Drama and Performing Arts

Engagement

Allowing students to connect with the work according to how they learn

Exploring multiple perspectives

Understanding of students’ own backgrounds and cultures and awareness that theirs is not the only perspective

Exploration or ideas

Drama develops students’ ability to think divergently, imagine possibilities, and test ways of responding to the world that equip them for success that we can’t yet imagine

Communication fluency

Drama requires that students communicate both with words and without, developing an awareness of context and perspective and how this affects communication

Reading comprehension

Drama can bolster students’ comprehension of story by allowing them to explore the story from inside and physicially embodying the story and its characters

Plot

The events or order of the events in the plays

Setting

Established on stage, or the physical space upon which actors moves

Character

The development of a character; they must change and go through struggles to elicit fear and pity or catharsis

Dialogue

Comprised of the words directly spoken by characters

Action

The physical movements of the actors

Space

Where the play takes place; proscenium stage, thrust stage, arena stage, or black box theatre