Andrew J. Corsa is the author of the book Theater to Change the World: Shia LaBeouf and the Slauson Rec Company. It is available on Amazon here.

Book Cover of Theater to Change the World: Shia LaBeouf and the Slauson Rec Company

Empathy, Moral Education, Theatre

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A photo of a theater where actors perform.  There are gold walls and a red curtain.

I wrote a peer-reviewed paper that was published in the Journal of Moral Education. The paper is titled “Empathy and Moral Education, Theatre of the Oppressed, and The Laramie Project.”

The journal’s webpage for my work is available here.

Here is my paper’s abstract:

“Notable theorists have argued that theatre and drama play positive roles in the moral education of children and adults, including cultivating their capacity for empathy. Yet other theorists have expressed concerns that plays and educational practices involving improvisation might not lead to positive changes in real life, and might even have negative influences on actors and audiences. This paper focuses in particular on the dramatic methods employed by Theatre of the Oppressed, devised by Augusto Boal, and on the methods involved in the development of the play The Laramie Project, developed by Moisés Kaufman and the Tectonic Theatre Project. It argues that Theatre of the Oppressed and The Laramie Project cultivate actors’ and audiences’ empathetic capacities, while overcoming many theorists’ worries about the impact of drama.”