboration for production,stage management,lighting design,social justice and anti-racism practice. Since 2018 I have served as the Head of the Design/Tech area.

​CV Link

Teaching and Mentoring

5/7/2022

 
I teach a wide range of courses for Mason’s undergraduate population. I teach the lower division courses THR 201: Stage Management, THR 230: Fundamentals of Production and THR 240: Introduction to Theatrical Design. These classes are geared towards students who are just starting their studies at Mason and serve to expose those students to a broader scope of theatre than they may have previously experienced. Most students come to us with an interest in performance, knowing little-to-nothing about other areas, and these classes exist to show them the full breadth of the field, while simultaneously building a shared foundation for all theatre students. There are so many different career paths and concentrations a student can pursue in the study of theatre, and in these classes, my goal is to help students discover what path might be of interest to them. The 300-level courses I teach allow students to focus on their individual disciplines, and my 400-level courses focus on collaboration and communication skills, which are fundamental to our industry. 

Theatre is an inherently collaborative art form. My classes always include a unit or exercise designed to help students practice and hone their skills of collaboration. I have made the process integral and scaffolded in three of the courses I teach — THR 240: Introduction to Theatrical Design introduces basic collaboration skills, THR339: Principles of Design builds to an intermediate level, and THR 496: Text in Production stresses advanced collaboration skills. 

Part of my charge is to be the mentor for all student lighting designers on Mason Players productions. Since arriving in 2017 I have mentored 12 undergraduate students on 14 separate productions. This mentorship involves meeting with the student and tracking their progress, observing and advising them during technical rehearsals, and providing feedback after the production closes. In addition to this, I mentored the student director on a production in spring of 2022.

Social Justice and Anti-Racism Training and Research

5/7/2022

 
I have been learning and adapting social justice and anti-racism practices for the theatre industry and design/tech education. I have participated in a number of trainings and in the spring of 2020 I enrolled as a non-degree student at Mason to take CONF 399 Diversity, Anti-Racism, and Conflict Resolution. My research in this area has been particularly influenced by adrienne maree brown’s book and training in Emergent Strategy and Nicole Brewer’s Anti-Racist Theatre Foundational Course. 
In Nicole Brewer’s training on anti-racist theatre, she encourages the creation of an anti-racist theatre ethos as an accountability statement that can be shared. This semester I refined mine and added it to my syllabus. It reminds me of my responsibility to my students and of the power I wield as a professor. 
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Professor Mojgani’s Anti-Racist Theatre Ethos: In my work as an educator and artist, I strive to disrupt racist systems and transform a capitalist society to support a theater industry that celebrates and welcomes BIPOC communities.

Not a Pipeline Problem, a Problem with the Pipeline: Howl Round

5/7/2022

 
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In September of 2021, I contributed a piece to a Howlround Series Design in a time of reckoning  titled Examining Bias When Teaching Design Students 
Below is an excerpt, you can view the whole series on Howl Round.

​At a design mentorship event earlier this year, one of the prizes was a copy of The Dramatic Imagination by Robert Edmond Jones. I had never read it myself, so I ordered a copy. I recognized many ideas from my own design education, but I kept coming up against language that was paternalistic and ableist. I couldn’t recommend this text from the 1940s to undergraduate students in 2021. And it made me wonder how much of the way I identify gifted students is based on what Jones outlines as ideal traits for the designer: “Stage designers, like musicians, are born and not made. One is aware of atmospheres or one isn't, just as one has a musical ear or one hasn't.”
I cannot imagine how harmful this statement has been. It is easy to spot an observant student, with good reading comprehension and artistic talent, who has already been nurtured and say to that student, “Perhaps you would like to be a scenic designer.” But observational skills can be taught, script analysis can be taught, and artistic eyes and ears can be nurtured and encouraged. To insist that a design student have all these things limits the number of students and the diversity of students who are welcomed into programs.


Conference Presentations

5/7/2022

 
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Statera Arts Conference 2019
The role of data and sad pie charts in the revolution
Co facilitator with Porsche McGovern and Mimsi Janis 
In this session we gathered change makers together to facilitate a comparative study of gender statistics in the theatre industry. We then used emergent strategies and facilitation methods to unpack the data and imagine a more equitable future. As a community we discovered actionable tools and created accountability partnerships, while creating a forum for open discussion to disrupt the status quo.



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GMU: Emergency Virtual Conference on Undergraduate Theatre Education in July 2020
As the Spring 2020 semester came to a close and it became clear that we would be teaching online until a vaccine was developed, I was in a crisis of how to adapt my syllabi for online delivery. Many of my classes were built around in class demos, group projects and usage of theatre equipment. I recognized what a crisis this would be not only for me and my colleagues but for theatre education in general. I organized the GMU: Emergency Virtual Conference on Undergraduate Theatre Education in July 2020, which was supported by Kevin Murray, Interim Chair of GMU’s School of Theatre. I acted as the lead facilitator and organizer. We had about 50 attendees from over two dozen institutions around the country join us for presentations, panels and discipline specific working groups. Feedback from the conference was resoundingly positive, with many attendees (myself included) reporting that they felt much more prepared to move into a year of online teaching. 
​As part of the conference I presented on adapting learning outcomes for virtual courses, with an example of how I had adapted the learning outcome for THR 230 fundamentals of production.



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USITT 2022: Cultivating an Ethical Design Practice:The Intersection Between Artistry and Advocacy
with Alexis Chaney, Sherrice Mojgani, Porsche McGovern, Jesse Portillo, Margaret Toomey, and Katherine Freer

Session discussing how to cultivate an intentional, ethical design practice and offering strategies to designers for shifting the way they are working and the work they are making. I served as an additional support facilitator for this session, and I shared collaborative feedback strategies I had developed for THR 492 Advanced Practicum at Mason. These “Notes on notes” attempt to frame note giving sessions like production meetings after tech to make them more generative and less stressful.



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Virtual Panels

5/7/2022

 
In 2020, I was asked to be a guest on many virtual panels. I was often asked to speak specifically about issues facing women of the global majority and caretakers working in the theatre industry. An example can be seen in this 4 Wall roundtable from June 28th 2020

    Sherrice Mojgani

    Storyteller
    Educator
    ​Activist

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