Answer:
Benefits of Drama Participation
Youth derive many social, emotional, physical, mental and psychological benefits from engagement in
drama activities. Participation in drama:
• Develops sensory awareness and listening skills
• Increases power of concentration and memory retention
• Provides opportunities for socialization
• Develops empathy towards others
• Improves communication skills
• Fulfills need to communicate feelings
• Develops youth’s self-awareness as they review their responses to improvised situations
• Enhances decision-making skills
• Increases understanding of body movement through pantomime and creative movement
• Provides a dynamic way to explore group’s conflicts and interpersonal relationships, perhaps arriving at
alternative behaviors
• Integrates the arts (e.g., dance, drama, music, art and literature)
• Develops cooperation and teamwork
• Brings educational concepts alive (e.g., dramatize historical event, learn math by portraying a bank teller)
• Expands the imagination
• Increases facility in speaking
for more info
The benefits derived from drama are recognized by the health and social service fields. Drama therapy is a
significant established profession which brings the healing and rehabilitative influence of dramatic arts to
therapeutic prevention and treatment programs. Drama therapists use many different drama approaches,
including, for example, puppetry, improvisation, and creative movement. Drama therapists work with
people of all ages, abilities and challenges and in a variety of settings such as hospitals, schools, prisons
and nursing homes. For more information on drama therapy, refer to the National Association for Drama
Therapy website at http://www.nadt.org.
Drama can also become theatre for social change when the dramatizations contain material relevant to
social issues and these dramatizations are performed for an audience. The intent of theatre for social
change is through, the power of theater, to educate and motivate audiences to take action to effect change
in their communities. For instance, a dramatic production on the effects of bullying, would lead to antibullying behavior and bullying preventions programs. The Association for Theatre in Higher Education
(ATHE) has a focus group ( TASC).specifically addressing theatre for social change. For more
information on TASC, refer to the ATHE website at http://www.athe.org
