Beyond the Stage: A Case Study of Program Evaluation

“What do we want to know?” That simple question guides each step of an evaluation plan, whether the focus of the evaluation is student learning, teacher effectiveness, or the audience reaction to a play. The responses to that question, properly interpreted, can guide us in our quest to build ever-stronger programs in theatre for young people. Young Audiences of New Jersey’s development of a new play provided many opportunities for evaluation, both of the play and of the evaluation process itself. This article chronicles the development of some of our evaluation tools, what we learned from them, and how they influenced the production of this new play