Making Meaning

This book examines the impact of high school theatre on developing adolescents making the transition into adulthood. The participants in this study were graduates of a private urban high school in the mid-west, aged from 18 to 34. This is a qualitative study using in-depth interviews as the primary research tool and the methodology of portraiture to frame the interviews. The primary research question is: How do high school graduates describe their experience in high school theatre? The theoretical basis for this study is constructivist, and includes Dewey's concept of art as "experience," Bruner's emphasis on "meaning-making" and Erikson's work in the human life cycle. The emerging data illustrates how graduates construct meaning in numerous social, psychological, artistic, and spiritual ways.