Sean Patrick Gibbons

Background

About Sean Patrick Gibbons

As a professor, I have the unique experience of being both instructor and student. I am often incredibly surprised how much I learn from my students. I think it’s one of the many gifts of being an educator. I get to bear witness to one’s creativity, to one’s growth and ownership of artistry, to one’s challenges and breakthroughs. How lucky we are as teachers that we help mold minds and mentor their approach to the world from a place of both action and empathy. It is not my job to rate a student’s talent and or potential, rather I believe that every student who steps in my studio holds the power to harness what we as theatre professionals identify as the “it” factor. It is true of any course of study that through repetition and commitment, young actors will inevitably grow in their presence, and both refine and articulate their process. I believe in the whole artist. As a professor, I aim to create a classroom environment that is safe and accessible for all humans to freely explore with total and utter abandonment, and a process with a heavy emphasis on the importance of ensemble and building community. The foundation of my philosophy is always to allow for open dialogue with my students, to create an environment where they are free to explore and grow. I believe art, at its most distilled, is about asking questions, creating change, and challenging the norm. I want my students to leave my studio knowing technique while also accessing their innate and unique gifts as artists to change the world. This philosophy is implemented across my many methodologies and pedagogical approaches. In Acting and Musical Theatre classes, I tend to draw on and work from the Uta Hagen / Stanislavski System, while also using the Meisner technique in more advanced scene study classes. That said, I believe in training the whole artist holistically, using Michael Chekhov’s physical approach to text, engaging the body and voice to build a character. All my classes tend to be highly physical and work towards getting the whole body behind the words and or lyrics, ultimately connecting breath and action, and body to mind.