Staging performance: Examining the benefits of creating a high performance team

For students of the performing arts, and in particular, music theatre, the process of rehearsing and performing a complete music theatre production plays a vital role in the development of specific musical and theatrical skills. These types of major projects draw together such skills and the student is challenged to produce the ‘whole package’ of the music theatre performer: musician, dance and actor. However, another important learning objective of these major projects is the acquisition of the generic skills associated with learning to work in teams and communities of mutual interest. These more generic skills are brought to the fore during the staging of this type of major project and begin to equip the student with personal attributes that will enhance employment opportunities for them throughout their careers. Understanding the benefits of learning to work in high performance teams will provide these performers with lifelong learning strategies that will allow them to survive the inherent volatility of the professional music theatre industry. Thus educators within performing arts courses need to create environments where teamwork skills are identified and nurtured, enabling graduates to find success and personal fulfilment in their development as performers and then, in the future, as professionals in the performing arts industry. This paper considers strategies for maximising team-building skills within the context of a music theatre production, drawing upon current theories of management of high performance teams as models for this process.