Some people think it takes courage to
act, but Jennifer Juul feels otherwise.
“I have always known I wanted to teach.
Performing is easy, but it takes real
courage to be a teacher.”
The Northern Virginia native has been a
professional actor since 1989. A member
of Actors’ Equity, she has appeared in
two national tours and in regional
theatre productions. Before settling in
Southwest Virginia, she wrote a master’s
thesis on Appalachian drama and feels
“right at home” in the RU Department of
Theatre and Cinema, where she began
teaching this fall.
“The opportunities here are wonderful.
The theatre facilities are beautiful and
we have a lot of flexibility. My
colleagues are great people and we’re
able to provide the students and the
community here with shows that are high
quality,” she says.
Juul’s research interests include acting
theory and theatre pedagogy. “I’m
fascinated by how a person learns
acting. Creating a character and
performing it is harder than it looks.
There are different acting approaches, a
lot of right answers to the same
question,” Juul says. “I also like to
learn about how people used to teach
acting and how it’s changed. Actors who
are studying their craft are trying to
understand human behavior and it’s
interesting how our beliefs about
ourselves have changed over time,” says
Juul.
She has presented teacher workshops that
focus on ways to use performance
activities in the classroom. “Performing
is the ultimate hands-on learning
experience for students. When they act
something out, the students immerse
themselves in what they’re learning
about,” says Juul.
She admires the work ethic she senses
among RU faculty and students. “I’m
teaching acting and theatre appreciation
courses. I can see that students here
work really hard and theatre majors are
dedicated to what they do,” she says.
The theatre and cinema curriculum changed this
fall, and she finds herself immersed in
the challenges of a work environment
that is new to her and a curriculum that
is new to the entire faculty.
Juul is directing the theatre
and cinema department
production “The Wind in the Willows,” an
adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s famous
story of Rat, Mole, Badger and Toad. It
takes a somewhat vivid imagination and a
bit of child-like faith to direct this
play, and Juul finds nuggets of
inspiration in stories like Winnie the
Pooh and Alice in Wonderland. It also
helps to be married to someone who
shares her passion for acting. Her
husband, Jim Walke, is a professional
actor who appears in commercials for Cox
Cable.
Acting and teaching have a lot in
common, Juul believes. “You make
choices, you listen to your students and
sometimes you have to improvise.” Her
research reveals that everybody learns
in different ways and “it’s important
for students to find the path that works
best for them.”
