For my research project, I will study the way in which theater is used as a tool for communication and education in communities around the world to create social change. By visiting professional theaters, universities, festivals, community theaters and schools, I will analyze the content and presentation of their productions, outreach programs, and teaching methods. I will also interview audience members in the community as well as the people involved in the art-making process to explore the experiential effects of this kind of theater.

Theater is a form of communication that can affect people of all ages, backgrounds, and cultures. It has the power to make audiences question specific ideologies, the treatment of others, the pros and cons of social structures, racial issues, sexual orientation, drug abuse, poverty, and violence. It also is a method of preserving history by allowing us to understand what was prosperous in our past and what was a failure. Theater makes us cry, laugh, smile, or tremble in fear. We fall in love with some characters while other characters enrage us. All of these examples prove that theater enters into ourselves. It makes us feel. When we watch theater we are active members of the production. We, as the audience, are embarking on the same adventure as the actors onstage and experiencing the same events. We look to characters to see within ourselves and learn from them.

One of the major reasons that theater is such a powerful tool in communication is that it is used globally and provides people with creative, new ways of thinking and learning. Some people learn best aurally, others visually, and others through experience. Theater incorporates all of these techniques and is therefore a useful tool in advising and educating a large range of people. This human need to learn is what propels and sustains us throughout life and in our environment as individuals and as a community.