Led by Tracey Grey
www.traceygrey.com

Thinking of new stories, creating new situations, and presenting them before the audience in the most effective way enhances the creativity in them.  

Theatre is about imagining. Students have to use all of their thinking capabilities to bring life to the scene written merely on paper. Not just that, using all of their language skills to write down the script also makes them use all of their imagination. It increases their power to imagine beyond boundaries.

Working with a team, taking in new people for the theatre, involving them in the play, and building relationships with them are the things that offer a lot of learning opportunities. They learn to socialize with different people using their abilities. 

Not just talking to the team members and conveying instructions enhance communication skills. But also, when they have to perform and present before the audience, they learn a different type of communication that also enhances their confidence. 

Performing in front of the audience, receiving appreciation, and fulfilling different challenges enhance the self-esteem of students. It not only makes them more confident about their theatre performing skills but also helps in the other areas of their lives. Their self-esteem is enhanced and they are clearer about their goals in life and believe that they can achieve them. Moreover, studies have shown that self-esteem is directly and positively correlated to success in life. So, this is an invaluable opportunity for them. 

Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand a situation, perceive others’ emotions, and react in the best way while composing oneself. It is also about understanding and reacting with the appropriate emotions. This type of intelligence is more important in academic performance and overall life growth than the typical IQ as proved by studies. A student develops this intelligence through activities like theatre. 

Teamwork is one of the most important skills in life. A person who does not have the capabilities to work in a team is most often isolated and does not fit in groups. Thus, they miss many opportunities. Theatre is one of the best activities that teach teamwork and cooperation with others. 

Problem-solving is the main trait of intelligent people. Working in groups, tackling new challenges every day, bringing solutions to them, and devising the best possible plans for different tasks is what theatre teaches to students. The problem-solving skills that they learn from this activity are implemented in all the areas of their lives.  

Learning beyond the boundaries of a book is what the advanced educational sectors believe in nowadays. Theatre is an activity that provides extraordinary learning opportunities to students. Through implementing the knowledge and bringing the best use of their skills what theatre allows students to do.

Mere reading is not enough to learn the countless aspects of a play or a story. Whereas, performing that story or the play allows them to learn all those aspects of learning conceptually. Long story short, this is one of the best learning opportunities that a school can ever offer to students.

Dramatic text vs performance text - relationship between original script and performance script: 

dramaturgical changes or cuts, transpositions, additions, substitutions

- what interpretation(s) of the play does the performance version offer through these changes?

Performance space: 
in what kind of space is the production performed? 

Stage space:

mode: proscenium stage (Italian), thrust stage, staging in the round, processional, what is the staging relationship between audience and performance area (open or close, uniform or multiple) Lighting: its function & symbolic values: to portray meaning, atmosphere, tension or emotion? 

 

Sound: 
music & sound effects:  to portray meaning, atmosphere, tension or emotion? 

 

Staging (mise en scene) and rhythm:  
how action develops

Actors:

- external appearance: physical traits, costumes, make-up, 

- mime, gestures, movement

- aural craft: vocal delivery, intonation,

- movement of characters on the stage

- grouping of characters

- spatial distinction between characters

Audience: 
attitude, reactions, atmosphere - critics/reviews

Those are all good questions, but there are also other important questions that most visitors don’t think to ask, many of which are related to how to behave (and how not to behave) during the show so as to better enjoy the performance and to allow the rest of the people in the audience to enjoy it as well.

Sitting in a live show is not like being at a movie theater nor at home streaming!  it’s usually much quieter, so you have to be more careful not to make noise. The performers who are entertaining you are doing so live and in person, so it’s important to be respectful to them as well.

Because many first-time theater attendees – and, frankly, many regular theatergoers who should really know better by now – aren’t exactly sure what the proper theatre etiquette and behavior is, here a primer on the Do’s and Don’ts (mostly the latter) of theatre etiquette when attending a live performance.

you may think you’re being all incognito, but in a darkened theater, the light from your cell phone screen is incredibly distracting to those around you. And why do you still have your phone on anyway? We just told you to turn it off!