From Backpacks to Broadway

Musical theater is a dynamic collaborative art form which encompasses music theater dance and the visual arts. Traditionally associated with adult performers musicals also have roles designated specifically for children. How then does involvement in musical theater support children’s learning through the performing arts? What do children value from their musical theater experiences and how do these experiences influence children’s personal social and artistic lives? <BR /><BR />Based on a decade of research this book explores these questions through children’s participation as singers actors and dancers in school-based community and professional musical theater. By valuing children’s voices as important in understanding experience Rajan constructs a framework of musical theater participation and applies broader educational implications to highlight the unique characteristics of musical theater in children’s lives.