Have you ever been in a theater? How many times? Do you like theater or musicals?

Well, if most of your answers are “yes”, you need to continue reading this post.

As most of you, I started going to theaters when I was in the school. The school always promoted some outings to the theater with the rest of the classes of our course. In my case, I loved going there because it was out of the routine and we could have fun there. But…did you remember something that you have learnt in one of them? How can we use theaters to learn contents?

Theater is one of the most meaningful artistic manifestations that combines literature works with performances. Even though not all of them mix these two elements, for instance mimic theater, both are very important in most of them.

In Egypt and Mesopotamia, there were also some performances of gods in which people used mimic and gestures to express abstract emotions, such as happiness, sadness or hope. This religious current changed throughout history and some new branches appeared, such as comedies, tragedies or satires.  Then, the theater was spread all over the world and nowadays there are some types of them in which adults and children can enjoy at the same time.

Now… close your eyes and imagine one theater. Probably you are imaging a place with a stage and some stands for the audience.

In the last seminar, we saw something related with theaters (you will enjoy it) and that class inspired me something. I would like to change your mind and show you a new branch of this amazing art: MICRO THEATER.

Micro theaters were originated in Spain and they consist on performing short plays in small places with a reduced audience that lasts a short period of time. It is very interesting because the atmosphere that is produced contributes to increment the understanding of the play and the motivation and passion for this art.

Now, you should watch  this video that explains to you better and visually what Micro Theaters are and how they are developed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXcsaycGLLY

What do you think? Do you like them? Are they new for you? Could they be useful for students? Can they develop their creativity? Can they use multiple intelligences? Will they promote HOTS? Will they develop their language skills? How can we implement them in classrooms?

These are the questions that came to my mind when I thought about this possibility.

Mostly, the answers are “of course, why not?”. The idea could be very efficient in classrooms. What we can do is to teach/learn contents through this type of theater. We can choose a topic, for example: the water cycle. The water cycle consists on different steps so we can divide the students into different groups. Each group will have to create a document with a dialogue of each step. Then, they will rehearse and finally, they will create a good performance by linking each step. Of course, they will need some scaffolding but this is something implicit in the creation of the activities.

To end with, I would like to say that, for me, this type of theaters give us the opportunity to work on many different skills and competences, at the same time the students are learning contents. If we want to be innovative in order to improve the students’ level of learning, we can take everything around us, and of course, adapt it to make it efficient.