The combination of theater and community-based service-learning can be a powerful tool to allow university students to meet their educational goals while connecting them with the world. The performance of children's theater in elementary schools with English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs, for example, has important pedagogical…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of internal and external focus of attention on novices' rehearsal evaluations. Thirty-two undergraduate instrumental music education students led bands in a series of three 6-minute rehearsals on their assigned excerpt. Prior to these rehearsals, participants were led in score study and…

Music improves spatial reasoning, which is vital to strengthening the mental circuits used for mathematics. Dance develops critical thinking skills along with persistence and perseverance. Drama becomes a partner in the development of abstract thought and speaking skills. And the larger process of creating musical theater encourages cooperation,…

This article presents a conversation with Agnes Wilcox, Executive Director of Prison Performing Arts in St. Louis, Missouri, about Prison Performing Arts. Although the average person might balk at the notion of interacting with prison inmates, finding it intimidating, worrisome, or self-sacrificial, for Wilcox, Prison Performing Arts is a…

This K-12 framework focuses on educating students regarding the importance of fine arts in a global society and encourages the integration of all subject matter throughout the curriculum. The fine arts framework addresses what students in Missouri are expected to know and be able to do in the fine arts areas when they leave school. The main…