Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/drama-a-rehearsal-for-life!/5013546/
I remember an 11-year-old child in England starting speech and drama classes to learn skills of acting, characterisation, voice projection, poetry reading, and storytelling. She was a quiet, timid introvert.The classes were a great success - within one short year this shy violet was comfortable taking on the role of a character, breathing life into scripted words. The parts she played enabled her to sparkle, safe behind the mask of another person. This child was me! Speech and drama classes gave me the ground to blossom into a performer, happy to open up as long as I was playing a role. I progressed through a series of exams, gaining awards and medals for speaking verse and prose, acting, and eventually at age 18, using my own voice for public speaking. Years later as a mother, I returned to dramatic arts, studied to teach, and set up my own studio at home.
Drama as an Ideal Learning Medium
Creative dramatics aims, traditionally, to develop the performer. More important for me was the discovery that the by-products of learning performance skills are major life skills:
n confidence
n communication skills
n command of language
n development of imagination
n physical freedom
n responsibility
n ...