Dustin Bittel

Terri Summery
UL100A
24 August 2015
Educational Theatre Company
An organization I am passionate about is the Educational Theatre Company. The
Educational Theatre Company or ETC is an organization that focuses on unlocking the potential
of children and adults through an immersion in theatre. Along with trying to unlock the potential
of children, ETC hopes to spark an interest in the arts by preforming for the children and by
giving them some hands on learning experiences. I am passionate about this organization
because I think it is important for children and adults to learn more about and take an interests in
the arts because they can provide a great release form the struggles of the real world and help
people understand or cope with the harsh realities of the world. Theatre can also be used as an
educational tool and can proved children with several skills they will need later in life.
The Multicultural Educational Theatre Arts, along with the Educational Theatre Company
based in the D.C. area, are two organizations who use theatre as an educational tool to help
children academically and internally. According to the META, some of the benefits that theatre
provides to children are that they gain, confidence, have a higher self-esteem and learn selfdiscipline. The children also learn teamwork, responsibility, collaboration and leadership along
with empathy and compassion. Academically the children learn skills that help with analyzing,
problem solving, reasoning, abstract and creative thinking and conceptualization. All of these
skills the children have learned from being a part of a class or program offered by either META
or ETC. Of course thats not all theatre has done for children.

A study published in Champions of Change states that theatre arts, including

performances, classes, and participation in drama club, are a source for gains in reading
proficiency, gains in self-concept and motivation, and higher levels of empathy and tolerance
towards others among youth of low social/economic status. What this means is that, through
theatre, lower class kids are able to better themselves or feel better about themselves thanks to
what theyve done or learned through theatre. This shows that theatre is a useful tool to help
youths in need feel better about themselves and allows them to achieve something they might not
have been able to achieve before.
As a member of the Educational Theatre Company at Emporia State University, I am
passionate about using theatre as a tool to both educate and entertain children throughout the
Emporia area by traveling with the company to schools and preforming for the children there.
Although ESUs ETC namely goes to schools to perform for them, I see it as a small step to
helping the children learn about the world and spark an interest in the arts.
Sources
AATE. "The Effects of Theatre Education." American Alliance for Theatre and Education.
American Alliance for Theatre and Education, 01 Aug. 2008. Web. 20 Aug. 2015.
"Benefits of Theatre Arts." META. Ed. Karen Pauley. Multicultural Education Theatre Arts, 19
July 2006. Web. 20 Aug. 2015.