Self-Confidence:
Taking risks in class and performing for an audience teach students to trust their ideas and abilities. This confidence will apply in nearly every aspect of their future.
Imagination:
In a word addicted to technology, theater provides an outlet for making creative choices, thinking new ideas, and interpreting the material in expressive ways that are the essence of drama.
Empathy & Tolerance:
Acting roles from different situations, time periods, and cultures promotes compassion and tolerance for others.
Cooperation/Collaboration:
Theatre combines the creative ideas and abilities from its participants.
Concentration:
Playing, practicing, and performing develop a sustained focus of mind, body, and voice which helps with other areas of life including school.
Communication Skills:
Drama enhances verbal and nonverbal expression of ideas. It improves voice projection, articulation, fluency of language, and persuasive speech.
Problem-Solving:
Students learn to communicate the who, what, where, when, and why to the audience. Improvisation fosters quick-thinking solutions, which leads to greater adaptability in life.
Fun:
Theatre brings play, humor, and laughter to learning; this improves motivation and reduces stress.
Trust:
The social interaction and risk taking in drama develop trust in self, others, and the process.
Memory:
Rehearsing and performing the words, movements, and cues strengthen this skill like a muscle.
Social Awareness:
Legends, myths, poems, stories, and plays used in drama teach students about social issues and conflicts from cultures past, present, all over the world.
Aesthetic Appreciation:
Participating in and viewing theater raise appreciation for the art form. It is important to raise a generation that understands, values, and supports theater’s place in society.