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Alex Gardner
4/29/2017
Theatre History
Dr. Cynthia Allen
Shakespeare in High Schools
Shakespeare’s plays and other forms of plays are practically what made me want to
achieve my goal, which is to be a theatre teacher so that many people can see the great work of
many people who came before us and to further spread the knowledge of theatre. I grew up
watching theatre plays and I can say that experiencing that has had a big influence towards where
I wish to end up in the future. Students need a way to escape reality and entire new world
entirely so what better way than theatre where you are literally becoming a different person.
Students that are involved with theatre gain new abilities that they thought they never had
inside of themselves. From personal experience, I can say that I can recall information even
better now because some forms of theatre plays require to have the script memorized and with
thanks to this I can remember information clearly than I did before theatre. According to Cathlyn
Melvin, writer of “Top 5 Reasons Kids Should Do Theatre”, she writes her number one reason
kids should do theatre, which is “1. They’ll walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. When a child
reads a character, they’re forced to think, why would he have made that choice? What’s he
trying to get from the person he’s talking to? How could he have done it differently? Empathy
is one of the top personality skills necessary for strong corporate leadership later on, and theatre
training is even used to ready doctors’ bedside manner.” Theatre is not only good with helping
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the transition of manners but can be a great source of history, which can help a student with a
history lesson.
Most plays offer a moral lesson to be perceived and learned from the audience and
having high school students learning these lessons could help them adjust into the real world.
Not only that, Shakespeare plays are where we first started understanding the modern English
language. According to Jennifer Kitchen, author of “Shakespeare plays key role in teaching
children to take creative leaps”, she writes, “As leading lights in Shakespeare scholarship gather
to discuss the finer nuances of his work it’s clear that, 450 years after his birth, Shakespeare’s
plays and poetry play a unique role in English education.” In high school, depending on the
teacher, students can get interested in Shakespeare plays based on how the teacher presents
explains it and presents it.
Understanding that Shakespeare has some weird humor and has references to sex,
students are just going to learn it in the modern world. Now the school board could have the
power to sensor it and control it but they shouldn’t have to take it away entirely. Theatre is
important in our modern society because it gives us the keys to the past and help us shape the
future in many ways.
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Bibliography
Melvin, Cathlyn “Top 5 Reasons Kids Should Do Theatre” 28 June, 2013
[Link]
Kitchen, Jennifer “Shakespeare plays key role in teaching children to take creative leaps”
7 August, 2014 [Link]
take-creative-leaps-30130
