High

School Theatre and its Affect on Students

By: Brianna Soto
ENG 101
Cindy Casper


Introduction

More and more students are joining the arts programs in their high schools. Of the
variety of activities offered, musical theatre is the most common. Schools typically have two
shows every year one in the first semester, and one in the second. Participating in these
shows as cast or crew is a very large time commitment, and theres a lot of hard work and
effort that gets put into a production. This time commitment doesnt shy students away. In fact,
students go in aware of how much time theyll spend in theatre, and dont seem to mind. But
just because they dont mind doesnt mean it doesnt bother them.

It is no secret that high school students get more work than they can handle. Anxiety
rates are up, and sleep levels are down. In this report, the positive and negative impacts of
participating in high school theatre will be looked into to find out if the after school program
does more to help or hurt students.

The Experts

How does participating in high school theatre affect the student? Does it influence them
positively or negatively?

In an article from neaToday, the general aspect of the arts in schools is looked into.
Most schools have a severe lack of arts offered at their schools. Music and drama tends to be
significantly underfunded due to the unimportance of the subjects. The US Secretary of
Education, Arne Duncan, says that a well-rounded education is simply too vital to or students
success to let the teaching of the arts and humanities erode. The fact that schools have such a
math/reading oriented curriculum makes the arts the main target of budget cuts.

Unfortunately, a lot of adults dont see the significance in music education. However,
the students are well aware of the positive impacts it has on their education. Audrey Lang, a
student located in Ithaca, New York, wrote an article that delves into the pros and cons of being
a part of her high schools theatre program. She explains how the wide variety of people
involved makes for great tutoring sessions and homework help. Also, their theatrical
background makes other school subjects such as English a walk in the park.


Despite the fact that many students see the value in theatre, a lot of adults dont, and
its mainly because they dont see the significance in it. They dont understand what it does to
help, and they dont understand whom its for. The author of the article, Howard Sherman,
spoke with Moiss Kaufman, the administrator of a High School in Iowa, observed that the
situation is comparable to the figure often associated with marriage equality issue, theres a
big divide in the thinking between people over 50
and those under 50.

What adults need to understand is that
there is a different understanding gained from
theatre. High school students arent done learning
and theyre still easily influenced by the world
around them. Simply watching live theatre even
has a huge affect on students. EducationNext.org
did an experiment where they brought high school
students to see live theatre and then later asked
them questions about important literary aspects of
it, in which watching a play instead of reading one
made it easier for the students to pick out key plot
points (see picture to the right).



Methods

In order to find out if high school theatre positively or negatively affects students, I
decided to do some field research. Using Google Forms, I put together an 18 question survey
and sent it out to my fellow classmates who also participate in high school theatre. Of the
twenty-seven responses I received, I was able to draw some very helpful conclusions. The male
to female ratio was almost perfectly split, and the number of years people had been doing
theatre was almost all the same, which made the following questions very unbiased.

I first focused on the education aspects of their lives; did they feel that they have
enough time to do homework, have their grades gotten better or worse, have they skipped
classes because of theatre, et cetera.
I then went on to ask about their mental health, and if theatre has had a positive or
negative affect on that. I asked them if they felt safe/welcome in their theatre environment, if
they feel that theyve made friends through theatre, if they feel like they have someone to talk
to, and if theyve ever been hurt in the environment.


Results

The results were very positive, as most students

claimed that theyve improved in school because of
theatre most people even said that theatre has helped
them improve vital life/school skills such as public
speaking and team-working skills.

In addition to the positive academic feedback, I

also got a lot of positivity in regards of their mental
health. 82% of the people said that doing theatre has
affected their mental health in a positive way. In
addition to the numbers, I spoke with some of the
people who responded to the survey, and for the most
part, they all said how theatre was a good stress reliever,
and that they loved getting together after school to sing
and dance and essentially have a good time.

Discussion

Based on the feedback Ive received, I can say
that my field research supports the claim that high
school theatre positively affects students. Very few
people said that theatre has either one, hurt their academic status; or two, hurt their mental
health.

Conclusion

The research conducted by myself supports the findings of the experts. The vast
majority of people agree that there are major benefits to students who participate in high
school theatre. This is important to take away, because more and more schools are viewing the
arts as unimportant, or not a top priority, which is hurting the academic and social performance
of their students.

Works Cited

Walker, Tim. The Good and Bad News About Arts Education in U.S. Schools.

neatoday.org. 5 April 2012. Web. 5 October 2016.

2/

http://neatoday.org/2012/04/05/the-good-and-bad-news-about-arts-education-in-u-s-schools-

In the article The Good and Bad News About Arts Education in U.S. Schools, Tim Walker speaks on the
pressing issue of budget cuts in school curriculums. The lack of funding in the arts programs in schools
has been a huge problem since the beginning of time, because the arts arent viewed to be as important
as other aspects of school, such as Math, English, and Science. Nearly four million elementary school
students do not get any visual arts instruction at school. Here, Walker provides a statistic to show just
how many schools are affected by these budget problems. Another issue he touches upon later in the
article, is why we need arts programs. He makes sure to explain how the arts positively affects students
inside and outside of schools. He speaks of a study done by the National Endowment for the Arts, and
says that the report supports that, students who have access to arts in or out of school tend to have
better academic results, better workforce opportunities, and more civic engagement.

Lang, Audrey. The Pros and Cons of Going Through High School As a Theatre Kid.

theoodysseyonline.com. 21 June 2016. Web. 5 October 2016.

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/my-director-ate-my-homework

In the article The Pros and Cons of Going Through High School As a Theatre Kid, the author, Audrey
Lang, speaks about what she felt were major upsides and downsides to participating in high school
theatre. A major con that she speaks about that has an extreme effect on school and mental health is
the not getting much sleep. She writes about how you try your best to do homework during
rehearsals, but its inevitable that you end up doing it all afterwards (from personal experience that
ranges anywhere from 5:30-12).

Sherman, Howard. Who Is High School Theatre For?.

Huffingtonpost.com. 23 July 2013. Web. 7 October 2016.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-sherman/who-is-high-school-theatr_b_3640240.html

In the article, Who Is High School Theatre For?, the author, Howard Sherman, speaks about a very
controversial issue: why is high school theatre a thing? He starts off by explaining, Ive always thought
that high school theatre was for the benefit of the students putting on the show - for the education, the
team-building, the exploration of talent and so on. Subsequent to stating his opinion, he goes into
some objective reasons as to why certain schools dont condone high school theatre. He explains how
certain shows have inappropriate content, bad messages, foul language, etc. He then brought up an

example a school in Ottumwa, Iowa canceled a production of The Laramie Project because the
principle felt that the play was too adult for a high school production.

Greene, Jay P. Learning from Live Theater

Educationnext.org. 03 March 2016. Web. 13 October 2016.

http://educationnext.org/learning-live-theater/

In this article, experts did an experiment where they brought high school students to see live
theatre and then later asked them questions about important literary aspects of it, in which
watching a play instead of reading one made it easier for the students to pick out key plot
points. They showed their findings in a bar graph, and further explained that theater is a great
way to get students involved in their learning, instead of sitting at a desk reading and writing.

Leahy, Robert L. How Big a Problem is Anxiety?

Psychologytoday.com. 30 April 2008. Web. 31 October 2016.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/anxiety-files/200804/how-big-problem-is-anxiety

In this article, Robert L. Leahy Ph.D. discusses the rising anxiety levels in teens. He says that if you have
one anxiety disorder, then you probably have two or three anxiety disorders and continues to explain
how anxiety usually unravels into depression. According to the article, panic disorder and social anxiety
affect about 49% of our population. Leahy then explains the physical health problems that are caused by
anxiety, and pushes the fact that something needs to change.