Photo Credit: flickerdart
A sense of community envelops theatre classes and extra curricular activities. Bonding with the cast and crew of a production is important. From the first read through of a play to the very last performance, the cast and crew should form a special bond that creates a theatre family. This is extended to the classroom and beyond. When you spend time with a group of you peers working on class project or a show you grow a bond that is unique to theatre. Since theater is a preforming art, you need to work with others to put together the finished product; no one can do theatre alone. [1] One of the biggest things a theatre community can do for student is teach tolerance and good mental health. “Through arts and education, engage and inspire individuals and communities to make healthy choices.” [2] Though theatre students learn that not to bully, to resist peer pressure, to get up and get moving, to express there problems in a healthy and productive way, gives them an outlet to come together and work as a community, gives student and parents a way to connect over issues that are normally hard to breach for parents on their own, And teaches them fun and new ways to teach their peers these lesson instead of just talking. [3] Not only all of this but it is helping give out technology saturated generation a way to truly experience things that they other wise would never have the opportunity to. “When I grew up, kids were experience-rich and information-poor. Today, kids are experience-poor and information-rich. They’re aware of these issues, but we’re afraid of them talking about them because we’re afraid of the conversation.” [4]
In this video you can explore the life of a Theatre major and see first hand the community that surrounds you in theatre every day.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wVg_RkBqyY[/youtube]
[1] Home.” – EdTA. N.p., 2015. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.
[2] Stevens, Nancy H., Stan Foote, and Philip Wu. “Educational Theatre Program: Promoting Health.” The Permanente Journal. The Permanente Journal, 2008. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.
[3]&[4]Stevens, Nancy H., Stan Foote, and Philip Wu. “Educational Theatre Program: Promoting Health.” The Permanente Journal. The Permanente Journal, 2008. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.