ETA, Education Through Acting, refers to the process of writing a play script and rehearsing it to prepare a theatrical show or musical plays.
scripts to produce plays or musicals through dialogue and discussion, a part of acting, and it is a dual education system in which educational effects are achieved to participants and audiences through artistic empathy of watching performances.
Discussion basically improves critical thinking skills, improves data research skills, improves the composition and arrangement of logic, and enhances verbal communication skills.
Theater practice is not just a play. It leads to a deeper understanding through direct and indirect experiences at the same time, and as this process proceeds, a strong self-discipline process follows, and at the same time, it becomes the best social education or retraining method.
Through this, the ETA system expects a positive future through education.
The effectiveness of ETA is evident above all in social education or re-education.
At the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabitation Center in Cebu, Philippines, all inmates participate for several months to practice group dance to music and open it to the public. In most cases, it is a very positive thing that there is something to focus on and do for them, who spend their free days waiting for the day they return to their prison terms. However, this work is not interactive, but is unilaterally required and there is a limitation in that it must be followed. The problem is that it does not develop itself through exchanges with others, but that it must passively perform the demands. This is not much different from cramming education.
What if we produced a musical instead of a dance?
What if 10 inmates spend three hours a day discussing and writing musical scripts based on that, and composers, choreographers, and designers from the inmates practicing together, producing a stage, and presenting it as a performance? What if it lasted six months?
During that long period of six months, the participants’ discussions cannot be simple. The simple and superficial story ends with one or two meetings, and a lot of stories take place over the long period of time after that. The discussion expands beyond what you know telling all the stories that you can tell, beyond your own experience and knowledge, to imagination or creation. This discussion is bound to take place seriously, and the responsibility of creating art is also erased here, and as the practice proceeds with maximum immersion and seriousness, the participants turn around and discover themselves without realizing it. After a long period of six months, they have no choice but to be reborn as social humans. Other inmates or outsiders who watch the performance are also educated through the process of artistic empathy.
ETA is an efficient social education or retraining system that can change and positively lead both participants and audiences while creating and performing high-quality works through serious artistic work rather than easy and simple play.