Along with Collin Hitt, Anne Kraybill, and Cari Bogulski, I have a new study coming out Wednesday in Education Next on what students learn from seeing live theater. We randomly assigned school groups to receive free tickets to see performances of Hamlet or A Christmas Carol at TheatreSquared, an award-winning professional theater. We then collected measures on a variety of outcomes from students several weeks later in their classrooms.
We also compare what students learn from seeing live theater to what they learn from being assigned to read or watch movies of those same works. Do students learn the same things from reading or watching a movie of Hamlet that they get out of seeing it performed live?
This is the first randomized experiment of what students learn from seeing live theater, so check it out when it is released on Wednesday.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
Wow, that is one badass production of A Christmas Carol. I’ve never seen it done with swords before!