Theatre education is not just part of a complete curriculum; it is essential for individual health and well-being. To be able to put together a show that brings arts together offers learners at different levels several growth opportunities. For example, musical learners are interested in a show’s score, while kinesthetic learners dance to engage their bodies. Meanwhile, while linguists revel in the written and spoken word, spatial learners dive into set and costume design. However
Theatre education undoubtedly has various benefits, but it also has challenges holding it back. Let’s investigate some of the benefits and challenges of theatre programs and education.
The benefits of theatre programs
Not only is theater fun, but it is also essential for developing the skills needed to navigate the real world successfully. Below are some of the benefits of theatre programs:
Improves students’ literacy and communication skills
Theatre involves reading and re-reading scripts, memorizing lines, and taking notes at rehearsals, all of which help increase learners’ reading and writing skills. More than that, students learn to articulate their thoughts and questions and listen carefully to instructions to improve their performances. For those students who have not fully developed this skill, they can use the write my paper service.
Better imagination
Theatre is a fun, interactive, and very dynamic form of art, especially when its participants’ imaginations are fully engaged. Students must use their imaginations to make interpretative decisions in design and performance to give their audience a detailed, fictional world.
Problem-solving skills
It takes a large amount of work to be able to put on a show, and this makes performers valuable problem solvers. From inventing mnemonics to remembering their lines to mastering a tricky scene change, students have to think critically and creatively to create solutions to problems.
Learning Empathy and Self-Discipline
Theatre involves exploring the lives of others through creative storytelling and character work, which helps them learn empathy. Another life skill developed is self-discipline, made possible through prompt attendance at rehearsals, learning lines, and more on schedule. With these skills, learners become reliable and trustworthy individuals and well-rounded students.
Ability to work with others
Considering how much creative input theatre requires, performers must put their heads together to create a show successfully. Performers must work together to rehearse, construct, perform, and promote their show for it to be successful. As such, each individual is learning the vitality of teamwork and acquiring the ability to work together.
The major challenges facing theatre programs today
Theatre education at all levels is confronted with many challenges, including but not limited to its non-inclusion in some curricula. Theatre is not included in the secondary school system’s curriculum, which has made it suffer relegation. More so, it suffers inadequate attention management of universities and other tertiary institutions, making teaching and learning hard.
To many, theatre is not a subject, just a time for students to play and express themselves. However, theatre is a subject that needs more people, especially those who can promote it, to take it seriously.
Furthermore, theatre is beginning to lose relevance within society and culture, which ultimately results in it losing traction in education. Apart from schools cutting out theatre programs from their curriculum, people who pursue a theatre career are undermined. Parents would rather hear that their child is pursuing a career in law or business than in theatre.
You cannot blame them; they want stability, and art is anything but stable. Art is dynamic, creative, imaginative, and wild; if it becomes stable, there is a problem.
Conclusion
Theatre education has proven over and over that it is highly beneficial to its learners and teachers, from helping individuals develop life skills to making them well-rounded individuals in society. However, the theater has challenges that need to be addressed, including the negative notions surrounding it. If these challenges can be addressed, novelty and excitement will return to the theatre world.
