How Drama Enhances Students’ Cognitive Skills and Improves Academics

Hands-on Theater Production Experience Provides Real-world Experience

STARS Academy students benefit from integrating real-life performance arts with classroom learning. This comprehensive education offers an opportunity to complement their academics with onstage and backstage experience, empowering students to become well-rounded citizens.

Let’s explore the benefits of integrating our immersive education with hands-on drama and musical theater experience.

Promotes Strong Communication

Communication skills are crucial for children's development. Practicing these skills will help them achieve lifelong success. Our drama classes naturally enhance communication abilities in various ways. Students learn how to:

• Project

• Enunciate

• Convey their message

• Strengthen their speaking voices

• Improve vocabulary

• Gain confidence

They become more comfortable with public speaking through acting exercises and improvisation games. Ensemble practices teach them to listen attentively. Children expand their verbal and nonverbal communication range by portraying characters and expressing emotions. Strong communication is a valuable life skill, and the STARS program allows students to hone these abilities.

Stimulates Creativity and Imagination

In theater, creativity is key! Our supportive environment encourages students to think imaginatively as they play new parts.

Students sharpen creative thinking skills by

• Developing original characters

• Learning and adapting to roles

• Crafting storylines

• Problem-solving onstage

This creativity stimulates their minds and equips them with innovative approaches to challenges. Our teachers encourage students' creativity, helping them fully explore their inner artists.

Encourages Self-Expression

Drama provides the perfect canvas for self-expression. Within the safe space of the theater, children can channel their voices through performing. Students gain confidence as they use drama to communicate their perspectives creatively. By expressing themselves through their minds, bodies, and emotions, they experience self-discovery. Ways students express themselves through drama:

• Monologues allow students to embody a character.

• Movement exercises help students express themselves physically.

• Performance rituals, such as warm-ups and closing circles, teach reflection and emotional processing.

• Scenes and sketches encourage students to communicate stories creatively.

• Song and dance provide artistic opportunities to share emotions.

• Improv games help reveal struggles, achievements, and thought processes.

Education through drama is an outlet for expressing complex feelings and scenarios. The cathartic, therapeutic nature of performance is invaluable.

Translates Hands-on Production Experience to Real-world Experience

Bringing skills from the stage and applying them to the classroom helps prepare students for the real world. Putting on a full theatrical performance is an immersive learning experience. Students are involved in and observe all aspects of the process, from set design to acting to directing. This hands-on experience teaches:

• Time management

• Collaboration

• Coordination

• Problem-solving

STARS Academy performances are the culmination of hard work, dedication, and teamwork, and the process motivates students to integrate what they’ve learned into practical action.

Teaches Important Life Skills

Interwoven into the drama program are many valuable life lessons that translate to the classroom setting—and beyond!

Students learn to persevere through challenging rehearsals until the entire ensemble is performance-ready. They also gain confidence by performing publicly. This helps them give speeches throughout their educational journeys and careers. Students develop techniques to learn, memorize, and rehearse lines. These skills will always be useful when learning new information. When students direct their peers or take on lead roles, it fosters leadership skills and the confidence to take on more responsibility.

Encourages Critical Thinking

Analyzing scripts, understanding character motivation, and dissecting narrative arcs require substantial critical thinking skills. Students develop sharp decision-making abilities as they translate text to performance. There are many theater-based opportunities to expand critical thinking:

• Table reads

• Quick changes

• Improvisation

• Script editing

• Memorization

Students improve their mental flexibility by learning to think on their feet and go with the flow. This is most prevalent during improvisation or when recovering from mistakes. This significantly expands their cognitive abilities and improves their academic performance.

Encourages Discipline and Commitment

Consistent participation in our immersive drama program teaches children commitment and discipline. Punctuality and hard work are required to achieve progress. Students set artistic goals and experience personal growth through dedicated effort. This discipline brings personal satisfaction and benefits the group as a whole. Students carry this discipline into other facets of life:

• Managing time to balance obligations

• Persevering through challenges

• Developing grit

• Practicing consistently

• Giving 100 percent focus and effort

Students who apply themselves to academics with discipline and commitment also discover the same principle. The more effort they invest, the more they get out. Want a Well-Rounded Education for Your Child?

At STARS Academy, classroom learning and stage performance go hand-in-hand. Our drama program provides a unique opportunity to complement academic studies through creative expression. The benefits are abundant and lifelong. From critical thinking to solid communication, STARS Academy fosters holistic development through the arts. Discover an education with the potential to transform your child’s academic success and personal growth. Apply to STARS Academy today.