• approval - A theme that emerged from the students was their need for approval. Some brought up the idea that many theatre students may have had poor relationships with their father. Also, a large proportion of the students were the youngest child or the only child in their family. This was very interesting but I was not able to follow up with a real survey of the students. They expressed that they felt a loss if they did not get to perform during a semester. Even if they did crew work they wanted to be onstage. The feeling at the end of a performance was something they craved and felt lost without.
• activity - Most students said that they really like being busy. When they don't have a project in the works they will often find other local theatre opportunities in which to participate. Some have started their own performance groups which they book for parties or events.
• experience - The program provides lots of opportunities for the students to practice their craft and to work with experienced actors. Gaining credit towards Actor's Equity membership is a big attraction for many of the students. This opportunity provides an advantage for St. Edward's graduates and working with guest Equity artists helps them grow as actors.
• release - In exploring their connection to the experiences of a character the students learn about themselves. Expressing the emotions and behaviors of a role help them to identify those qualities in themselves.
• understanding - Gaining understanding of human experience through learning about the stories of the plays. When we are exposed to the lives of others we have the opportunity to expand our own life stories.

Sharing themselves is a form of gratification for the students. They really enjoy giving of their talents for the entertainment and education of the audience. There is a real need in them to express themselves through performing. One student who has returned to the theatre program after having left a few years ago in his senior year expressed that he felt he had to come back. He had chosen to leave when he became discouraged about ever making a living as an actor and took a job working for the state. He felt stifled and needed the release of expressing himself.

SS: In way I can see how some of the, even like warm up exercises that ya'll do, the vocalizing, and the moving around, and stuff just think about it, you can look at like Japan they kind of do some of that stuff, they get out in the streets big groups of them and do Tai Chi, and they do movement and stuff. And can't you see this a bunch of people in cubicles if they really did that and got in touch with that and every once in while, if you work in an office you just get to that point where you need to let that "thing" loose. And if people would do that you know how much more relaxed they be and less stressed they'd be.
A: Letting that "thing" loose is what propelled me back into school. Cause I never finished my theatre degree cause I, uh, my senior year I just had this crisis of, "Oh, I'll never make money, I don't want to do it." And I totally dropped out of school cause I couldn't do what I loved. There were too many barriers. And then I worked for the state, in one of those cubicles, for many years and it drove me crazy. And that yearning for that intimacy, that, uh, the emotion, the volatility even,
D: …release, yeah
A: I mean I needed it, I had to come, I had to get out of that blandness. And I think that's another thing that draws theatre people to each other is that we're really not all about bland at all,
D: (laughs)
A: You know what I mean?
SS: cool
B: And it's kind of like for, hard times and pronounced troubles we get, a wonderful gift from God in that He allows to be aware. In a society that is not aware, and that's the bottom line, you know.

• why we need theatre - Dr. Melba Martinez pointed out that theatre fulfills several important functions for civilization, it celebrates, educates, ceremonializes and entertains.
• shared experiences - Many of the productions are incredibly deep and thought-provoking, showing us the human experience in ways that we might not understand otherwise. Just as the students grow from experiencing their characters so does the audience stretch their boundaries and values.
• expression of ideas/emotions not usually experienced in daily life. Letting us look at unfamiliar lifestyles and experiences helps us to expand our awareness of the cultures of others.