RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY!
Are you putting on a production this Spring and/or bringing your students to the Thespian Festival? Please help us conduct research regarding the positive effects of performing on self-perception and well-being! We are recruiting participants aged 12-17 to take an online survey before participating in a show and at the conclusion of the show or prior to attending the Thespian Festival and a follow up survey within a few days after the festival has ended. The two surveys will take approximately 20-30 minutes to complete. All participants will be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card and ten winners will be chosen at random at the conclusion of the study.
Academic research is a valuable part of the performing arts community as it can lead to a better understanding of the positive effects of performing arts, increase exposure to the arts, and the results can often be used to increase funding for continuing or new performing arts programs. Everyone involved in performing arts has witnessed and can tell stories of its amazing transformational powers but statistical evidence to support these claims is often difficult to find. People who provide funding for youth programs often want to see this hard evidence in order to rationalize contributing money.
If you are interested in having your students participate please email me at jmoore23@umd.edu as soon as possible and I will provide you with further information regarding participation, parental consent, and coordinate survey distribution.
Parents must first sign a consent form before the child can participate in the research. The student will also sign a consent form, which explains that participation is completely voluntary and they may stop taking the survey at any time if they no longer want to participate. All responses will be kept completely anonymous and no individual names, school names, or theatre names will be used in any publications regarding the results of this research.
Educational Theatre Association will share the results of the research for your studio to use in promotional materials or to support your funding applications. This research seeks to help cultivate interest in keeping these programs alive and well in a time where the arts are receiving many cuts, especially in education. We are all dedicated to the promotion and success of youth theatre programming and we need your help to establish research that speaks to the positive outcomes that students experience by participating!
Please join us in collecting participants for this important research by sharing the project with the parents of your students. Below is the link to a recruitment flier that you can email or print to share with the parents of your students that would like to participate:
https://umdsurvey.umd.edu/jfe/form/SV_1RZFTnDQuo2fbRH
Note: Students 18 and older do not need parental permission to participate in the surveys.
A note from the researcher:
I am a Doctoral Candidate of Health Communication at the University of Maryland and I am completing this research for my dissertation. I have been involved in theatre since I was in middle school and I hold a BA in theatre from Penn State. I have taught youth theatre summer camps, taught college-level acting, and directed shows at Penn State York, where I also co-advised the campus theatre group. I have watched many people learn, grow, and blossom in the theatre and I want to use my research to help cultivate interest in keeping these programs alive and well in a time where the arts are receiving many cuts, especially in education. I believe that participating in theatre is good for a person’s overall well-being and I hope to provide some hard evidence of that through my research. I also hope to be able to use this evidence to create stronger health interventions using performing arts techniques. If you share some of these values and the desire to promote the arts then I hope that you will consider participating!
Cheers!
~ Josie
If you have any questions regarding this research please contact:
Josie Ganzermiller
Doctoral Candidate
Dept. of Communication
University of Maryland
Jmoore23@umd.edu