About JTC
Jefferson Theatre Company (JTC) is a theater organization for Bloomington Jefferson High School in Bloomington, MN.
Theater plays an important role in helping our students gain confidence, express creativity, learn teamwork, and build community. JTC performs four to five shows per year, including musicals, holiday shows, children’s shows, and classic theatre plays.
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Each show reaches audiences of up to 2,000 family members, students, friends, BPS staff, and other members of the community.
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JTC has been producing amazing high school theatre performances for over 45 years!
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250+ student performers, musicians, stage/technical crew, and parent volunteers participate annually.
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Every production features a special performance for older citizens (Senior Preview)
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More than 3,000 elementary school students attend our annual children’s performances.
The Importance of Theater in Public Schools
When a student participates in theater, they benefit significantly. It helps creativity to flourish, academics improve and helps develop a healthy means of self-expression.
Theater can be influential in all aspects of life
Participating in theatre can stimulate a student’s creativity and thought process. Developing a creative mind can lead to a more tolerant attitude because “The creative process of theater leads students to be more open-minded and acceptable because of the diverse roles they portray.”¹
Theater can teach valuable skills that can be used in the professional world
Staging and performing in a show can promote teamwork through the actors and the crew. Learning lines for a play may seem tedious and can be tough but even the smallest of lines encourages the student to use public speaking. Speaking in front of audiences develops confidence and improved communication skills. The more confident a child becomes, the more their self-esteem will grow. Children and youth with high self-esteem have a tendency to perform better scholastically and have a better outlook on life. The students will then feel more inclined to contribute positively to society.
Theater can be beneficial in other areas of life, such as academics
Creative thought process can be developed through theatre and used in Math and Science for problem solving and experimentation. A developed mind can potentially use abstract thinking to “think out of the box” and offer many ideas and solutions and ways of testing them.
Children are our future; it is imperative that we develop well-rounded individuals that can contribute to society, and theater helps attain this goal.
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¹Adapted from: Rabinovitz, Rachel. “How Theatre Programs Help Children” Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, USA