Effect of theatre
It has often been noted by adults who work with children on plays or roles that drama is one of the best activities for a young person's physical, mental and emotional development. Playing theatre with children is a holistic and complex endeavour and the results are also very diverse and indeed not necessarily measurable. Children benefit from acting in many ways and are nurtured in very different areas.
Playing theatre is an extraordinary benefit for the intellectual, emotional and social components of the personality!
Teatrul este o metodă de învățare holistică de care copiii pot beneficia în moduri foarte diferite.
Jocul de teatru îi face pe oameni mai deschiși, mai accesibili și mai încrezători în ei înșiși. Mulți profesori de teatru cu experiență pot relata cazuri în care copiii au cunoscut o dezvoltare considerabilă într-un timp foarte scurt în timpul unui curs de teatru. În special copiii și tinerii din medii familiale instabile pot fi ajutați să își reconstruiască stima de sine prin intermediul teatrului.
What does playing theatre do?
Improvement of concentration
Promotion of speech and language/articulation
Ability to memorise
Encouraging a feeling for language
Improvement of body awareness
Strengthening self-confidence
What do you learn/practice when doing theatre?
To fit into an unfamiliar social environment
Taking on a role in the group
Dealing with certain social situations
Creativity and imagination
The children and young people are made to focus on one specific thing over a longer period of time and to complete a project together with others.
What theatre play does in the brain
Unlike other areas of the cerebral cortex, such as thinking, planning, evaluating and acting, which take much longer to develop, the visual cortex, as a part of the cerebral cortex that belongs to the visual system, already develops within the first years of life. All areas in the brain need the "impressions" that belong to their jurisdiction, which they can process and learn from. This process creates traces that are then responsible for the correct processing of impressions.
Speech can be used as a comparison: It is only thanks to the many speech impressions we receive as babies that traces can emerge that help us to be able to communicate almost fully automatically and to grasp what is being said. A fully functioning human being according to Carl Rogers can only develop if the processes in the brain are sufficiently promoted by processing impressions at a young age.
Homo ludens - the playing human being
Play is a very characteristic sign of our childhood and this phenomenon of play can also be found in the animal kingdom. Playing theatre allows us to immerse ourselves playfully in the world of feelings, language, fantasy, voice and movement.
This is mainly about learning how to deal with a situation despite its non-real existence.
The potential of theatre in relation to the development of young people is enormous. The experience and knowledge that children acquire in the theatre consists much less of a specific event or a specific quotation from a text (although this is also an important component of theatre), but captures the big picture, namely the concept of education. And so it is no longer surprising that Hartmut von Hentig, as one of the most important educational reform pedagogues of the last century, reduced the timetable to two subjects: Science and Theatre.
Playing theatre teaches young people to treat each other with respect and to get to know themselves and others better in a variety of roles and situations.
Furthermore, it has a very positive effect on the development of the ability to perceive, the sensitisation of the senses, the understanding of the community and social connections. In addition to the development of vivid thinking, speaking and acting, it promotes creative reactions to a wide variety of problems and situations. The positive effects of theatre have already been scientifically proven.