Presenting
Selected presentations include:
MFA in Graphic Design program at the Maryland Institute College for Art
Experience Design (co-facilitated with Abraham Burickson)
Grinnell Alumni College (via Zoom), 2020
Innovations in Empathy: Exploring Immersive Performance in the Pandemic Era
Minnesota Theatre Alliance State Theatre Conference
St. John's University, Collegeville, MN, 2016
Playing the Play: Exploring Applications for Interactivity (with Tyler Olsen)
Grinnell College guest lecture
Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA, 2015
Technology in Performance: Integrating Techniques
Innovation with Impact
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 2015
Participation and Interactivity in the British Theatre
Teaching
In 2021, I facilitated Arts Nest’s training program for underrepresented emerging directors, called DirectorWorks. In collaboration with Harry Waters, Jr. and Marcela Lorca, I wrote the curriculum for the course and facilitated workshop sessions as well as a weekend intensive in which the participating directors created a short piece to be performed in a virtual showcase.
I have extensive teaching experience, including three semesters of Acting for Non-Majors at Carnegie Mellon University. This involved creating my own curriculum from scratch and refining it over each iteration of the course. A sample syllabus with readings and activities is available upon request.
I also completed the Future Faculty program at Carnegie Mellon, which involved workshops, seminars on teaching practice, evaluation, and personalized projects to develop my skills a university instructor.
Quotes from student evaluations:
"This is one of the better classes I have taken at Carnegie Mellon. In the past, I had heard about how easy this class was, but they seem to have revamped the curriculum recently to make the class more challenging but also as a whole better. Take this class if you can, especially if you get Margo as your teacher. This class is designed to help you learn how to act, but it helps you learn about human interaction and presenting yourself in general."
"Margo knows how to teach acting and obviously had put in a lot of thoughts into the teaching. Thanks! This is a non-major acting class; nevertheless the training we received is rigorous in nature (albeit with simplification to fit in the duration of the course). We explored a wide range of topics emphasize on building a understanding of the nature of drama and acting; these topics are solid foundations for further studies in acting. The class is one of the best class I ever took. We had a lot of fun too."
"With Margo, we had readings and discussions where we learned about acting technique and different schools of thoughts. We learned techniques of how to do a character analysis, how to analyze scenes, and interact with other actors. We started the day with a warm-up and had a discussion at the end of every activity. I learned skills that I will be able to apply outside of the classroom in my professional life. In addition to providing an excellent course curriculum and the support and feedback we needed to guide us through it and optimize our understanding (papers, frequent discussions, etc), Margo herself is an excellent professor. She is personable and nice, but easily commands the class's attention and aim its focus. Despite the class being made up of mostly burnt-out Seniors looking for an easy-A, no one ever dragged their feet in class--Margo gave instructions and we all did them happily because we knew it was always going to be something cool or fun. We were free to do our activities freely, openly, and creatively, and we learned a lot too!"
"Gray was an excellent professor who made this class not only fun, but also applicable to other studies, engaging and challenging. She did an especially good job at pushing each student to improve, while also maintaining realistic expectations and giving us every possible research. I was really impressed by her offer to give us private coaching for scene/monologue performances--even when they comprised such a small portion of our grade. She was always clear about directions and made this course extremely enjoyable."
"The class had a good mix of theory and practice and moreover the class was very fun and Margo did a great job throughout the course."
"Margo's classes were fun, invigorating and challenging!"