Benefits

Communication: Readers’ Theatre develops both verbal and nonverbal communication skills, along with encouraging active listening.
Collaboration: Readers’ Theatre helps students develop their ability to work cooperatively while responding to a given task. It provides opportunities for students to predict, plan, organize information, and solve logistical and aesthetic problems collectively.
Experiential Learning: Readers’ Theatre provides active instructional opportunities suitable for all students with different levels of ability. It stimulates interdisciplinary learning in a variety of subject areas, such as social studies, language arts, mathematics, science, home and careers, and business.
Multiple Intelligences: Readers’ Theatre simultaneously addresses all aspects of learning: interpersonal, intrapersonal, cognitive, emotional, kinesthetic, ethical, and social.
Character Development: Readers’ Theatre develops trust, patience, perseverance, and strong interpersonal relationships.
Process to Product: Reader’s Theatre involves both the learning process and its product, as students work individually and collaboratively when making choices about how to structure their ideas in a form appropriate for performance and within the confines of this particular dramatic form.
Creativity: Readers’ Theatre encourages students to use their imagination through either planned or spontaneous dramatic action where unique and individual responses are highly valued.
Aesthetics: Readers’ Theatre is an art form where students develop an awareness of beauty and a heightened perception of the world around them.
Community: Readers’ Theatre helps bridge diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, allowing students to consider different values and responses.
Self-awareness: Readers’ Theatre helps students understand themselves and others. It allows them to explore a variety of social roles, encouraging them to identify and empathize with others.

Adapted from Theatre, a Resource Guide for Standard-Based Instruction