IB Diploma Programme Theatre Higher Level
The IB Diploma Programme Theatre — Higher Level (first assessment 2024) course is a two-year, portfolio-based arts course in which students engage as creators, designers, directors, performers, and spectators across three interconnected syllabus areas: Theatre in Context, Theatre Processes, and Presenting Theatre. HL students complete four assessed tasks — an internally assessed Production Proposal, and three externally assessed components (Research Presentation, Collaborative Project, and the HL-only Solo Theatre Piece) — with no written examination; all work is produced over the course and submitted as video, written reports, and annotated portfolios. This taxonomy maps the full HL curriculum to granular learning goals aligned to those assessment tasks and the multi-perspective theatre-making inquiry at the heart of the subject guide.
180
Minutes
40
Questions
4/7
Passing Score
$123
Exam Cost
Who Should Take This
Aspiring theatre practitioners, directors, designers, and performers enrolled in the IB Diploma Programme who seek rigorous academic and practical training in both practical theatre-making and critical contextual understanding at Higher Level depth. Ideal for students targeting arts conservatory entry, university drama programmes, or a professional foundation in devised and text-based theatre.
What's Covered
1Theatre in Context
2Theatre Processes
3Presenting Theatre
4Assessment Task 1: Production Proposal (IA)
5Assessment Task 2: Research Presentation (EA)
6Assessment Task 3: Collaborative Project (EA)
7Assessment Task 4: Solo Theatre Piece (HL Only, EA)
What's Included in AccelaStudy® AI
Adaptive Knowledge Graph
Practice Questions
Lesson Modules
Console Simulator Labs
Exam Tips & Strategy
13 Activity Formats
Course Outline
1Theatre in Context 3 topics
Theatre Theory and Theorist Inquiry
- Identify and explain the foundational ideas of at least one canonical theatre theorist (Brecht, Artaud, Grotowski, Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Boal, Barba, Brook, or Suzuki) and their historical context of development
- Compare the methodological distinctions between at least two theatre theorists, articulating how each theorist's system addresses performer training, audience relationship, or spatial use differently
- Apply a selected aspect of theatre theory to a practical exercise, demonstrating observable evidence of the theory's principles in physical or vocal performance choices rather than purely conceptual description
- Evaluate how effectively a theatre theorist's principles can be made visible in a live solo performance context, identifying which aspects resist visual demonstration and explaining why
World Theatre Traditions
- Define the term 'world theatre tradition' as used in the IB subject guide and distinguish it from contemporary or hybrid performance forms by referencing fixed conventions and historical continuity
- Describe the specific performance conventions (costume, movement, vocal delivery, mask, music, narrative structure) of an unfamiliar world theatre tradition selected from the IB prescribed list
- Analyse how the social, religious, and cultural functions of a chosen world theatre tradition (e.g., Noh's Zen Buddhist roots, Kathakali's sacred narratives, Commedia's mercantile satire) shape its performance conventions
Personal, Cultural, and Historical Context
- Explain how personal cultural background, lived experience, or community identity shapes a theatre-maker's perspective as creator, designer, director, or performer in a given project
- Locate a selected play text or theatre tradition within its historical and socio-political moment, explaining how external conditions shaped the work's form, content, or reception
2Theatre Processes 4 topics
Devising and Collaborative Creation
- Select and interrogate a non-theatrical starting point (object, image, text fragment, event, or theme) to generate initial ensemble ideas and establish shared theatre-maker intentions for a devised piece
- Facilitate a structured ensemble devising process including practical exploration sessions, iterative feedback loops, and decision-making protocols that honour each collaborator's contribution as creator, designer, or director
- Apply basic dramaturgical principles (narrative arc, tension construction, rhythm of scenes, juxtaposition) to shape a devised piece from raw material into a structured theatrical experience with identifiable TEAM moments
Transforming Play Texts into Action
- Identify and articulate the key ideas, themes, and dramatic tensions within a chosen published play text, distinguishing what is explicit in the stage directions from what is left open to interpretation
- Translate a play text's themes and theatrical demands into concrete staging decisions including configuration of space, blocking logic, and use of production elements to fulfil stated theatre-maker intentions
- Formulate a director's conceptual approach for a play text, articulating a unifying vision that connects design, performance style, and spatial choices to a coherent set of theatre-maker intentions
Performance Craft: Body, Voice, and Space
- Demonstrate control of physical performance skills — gesture, posture, proxemics, stillness, and movement quality — to communicate character, emotion, or theatrical meaning within a specific performance style or convention
- Apply vocal performance skills — pitch, pace, pause, tone, resonance, and clarity of articulation — to serve theatre-maker intentions in both text-based and devised performance contexts
- Exploit spatial awareness and stage configuration (thrust, in-the-round, promenade, proscenium) to create defined moments of tension, emotion, atmosphere, or meaning visible to a live audience
Production Design Processes
- Identify and describe the function of each production design element — set, lighting, costume, props, sound, and colour — in relation to realising a director's or designer's stated intentions for a specific play text or devised piece
- Integrate multiple production design elements cohesively so that each design choice reinforces the overall theatre-maker intentions rather than functioning in isolation from other elements
- Justify individual design decisions using textual evidence from the play and clear reasoning about how each choice serves the production's intended impact on the audience
3Presenting Theatre 3 topics
Staging and Spatial Decisions
- Analyse how different stage configurations (proscenium, thrust, traverse, in-the-round, site-specific) alter the audience-performer relationship and constrain or enable specific staging choices
- Design a staging concept that uses the physical space — set geometry, levels, entrances, exits, sight lines, and playing areas — to create a specific audience experience aligned with the production's thematic intentions
Audience Relationship and Spectatorship
- Explain how specific staging, design, and performance choices position the audience as witnesses, participants, or co-creators, and how these positions align with or challenge the theatre-maker's intentions
- Evaluate a theatrical event from the perspective of a critically informed spectator, distinguishing the semiotics of performance elements (space, body, sound, light) from the dramatic text and the audience's interpretive response
Critical Reflection and Evaluation of Presented Work
- Reflect critically on a completed performance process — own and ensemble — identifying decisions that successfully served theatre-maker intentions and those that fell short, with specific evidence from the work
- Articulate the broader implications of practical theatre-making experiences on personal artistic development, explaining how working in specific roles (creator, designer, director, performer) has changed understanding of theatre
4Assessment Task 1: Production Proposal (IA) 3 topics
Play Text Selection and Exploration
- Select a published, ISBN-bearing play text not previously studied and justify the selection based on theatrical interest, interpretive potential, and suitability for staging in a specific venue context
- Identify and articulate the key ideas, themes, and structural dramatic tensions of the selected play text that will drive all subsequent staging and design decisions in the Production Proposal
Theatre-Maker Intentions and Vision
- Formulate a clear vision for how a live audience will experience the production, specifying the intended emotional, intellectual, or aesthetic impact and connecting this to theatre-maker intentions stated throughout the proposal
- Propose specific staging decisions — performance space, audience configuration, directorial concept — and justify each choice as a coherent expression of the play's key ideas and the theatre-maker's overarching intentions
Design Vision and Production Elements
- Articulate a set design concept using both written description and supporting images or sketches, explaining how scenographic choices (space, levels, materials, colour) serve the production's theme and directorial intention
- Propose lighting and costume design concepts with visual references, explaining how each element contributes to realising theatre-maker intentions, creating atmosphere, and signalling character or thematic meaning to the audience
- Produce a Production Proposal document of up to 4,000 words and 12 pages in the required first-person format, correctly integrating text and images and maintaining a consistent focus on theatre-maker intentions throughout
5Assessment Task 2: Research Presentation (EA) 3 topics
World Theatre Tradition Research
- Select an unfamiliar world theatre tradition from the IB's prescribed list and explain why the chosen tradition has not been previously studied, citing at least seven credible primary and secondary sources including video documentation
- Contextualise the chosen world theatre tradition within its historical, cultural, and religious origins, explaining how these contextual factors determine the specific performance conventions that practitioners must follow
- Identify one specific, visually observable performance convention within the chosen tradition and explain its structural rules, stylistic demands, and function within the broader tradition's theatrical vocabulary
Practical Exploration of Performance Convention
- Physically explore and embody the chosen performance convention through structured practical exercises, demonstrating an attempt to replicate the technical demands of the convention in the body rather than only describing it theoretically
- Document the practical exploration process through video evidence embedded in the presentation, showing progressive attempts at the convention and narrating the challenges encountered and adjustments made
Traditional Performance Material Application
- Select appropriate Traditional Performance Material (TPM) from within the chosen tradition and explain why this specific material is suitable for demonstrating the identified performance convention
- Apply the chosen performance convention to the selected TPM in a live or video-recorded demonstration, showing how the convention shapes the performer's use of body, voice, space, costume, or accompaniment within that material
- Reflect on the learning journey of researching and practically exploring the tradition, evaluating the extent to which the exploration deepened understanding of both the specific convention and theatre-making more broadly
- Structure and deliver a video-recorded Research Presentation of maximum 15 minutes that addresses all three criteria (tradition, practical exploration, reflection) either in one unedited take or three separate criterion-focused recordings
6Assessment Task 3: Collaborative Project (EA) 3 topics
Ensemble Devising Process
- Collaboratively select a non-theatrical starting point and jointly articulate the ensemble's shared theatre-maker intentions, explaining in writing how the starting point inspired the creative direction of the devised piece
- Contribute substantively to an ensemble devising process within a group of 2-6, taking initiative in at least one role (creator, designer, or director) while supporting others' contributions and maintaining shared decision-making
- Shape a collaboratively devised ensemble piece into a fully realized production of 7-10 minutes with a clear beginning, structured development, and intentional ending that communicates the ensemble's theatre-maker intentions to a live audience
Individual Roles and Performance Contribution
- Use physical and vocal performance skills to contribute effectively to at least one defined TEAM moment (tension, emotion, atmosphere, or meaning) in the ensemble piece, with the contribution visible and identifiable in the unedited video recording
- Demonstrate an individual artistic contribution beyond performance — as creator, designer, or director — that can be clearly explained in the project report with reference to specific decisions made and their effect on the production
Documentation and Project Report
- Complete a cover sheet identifying the student in the video, the ensemble's starting point, and the collaboratively written theatre-maker intentions, ensuring the information precisely matches what is documented in the project report
- Write an individual project report that explains the ensemble's collaborative creation process and evaluates the student's own use of performance skills in relation to a specific TEAM moment, using precise theatrical vocabulary throughout
7Assessment Task 4: Solo Theatre Piece (HL Only, EA) 3 topics
Theatre Theorist Research and Understanding
- Select an unfamiliar theatre theorist not previously studied and articulate a clear rationale for the selection, identifying a specific aspect of their theory whose principles can be made physically visible in a solo performance context
- Research the selected theatre theorist's biography, historical context, key writings, and the specific theory's practical exercises or rehearsal methods, using multiple primary and secondary sources to build a comprehensive understanding
- Identify and analyse a specific, performable aspect of the chosen theorist's practice — such as Brecht's gestus, Artaud's breath and shock, Grotowski's via negativa, or Suzuki's stomping — that can be rendered visible in a 6-8 minute solo performance
Practical Development of Solo Piece
- Conduct iterative practical exploration of the chosen theory aspect through exercises, documenting each stage of physical and conceptual experimentation and identifying which explorations inform the final solo piece
- Devise a coherent solo theatre piece of 6-8 minutes in which the chosen theoretical aspect is consistently and unmistakably expressed through performance choices — movement, vocal delivery, spatial use, or physical score — visible to the audience
- Perform and submit an unedited continuous video recording of the full solo theatre piece, ensuring the performance demonstrates the theory aspect with clarity and that production elements (lighting, space, costume) support the theoretical intent
Solo Theatre Piece Report
- Write a report section of up to 2,500 words documenting research into the theorist and the chosen theory aspect, demonstrating accurate understanding of the theorist's historical context and the specific principle explored in the solo piece
- Document the practical exploration process in the report with reference to specific exercises and decisions, explaining how each stage of development shaped the final solo piece and why certain choices were adopted or discarded
- Evaluate the completed solo theatre piece and its implications for personal learning, assessing how well the theoretical aspect was realised in performance and articulating what further development would be required for a fully successful realisation
Scope
Included Topics
- Three core syllabus areas: Theatre in Context, Theatre Processes, Presenting Theatre
- Four IB assessment tasks: Production Proposal (IA), Research Presentation (EA), Collaborative Project (EA), Solo Theatre Piece (HL-only EA)
- Theatre theory and theorist research (Brecht, Artaud, Grotowski, Meyerhold, Boal, Barba, Brook, Suzuki, Stanislavski and others)
- World theatre traditions from IB prescribed list (Noh, Commedia dell'arte, Kathakali, Beijing Opera, Bunraku, Kutiyattam, and others)
- Devising and collaborative ensemble creation from a chosen starting point
- Production design elements: set, lighting, costume, props, sound, space
- Performance skills: physical, vocal, spatial, and ensemble work
- Play text analysis and staging vision for Production Proposal
- Critical reflection and self-evaluation as a theatre-maker
- Theatre-maker intentions: creator, designer, director, and performer perspectives
Not Covered
- Musical theatre composition or song-writing technique
- Film, screen, or digital media production
- Technical backstage operations (rigging, sound engineering) at an advanced vocational level
- Written examination (IB Theatre has no timed written exam)
- SL-only content distinctions (this taxonomy covers HL in full; SL omits Solo Theatre Piece)
Official Exam Page
Learn more at International Baccalaureate