I recently had the opportunity to see a fantastic show in which my friend’s 10 year-old daughter was performing. I was truly impacted by the show and impressed by the energy of everyone involved, so I followed up with Artistic Director Blaire Baron Larsen and Executive Director Julia Walker Wyson of the Los Angeles Drama Club. Both women are trained professional actors and youth arts professionals who feel that, “this work is the highest honor an artist can have.” They have been running the Shakespeare Youth Festival in Los Angeles, the nation’s youngest Shakespeare Troupe, for nine years.
Their target area, District 10, is a mid-income region in Los Angeles where there are few nearby community centers or active arts programs. By supporting youth in arts, we’re not only providing a productive and safe activity for these youth, but also supporting and encouraging the voices of our future. Below are three reasons to get you off the couch and into a theater seat.
1. Getting youth involved in theater doesn’t just serve the children, it serves the greater good. By giving kids an opportunity to work on characters, memorize lines, and dig deep into plots, themes, and choices, they’re also strengthening critical thinking skills. Bloom’s Taxonomy states, “The highest level of critical thinking is the ability to form an opinion and be able to discuss the finer points of why.” These skills then translate to real world applications. According to “The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools” by Richard Paul and Linda Elder, “a well-cultivated critical thinker raises vital questions, formulates them clearly and precisely, gathers and assesses relevant information, and comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards.”
2. Studying Shakespeare improves Academic Performance Index (API) scores. Larsen and Wyson “regularly receive reports from parents and teachers about rapid improvements in fluency, vocabulary, and reading levels in students. Many are facing challenges like shyness, dyslexia, and ADHD—challenges that have made school into a painful and tedious chore. Often, these students get frustrated and lose interest; being a good student feels like a lost cause. Studying Shakespeare breaks through that barrier. Digging into the character and being a part of the excitement of putting on a play is so powerful that they don’t realize that they’re decoding complex language.”
3. Theater involvement enhances other skills that benefit children’s development. In working through Shakespearean text in particular, Larsen and Wyson report that their young actors are encouraged to “focus less on rote memorization,” and more on the true meaning of the intention behind the rich text. This results in test scores indicating that many of their fourth graders are reading at ninth grade levels. Other general developmental benefits are physical, artistic, mental/thinking, and both personal and social development. Theater can also improve public speaking and team-building skills, and a sense of community. Additionally, a UCLA study concluded that students involved in the arts tend to have higher academic performance and better standardized test scores—nearly 100 points better on the SAT, according to a separate study by the College Board.
Wherever you reside, and whether or not you have a child involved in theater, the benefits of extending the gift of arts in education to children is invaluable.
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