Some people like theater, and someone thinks of it as an obsolete and unpopular art. However, performing art can pass through an immense number of rebirths with the help of scientific theories and modern technologies. In the theater class of my dream, learning would be accompanied by cognitive science and computing technologies.
Acting is the tool that can reveal the full potential of an actor. Nevertheless, it would be interesting to combine the theory of mind and improvisational theater. The exercise in the lesson may encompass the following: the students play a little scene based on the given keywords, but the first actor coming onto the stage has to demonstrate some emotion silently. The task of the second performer is to recognize the state of the stage partner to predict his or her further actions and develop the story (Jola & Hansen, 2021). Such a way of acting can help actors to better understand each other on the stage and thus involve spectators emotionally.
AR and VR technologies can be useful not only in games but also in learning directing. It would be interesting to produce a play with Adam Driver, Viola Davis, Daniel Radcliffe, and Juliet Stevenson in augmented or virtual reality. According to the theory of scientific reductionism, this can facilitate the realization of constituent parts of creating a play (Jola & Hansen, 2021). Thus, the students will be able to solve the directing problems more comprehensively.
Theater can be a highly exciting kind of art, especially when something new or seemingly irrelevant is added. In this case, performing may acquire completely new properties and result in higher involvement of the audience. Therefore, the theater is not a classic kind of art but a limitless space for experiments.
Reference
Jola, C., & Hansen, P. (2021). Editorial: Performance in theatre and everyday life: Cognitive, neuronal, and applied aspects of acting. Frontiers in Psychology, 1–3.