The Shope Method

Writing as Performance

Dr. Shope’s writing, performance, and teaching career has spanned over fifty years. 

Richard Shope studied Intercultural Communications at the University of Minnesota (1969-72); Bilingual Education at the University of the Americas in Mexico City (1987-88); and Liberal Studies at Antioch University Los Angeles (B.A, 1994). He earned his Masters (M.S. Ed., 1998) and Doctorate (Ed.D., 2006) in Science Education at the University of Southern California (USC). Shope is an accomplished writer, poet, and playwright.

In the 1970s and 80s, Shope delved into a mastery of the art of mime, studying intensively with Marcel Marceau, Mamako Yoneyama and Carlo Mazzone-Clementi, and experienced such mentors as Etienne Decroux, Jessica Lange, Jacques Lecoq, Ctibor Turba, and Stefan Niedzialkowski. Based initially in Minneapolis, and then in Los Angeles and Mexico City, Shope has created and choreographed an extensive repertoire of comic, lyrical, and mythical mime works.

Shope’s equally deep scientific background led to his working for 15 years (1994-2009) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where he coordinated science education and public outreach programs nationwide and developed curriculum for various flight projects; (Pluto, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Europa, the Sun, the Moon, and more); as a Senior Research Results Analyst, Shope wrote featured science highlights for NASA Headquarters. He served as Principal Investigator for NASA-funded education and public outreach projects, and as Project Evaluator for various BioScience projects at Cal State Los Angeles.

Shope is best known for the Shope Method of Writing as Performance, applied across the curriculum, including reading, writing, science, and theatre, distinguished by enabling diverse students nationwide to enhance their abilities to communicate complex scientific and literary concepts in exciting and expressive ways.

Shope has personally reached over a million urban youth, in hundreds of school districts throughout Southern California, Mexico and rural American Indian communities.