Why theatre education?
I would like to briefly explain what drama education is and how it can influence our development:
Through play, different life situations are re-enacted, with the awareness that the situation is fictitious, it is illustrated. It encourages the discovery of one’s own personality. Theatre education offers us the possibilities to perceive our own body, to feel emotions and to reflect on the experiences afterwards.
We tried it out with a small group of children in our kindergarten. The play “The Birth of Jesus” was developed, planned and performed with the children. We all know that children love to dress up, and we wanted to take advantage of that right away. It was supposed to be a surprise for the parents. The children had a lot of fun and we are sure that the parents were very proud of their children.
Our goals in theatre education work are:
- Encouraging group togetherness
- Encourage physical and linguistic expression
- Encourage creativity and imagination
- Encouragement of personality development
- Joy of movement
- Increasing self-confidence
- Having fun together
- More courage to express oneself
- Social learning
- Discovering what I am made of
- Standing in front of an audience
- Enduring being the centre of attention, being looked at by everyone
- Being proud of oneself
We have decided that we will now rehearse a small theatre project more often. The response from the parents and children has been exceptionally good. Everyone wants to get out of their everyday life to slip into a new role, that can make our lives more exciting and eventful.
Cristine Schneuwly, Head of Kindergarten, Kindergarten Ennetbaden
Photo by Jessica Rockowitz on Unsplash
