In Fall 2020, our university, like so many elsewhere, transitioned entirely from on-campus instruction to Zoom online. But a silver lining of those early days was unprecedented availability of space on campus, including the university’s own repertory theater. In healthy times, that theater would be brimming with talented artisans and weekly performances, without a trace of computer science in sight. But with that theater’s artisans otherwise idled by COVID-19 times, our introductory course had an unusual opportunity to collaborate with the same. Albeit subject to rigorous COVID-19 protocols, including face masks and face shields for all but the course’s instructor, along with significant social distancing, that moment in time allowed us an opportunity to experiment with lights, cameras, and action on an actual stage, thereby bringing computer science to life in ways not traditionally possible in the course’s own classroom. Equipped with an actual prop shop in back, the team of artisans was able to actualize ideas that might otherwise only exist in slides and code. And students’ experience proved the better for it, with a supermajority of students attesting at term’s end to the efficacy of almost all of the semester’s demonstrations. We present in this work the design and implementation of this particular vision along with the motivation therefor and results thereof. And we propose how we have, and others can, adapt these same moments in healthier times to more traditional classrooms, large and small.

David J. Malan is Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Computer Science at Harvard University in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences as well as a Member of the Faculty of Education in the Graduate School of Education and an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School. He teaches Computer Science 50, otherwise known as CS50, which is among Harvard University’s largest courses, one of Yale University’s largest courses, and edX’s largest MOOC, with over 4M registrants. He also teaches at Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, Harvard Extension School, and Harvard Summer School. All of his courses are freely available as OpenCourseWare.