The Play’s the Thing: Experimentally Examining the Social and Cognitive Effects of School Field Trips to Live Theater PerformancesJay P. GreeneauthorHeidi H. EricksonauthorAngela R. WatsonauthorMolly I. Beckauthorarts educationtheater educationfield tripsrandomized controlled experimentK-12 EducationEducation outside of school (after school, summer…)Multiple outcomes of educationProgram and policy effects2019Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown UniversityField trips to see theater performances are a long-standing educational practice, however, there is little systematic evidence demonstrating educational benefits. This article describes the results of five random assignment experiments spanning two years where school groups were assigned by lottery to attend a live theater performance, or for some groups, watch a movie-version of the same story. We find significant educational benefits from seeing live theater, including higher levels of tolerance, social perspective taking, and stronger command of the plot and vocabulary of those plays. Students randomly assigned to watch a movie did not experience these benefits. Our findings also suggest that theater field trips may cultivate the desire among students to frequent the theater in the future. engtextgrey literatureedworkingpapers.com10.26300/gaq9-v892In Copyright