Drama classes can teach students a lot of skills that will be useful in life. Students will experience being actors, playwrights, technicians, designers, and critics.
Self-confidence is built through drama classes in Glasgow and theatre activities. This healthy confidence will help them in life by allowing them to face challenging situations with ease.
Empathy
In addition to cultivating a sense of compassion for others, drama can also teach people to be curious about other perspectives. Existing research measuring empathy often measures how accurately someone can read another person’s emotions, such as sadness or anger. But empathy also involves actively trying to understand someone else’s point of view, says Alexandra Main, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at UC Merced.
Students who take drama classes learn to be more aware of their own body as they engage in the physical aspects of the class, such as warmup exercises and improv. They also work together with fellow actors to create characters and achieve a performance goal.
Self-Confidence
Whether a student is tackling an audition for a play or simply working on their memorisation skills, drama class builds confidence. It also teaches that it is not about one person or the other and a production needs everyone to succeed. This lesson can be a powerful tool for life, in terms of learning to work with others and not against them.
Drama students are taught to use sensory memory – remembering a place, sound, smell or feel to summon the emotions needed for a scene. This can help a student learn and recall lines more easily and be less dependent on mnemonics.
For many children, taking a drama class for the first time can be a huge challenge. They are often tasked with expressing themselves openly in front of strangers, and this can be intimidating. However, the lessons learned can build a sense of self-confidence that may lead to healthier relationships later in life.
Creativity
Whether they’re learning to deliver lines or improvise, drama students are constantly using their creativity. In fact, everyone is creative to some extent: we are all able to see things in new ways and solve problems in imaginative ways.
Creativity is also about embracing curiosity. By encouraging participants to question what they are doing and why, drama encourages them to be enquiring and analytical, and this can help build critical thinking skills.
Finally, a good drama teacher will recognise that their relationship with the class must be founded on mutual respect. This will enable them to make the class feel like a collaborative artistic process, which in turn will allow students to offer their best.
Memory
While memorizing lines for a drama performance is a challenge for everyone, it’s especially difficult for those who struggle with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. But a new study reveals how improvisational theatre can help with memory retention and improve quality of life.
Drama is a physical and expressive art form that requires a person to use their bodies in order to achieve a desired performance outcome. This helps people become more aware of their bodily states and how to regulate emotions through movement, gesture, and sound.
