The Dramatic Arts: Everything You Need to Know

This is a type of expression whereby students can reply to stories and express their content-related understanding via acting, dramatic performance, and role-playing. In other words, dramatic arts are a form of narrative performed in front of an audience. These narratives and the way they are depicted could be in different styles, which are called genres.

Comedy and tragedy are the two oldest genres. While a comedy typically ends on a positive note where the protagonist wins and includes significant doses of humor, a tragedy is bleaker and involves a story that usually ends with the protagonist’s death or failure. However, sometimes, these genres could just refer to the story’s negative or positive outcome. Often, there may be narratives where multiple genres overlap, and it becomes difficult to fit them into a clearly-defined category.

In the classroom, dramatic arts can act as pivotal outlets for self-expression. Additionally, they get the students involved in different ways – physically, intellectually, emotionally, and socially. The use of dramatic arts in education leads to holistic learning, speeds up personality development, and imparts students with vital life skills, such as leadership, problem-solving, cooperation, and collaboration.

Real education isn’t about spoon-feeding pieces of information to students and them absorbing it all without any question or reason. Education should stimulate smart learning, creativity, logical reasoning, and critical thinking in students. Dramatic arts can help in the education process. For instance, by asking students to enact a historical scene, the teacher may make it easier for them to remember and understand the names, events, and dates of a historical event without cramming. Even role play or puppetry can encourage effective learning by promoting public speaking skills, interpersonal and group communication, etc.

Some key benefits of dramatic arts for students are:

  •         Becoming competent in self-expression: Through creative expression, students can build a broader perception of several matters and realize the importance of self-expression, which prepares them to tackle life’s crests and troughs later on. 
  •         Accepting constructive criticism: Students learn to accept constructive feedback and criticism, which help them work on their weak areas, thus eventually strengthening them. 
  •         Learning life skills: Dramatic arts in the classroom can teach students various life skills like compassion, problem-solving, confidence, empathy, teamwork, cooperation, and collaboration.
  •         Enhanced personality development: The use of dramatic arts in education also accelerates students’ personality development and boosts their self-esteem and confidence.
  •         Learning to lead: Dramatic arts can also teach students to imbibe skills pertaining to leadership and teamwork.
Choose your Reaction!