The Importance Of Theatre In Education

TIE is a collaborative form of education, which through workshops involving games, debates and role-play, inform the participant on a specific subject matter.
Theatre in Education began in 1965 with the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. This decade was a period of change, where the worldwide movement of protest was brought about, and a revolution was born. The people who founded TIE were radical thinkers who questioned everything, and more importantly, strived for change in society. All aspects of society were affected by this revolution, including education and theatre.
Education transitioned from a classroom scenario of the teacher talking and the student listening, to an approach where the student learns from experience.
There was also a change
Relevant material is prepared in a workshop environment that experiment and explore topics with a specific age group. Theatre in Education can take a class and show them anything. They could be shown things from their history, everyday situations and how to deal with them, give them the confidence they’ve needed. It can create a huge amount of awareness, such as why we do things the way we do.
For example, in our TIE module, myself and my teammates created a short workshop on the subject matter of cyber bullying. This was aimed at secondary school teenagers. We explored activities for the participants that would be relevant and thought-provoking in relation to the specific group. It is important to cater for and relate to the target audience so that they will fully understand and respect the topic
One thing I was aware of was the fact that the Social Care students may not have had any drama experience, and because some of our workshops involved them taking on roles and acting through them, I found myself sceptical as to whether anyone would participate. We were fortunate that this group were much like us, and although not everybody wanted to volunteer themselves, there was always somebody we could rely on. In these kind of situations, I learned that once one person can get up to take on a task, the rest of the group will feel more at ease and more willing to partake. Although it is humbling for us to witness somebody unfamiliar with drama volunteer themselves and take risks, and often reach their full potential, perhaps we could have been more conscious that the group might not be as confident as us. Otherwise, these kinds of activities should be left until near the end of the workshop, so that hopefully people will already have opened themselves up through