Thinking on Stage: Exploring Possibilities for the Creative Process in Theater Education

Abstract

Theater is considered one of the creative arts, and participation has long been tied to such disparate outcomes as creative thinking, empathy, and emotional understanding. Yet research on what actually happens in a theater classroom from a psychological perspective has been lacking. In particular, how thinking strategies beyond improvisation, used in acting classes, may be tied to steps in the creative process has not been well specified theoretically or empirically. Here, I take under consideration established steps of the creative process, and how each could theoretically be linked to the acting habits of mind, eight dispositional-level mindsets foundational to acting classes. Theater classrooms are grounded in being embodied and contained spaces, critical to their success as creative laboratories for performance and student growth. However, questions remain about which students benefit from which types of theater activities, how to bring elements of theater's creativity into other domains and classrooms, and how to best help the transference of skills learned in the theater space to outside the theater space. This theoretical work sets up a path ahead for empirical investigations of how elements of acting classes, used iteratively and in concert with one another, can lead to promoting the creative process and creative thought.