The life of a traditional aged college student is filled with many fast-moving decisions and new life experiences. When conflict arises in a student's life, it can upend a student's progression if they are not properly trained to deal with conflict. Current conflict management teaching curricula being given to students are insufficient due to…

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns were phenomena experienced by the majority of the modern world, but not everyone experienced it in the same way. Each person brings their own past, their own interests, and their own needs to the lived experience. Pre-pandemic research on art therapy suggests that creative expression could be helpful…

As virtual platforms for secondary education have grown, the performing arts have faced various difficulties in moving to these platforms effectively. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the experiences of five secondary theatre educators transitioning to virtual teaching. This exploration included theatre educators'…

The purpose of this project dissertation was to research, create and assess a hypothetical two-year musical theatre/music theater (MT) curriculum to serve as a model for future implementation at community colleges. As one of the fastest growing and most prolific forms of popular entertainment today, the 21st Century musical is uniquely poised to…

The past few years have proven a need in higher education for tools that help educators and students maintain a flexible and highly adaptive approach to their coursework. Research into applied improvisation has shown that the improvisational mindset is beneficial to educational settings in this way, in part because of the way it encourages…

This mixed methods study aims to investigate the effect of readers theater, a drama-based activity whether it could help enhance preservice English teachers' English pronunciation as well as reduce their anxiety when pronouncing English. The participants (N = 49) were sophomores majoring in the English of Education program, who enrolled in a…

Notable trends in the overrepresentation of African American males in special education programs are highly discussed in previous research. Significantly devastating are the lack of social skills developments necessary for special education high school graduates' ability to function as adults. Hypothetically the researcher anticipated that…

A growing number of faculty in higher education are using technology applications in their teaching practices. However, a gap in the literature exists related to instructional technology integration in liberal arts courses. This gap also exists in theater education, where I have spent the last 20 years of my professional life. This self-study…

The purpose of this study was to explore how P-12 school drama teachers infused culturally relevant (CR) social emotional learning (SEL) into their drama instruction. In addition, this study explored the experiences of students of color with disabilities who were involved in P-12 classes that employed CR SEL drama activities. The epistemic…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore, understand, and document former students' perceptions of the vocationally focused theater training they received at a 2-year community college and to discover how that training helped them meet their goals and expectations for careers in the theater. Listening to individual stories of theater…

Until the late twentieth century, courses in voice and diction were a staple of the field of communication studies. Increasingly these classes are disappearing from departments around the country, largely over concerns regarding the prescription of strict speech standards. At the same time, an interest in vocal training has increased in BFA and…