Teaching History with Theater

For several years, I have used theater and music as a way to help students understand and remember key academic concepts.  Although it is fun and rewarding to perform in front of the parents, we chose to perform our musical in front of all the other 5th grade students in the school district in order to teach them the lessons we had learned. Crescent City is an urban community with high levels of low income students.  Most of our students do not have the means to travel and visit the historic sites mentioned in our play, so we try to bring the places to the students via the stage. In the study of United States History, the use of textbooks provides a minimal level of instruction.  The study and reading of historical fiction novels is a higher level of instruction.  I have found that theater and music allows for an even greater level of understanding and remembering.  Our musical brought that style of learning to over 240 students.  Our play covered Language Arts, Performing Arts and History.