TEACHING

CURIOSITY

Curiosity lies at the heart of all our creative work. All art making is solving problems creatively. All of us should strive to enter the rehearsal studio or classroom full of curiosity, wonder, prepared to ask a lot of questions, and interrogate the texts or devising task before us. Regarding teaching, that means always learning new methodologies and interrogating old methods for relevancy usefulness. I work to enter all my work with curiosity and wonder and hope to be surprised and bowled over each and every day.

COMPASSION

Compassion is reflected in our so many of our practices from rehearsal schedules to finding new ways to be more inclusive. Many things fall under compassion: from sharing pronouns, to land acknowledgments, intimacy best practices, content warnings, to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts. Sometimes the simplicity of speaking less and listening more and working towards being present in the moment together can foster compassion. We can be mindful of our own needs both emotionally and physically, respect our own and others boundaries, and still create great art that asks for specificity, passion, focus, and rigor. Without compassion how can we expect art to illuminate the humanity of life and bring us together in the shared experience of watching a theatrical event?

ENSEMBLE

Ensemble is a practice, not a group of people. The creative company and the idea of a creative ensemble is at the heart of all of my work. It is only through creative problem solving together, making space so that the ideas holding the most narrative potential end up on the stage in front of an audience or on recorded media that exciting art can be made. Throughout history and across the globe it has been companies, creative ensembles, that have brought to life our most historic and groundbreaking works.

PLAY

A sense of play is at the heart of all my work. Play is democratic. There is not a single culture on the planet that does not play. It is a great creator of equity and brings us all together. I also don’t believe in “bad” theatre, it’s simply theatre that has no sense of play in it. When we play our imaginations light up and we make the invisible, visible and the unseen, seen. Play is how we make magic. A performer’s objective or need must be fun to pursue, their actions or tactics must be fun to play - if not the audience won’t lean in, they will dismiss, ignore, and tune out. Even at the height of our greatest tragedy on stage or film, there should be a part of the artist that thinks, “Isn’t this a kick in the pants!” Play impacts our directing and invites how we can invite the audience to be complicit in our theatrical event, to lean in, and to engage.

The play state or flow state is the same process from a cognitive science perspective. What Dr. Stuart Brown and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describe regarding play or flow are the same things described or aspired to by companies like Complicité or Cheek by Jowl.

I currently serve as an Assistant Professor of Acting & Directing at Central Connecticut State University and previously served as the Head of Performance at The Johnny Carson School of Theatre & Film at The University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Former positions include University at Albany, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Rutgers University. I am a certified teacher with the National Michael Chekhov Association and hold a certificate from and was a part of the first teacher training cohort under Aretha Sills in the work and techniques of Viola Spolin.

Teaching is at the heart of what I do an artist and I am deeply committed to sharing a solid pedagogy with my students. It’s why I am always engaged in some form of training and development as a teacher and artist. I’m not married to any one technique, I find things and think, “My students will find this useful.”

I have received teaching awards from University at Albany, the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, and have been nominated twice (in 2021 and 2023) for teaching awards at Central Connecticut State University.

I am available for workshops in Michael Chekhov Technique, Improvisation, Clown, Meisner, Shakespeare, Directing, On-Camera, Devising & Ensemble Creation, and Physical Theatre via email at wesleybroulik@gmail.com

Here are some links to organizations I have trained or studied with.

National Michael Chekhov Association, MICHA, Tectonic Theatre Project, Frantic Assembly, Complicité, Punch Drunk, Peta Lily, Funny School of Good Acting, Spolin/Sills Theatre Works, Shakespeare’s Globe, Theatrical Intimacy Education (TIE)