What Do You Learn in Drama Class

 

Drama class may be considered an elective, but this course offers a wealth of opportunities for skill development. You don't need to have your eye on a career as an actor, stagehand, or theater director to benefit from a drama class. Engaging in this learning experience will help you hone skills that can make you a stronger leader, a more effective professional, and even a better friend. Through creative, engaging activities, drama class helps you learn many diverse skills.

Communication

When you're acting on stage, you must communicate effectively with your audience even though you're not engaged in a one-on-one conversation with them. This requires careful control of:

• Voice and tone.
• Facial expressions.
• Body language.
• Speech enunciation and pace.

 

Active listening skills are important in drama class as well. Productions come together quickly and you must absorb directions and advice effectively so you can deliver the best performance possible. You must listen carefully to what the other performers are saying so you can hit your cue or respond quickly to improv.

Public Speaking

Drama class requires a great deal of public speaking. You may begin by speaking in front of your peers and complete your course with a live stage performance in front of dozens or even

hundreds of audience members. The fear of public speaking, or glossophobia, affects as much as 75% of the population. Overcoming this fear can put you in the skilled minority who have mastered this communication skill.

Public speaking isn't only critical in drama class. This skill will help you in business presentations, debates, leadership roles, and everyday conversations.

Confidence

Theater and drama class helps you develop a great deal of self-confidence. You must learn to trust in yourself to deliver your lines, respond effectively, and handle unexpected situations promptly and effectively. The more you do so, the greater your confidence will grow. By challenging yourself through drama activities, you'll begin to realize that you're capable of more than you might have originally thought.

Healthy self-confidence will serve you well in every part of your life, helping you to navigate life's challenges more smoothly. When you know that you can have trust in your own personal skill set, you'll feel less anxiety and fear in situations of all kinds.

Creative Thinking and Problem Solving

Drama class helps you think creatively. While creativity is often seen as an attribute that you're simply born with, the truth is that you can acquire creativity through enhanced thinking strategies. Drama class presents numerous opportunities to enhance creative thinking skills through activities like scenery building, prop creation, costume design, and improvisation.

You'll find ample opportunities to use creative problem solving, whether you're working out stage positions, experimenting with verbal delivery, finding ways to communicate with body language, or responding to forgotten lines or other unexpected situations in a live performance.

Commitment

Working on a theater production requires commitment and dedication. Putting together a show can take weeks, and it's important for everyone involved to follow the production through from beginning to end. Even short practices in drama class require the performers to stay on task throughout the scene. You're working closely with others who rely on you to do your part and stay on task. As the saying goes, "The show must go on."

Cooperation and Collaboration

Drama class is very much a group effort. You're not putting on the production alone. Rather, you must work closely with everyone from costume designers and set designers to directors, understudies, and other performers. As you're rehearsing, collaboration and cooperation are crucial to properly developing the scene and exploring the breadth of each character. On stage, you must work together in carefully choreographed tandem to make the entire show come together.

Adaptability

Even the most well-rehearsed performance or activity can experience unexpected difficulties. In drama class, you'll learn how to adapt quickly and smoothly to these situations. In any

performance, you want the audience to stay immersed in the scene and overlook any errors. Outstanding adaptability will help you stay on task, smooth over rough spots, and keep the production moving forward.

Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others. Having empathy helps you relate to and communicate effectively with others. Empathy can also help you regulate your own emotions by giving you a greater understanding of what others are going through and what they need from you.

In drama class, you may begin to develop your empathy by exploring the characters you're playing. Imagining what they're thinking or feeling will help you better represent them on stage. Watching others perform helps develop your empathy as well, as you make connections with the characters you're watching and the stories they play out.

Advanced Memory Skills

At the most basic level, drama class will help you practice your memory skills as you learn your lines and those of the other actors who provide your cues. Each student may take their own unique approach to memorization, ranging from writing out the lines to using mnemonic devices.

Drama class may also teach sensory memory, which is the practice of recalling a particular place, smell, sound, or event in order to evoke the associated emotions. This technique can help you summon the feelings that are necessary for a particular scene quickly and effectively.

Turning to remembered stimuli, such as a certain song, the sound of rain, or the smell of lavender, can transport you to another time and place when you experienced the required emotions authentically. Sensory memory helps you bring those feelings to the stage in a compelling way.

Drama class is a worthwhile pursuit for nearly anyone. Whether you want to become a more powerful speaker in corporate presentations, improve your body language, increase your empathy, or grow your creative facilities, a drama class can help you reach your goals. Best of all, you'll get to collaborate with a diverse group of other individuals as you grow together throughout the class. Consider signing up for this type of course now.