CREATIVE DRAMATICS AS AN EFFECTIVE MEDIUM FOR CHILD DEVELOPMENT: NAU CHILDREN'S THEATRE PRODUCTION AS PARADIGM
Creative dramatics is an educative medium which places emphasis on participants experiencing personal growth through an exploration of their understanding of issues through dramatic experience. However, the erroneous perception of creative dramatics basically as a course for training theatre practitioners constitutes the major problem of this work. Therefore, the researcher's aim is to emphasize the idea that creative dramatics is not mainly concerned with teaching theatre skills, though this may occur while imparting knowledge through theatrical techniques, it remains an effective medium through which children gain the ability to express themselves, build confidence, explore their imaginations and develop basic skills that will make them productive members of a society. Using a children's theatre production as paradigm, the work has strived to ascertain if involving young children in creative drama can stimulate creativity and contribute to the intellectual, social, moral and psychological development system of children in Nigeria. The study adopts the case study and content analysis of the qualitative research methodology for the realization of the set objectives of the study. The experiment was carried out at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Primary School Awka. The findings show that the children considered creative drama useful in developing certain creative abilities and qualities such as imagination, independent thinking and risk taking. Therefore, the study concludes that policies which enhance teaching–learning activities and promote expression, creativity, discipline, listening and communication skills as creative dramatics does as well as safe and supportive environment should be encouraged at all levels of education.
Keywords: child, childrens, creative, development, dramatics, effective, medium, nau, paradigm, production, theatre