“Light Cue 2, go.” The stage manager calls the lights to go down.

With the next cue, the

show will begin. Actors flood into the wings as the overture begins. The deck crew readies

themselves to shift scenes like mad men. The audience waits in anticipation for this unknown

story to be told. And once it is told, an audience member finds themselves inspired in some way.

Theater changes lives. On a surface level, theatre creates connections, builds empathy,

and strengthens the mind. Learning the art of acting and immersing oneself in a performing arts

production can be highly beneficial to a child’s developing mind. Access to this wonderful art is

under threat of becoming scarcer. In recent years, Donald Trump proposed major cuts to

governmental funding for the arts, humanities, and media within the educational system and for

professional productions (National Public Radio). As his personal and frequent tweets have

indicated, it is clear that Trump is against media outlets that paint him in a negative light even

while these channels. This is not the first time that the government has threatened the end of

access to the arts and Theater. In fact, almost every country has some account of literature being

burned, Theater being highly policed, and art education only being accessible to specific people.

This restriction is usually caused by a fear of the country’s citizens being educated on facts or

informed of opinions that were averse to the governments wishes. Sometimes, it’s simply an

abuse of power. Take England in the ___’s for example. It almost seems like they chose to have

playwrights follow these guidelines just because they felt like it.

Many people think that theater isn’t ebenficial to our lives and should be defunded

because. These are reasons. Defunding of the arts causes a loss of culture and collective identity,

the loss of a vital educational tool that can appeal to our humanity and multiple intelligences, and

is a huge loss for students that could gain many soft skills and personal development with their

involvement in theatre.
 The origins of theatre can be traced to Ancient Greece. Shops were closed for all-day

theatre festivals in honor of Dionysus. Chorus members sang praise for their God among many.

theatre was used as a form of prayer, entertainment, and education. Through years of evolution

and inspiration, this art sprouted Commedia Del Arte, Opera, Epic Theater, and everything in

between. Freak shows, circus, and other forms of theater became a primary form of

entertainment in America before and after film came along. In the 1920s, a Russian man who

dedicated his life to acting brought the Moscow Art Theater to perform in New York. Constantin

Stanislavsky created a method of acting that inspired many to create more. A boom in American

theatre began when one of his students, Richard Boleslavsky began to offer workshops on

Stanislavsky’s acting methods in New York and many of its residents eagerly took these lessons

up. Theatrical legends were born.

Fast forward to the 2000’s: theatre evolves, as it should. Hamilton becomes a #1 rap

album, creating social awareness and reviving a flatlining Broadway scene. Who would’ve

thought a bunch of rap-lovers would enjoy a musical? Hamilton is a display of exactly what

theatre can create: education through the historical retelling, an empathy bridge through its

humanization and diversification of these historical figures, an ultimate collaboration and

integration of all art forms, a beacon of opportunity for social awareness, an ultimately beautiful

story with something in it for everyone, and a show that pushed the boundaries of what artists

can create. Despite many believing that theatre would die, it is very prevalent and alive in all the

art forms it created. Without theatre, no art would be the same as it is now.

I spent a lot of my time soul searching in between my busy schedule this year. Accepting

myself meant to accept that I want to do Theater for the rest of my life. Every reason that I

wanted to came back to how much Theater was my salvation. As a kid in High School, it kept
me coming back to school. I was actually excited to come to school beI looked forward to just

being around it, even if I couldn’t be I loved the collaboration and the possibilities it brought.

When senior year came along and I felt burnt out from emotional toil and familial expectations, I

lost my passion and left the Theatre class I had been in for three years. It was a miserable

experience to be away from my love, but I didn’t know it at the time. I can honestly say that I

don’t know where I’d be without the access I had to theatre. Would I become the best version of

myself without it? The fact that I question it leads me to believe that I may not have. Theatre and

art is too deep into my bones to live without it anymore.

Before I was introduced to acting, I didn’t know what it felt like to feel outside of myself.

I learned to empathize and reframe my mindset to something more positive, like my character

did. I learned to use my critical thinking skills to understand my character’s history and

environment and how to emulate that onstage. I learned that working with people and for the

people can be the most beautiful thing I could do with my life: that everybody has a unique

energy and power that can create something the world has never seen before. I learned to tell

stories, and eventually, my own story. I learned that everything connects somehow. All of this

applied to bettering my home life, my personal growth, and my focus on academia. To know that

students like me may not be able to discover what I did makes me even more infuriated than one

should be. I am not the only person who has seen the postive influence that theatre has had on

children.

A 2015 Education Next study on the impact of culturally enriching field trips, specifically

on students who attended Hamlet and A Christmas Carol produced by TheatreSquared, showed

that students were more likely to come out of the theare more culturally tolerant, able to read

emotions, and more able to comprehending and rememmber the plot of these plays (Education
Next). In an interview following the conclusion of this study, Jay Greene of Education Next

stated, “What we determined from this research is that seeing live theater produced positive

effects that reading a play or watching a movie of the play does not produce," (Science Daily).

Additionally, an arts education to supplement academic curriculum can help other lessons

become easier to understand. Dr. Mariale Hardiman, a professor at the John Hopkins School of

Eduction led the initiative to integrating arts education into other traditional academic

disciplines. “We found the biggest difference with children at the lower level of achievement,”

Dr. Hardiman said. “Could this be at least one lever for closing an achievement gap?” (Arts

Education, New York Times) Perhaps this account could be solid support for Gardner’s Theory

of Multiple Intelligence. The arts can be the gap that is needed for students to achieve higher and

refine their academic skills. With proper direction, students can benefit from involving

themselves in the production of a play.

With rising events such as shootings and police brutality plages America, educators are

recognizing the impact that a show can have on campuses. “Arts educators have seemed

increasingly drawn to material, he added, ‘that will help their students and their community

process these kinds of raw emotions,’” (Armed, New York Times). Theater can be a great way to

start necessary conversations on campuses. The Interactive Educational Theater troupe’s

executive director Maggie Skomal has the troop perform skits at various High Schools on topics

such as AIDS, drug and alcohol abuse, teen-age pregnancy, peer pressure, eating disorders,

cultural diversity, sexual harassment and date rape. Skomal concluded, “’I realized years ago that

entertaining is one of the best methods to get kids' attention, especially on uncomfortable topics

they would rather not think about,’” (Acting Troupe, New York Times). Art can erase the stigma

on otherwise taboo topics and get students to open up about their feelings.
 Theater doesn’t just benefit students. Various theatre troupes and educational programs

have popped up around America with therapeutic results for its participants. In a qualitative

examination of how theater performance