Drama, theatre and education...all go hand in hand. 

As a teacher, our aim is to help students develop the right kind of skills and become life-long independent learners. When children participate in activities like theatre and drama it helps break down barriers and build confidence. Weather they have the opportunity to perform in theatre production or help out behind the scene, drama and performing arts not only engages with the creative side of the brain, but also provides an ideal balance in students pattern of study.

Drama is an important tool for preparing student to live and work in a world that is increasingly team oriented rather than hierarchical. It helps in developing many skills and improve learning outcomes like Language skills (speaking and vocabulary development) and social skills (better bonding and interactions with peers). It also develops in a natural manner, Imagination, creativity that help with problem-solving and thinking outside the box, this skill that can be put to use in other fields.

 Theatre engages all kinds of learning styles and reaches out to all kinds of learners. Voice modulation, enacting a scene, talking from the point of view of the character, miming, monologues and dialogues are some of the aspects of drama. Story-weaving, enacting a well-read story, giving a different ending to the story and justifying the same etc., are some of the activities which could be carried out in the class room. Role play encourages healthy participation and expression of a range of emotions. Creativity and thinking out-of-the-box will emerge only when we expose the children to activities requiring these skills. Students could enact a simple familiar story and the other groups could guess the scene or story being enacted. Role play helps improve non-verbal communication too.  Character description, tableaux and other decision-making activities will help the students work in collaboration and keep them engaged.

 Theatre naturally ties very well with all English curriculum. Students read plays in school especially Shakespeare, but sometimes, seeing a show like “les miserable” and “the phantom of the opera” can inspire the students to read the book that the theatrical piece was based on.

 Theatres also teaches history. Theatre aften parallel the time that the pieces were written. Greek and Roman tragedies, medival passion plays, Italian and English Renaissance pieces, restoration comedies and turn -of- the- century realism and naturalism plays all support a well- rounded history curriculum.

 Concepts in various subjects can be planned in such a way that role play, drama and puppetry find place in regular classroom teaching and not as an activity that is disconnected from academics. Enacting verbs and expressing emotion like, for instance, miming a happy child or an angry lion, are some activities that integrate the learning of a language with drama. 

 Drama in the classroom will help inculcate in the students in good oratory and communication skills. Students learns to work collaboratively and develop inter and intra-personal skills, problem-solving skills, and kinesthetic skills among others. The fact that reading and listening skills are fine-tuned in the process cannot be ignored. Theatre and drama are great motivators when it comes to learning. Involving the students in activities of different kinds and having them play a variety of roles will help make each one of them a star! 

 "Tell me and I will forget.
Show me and I will remember.
Involve me and I will understand."
                                                                        -- Chinese Proverb