IB Theatre Arts: Year 13 Solo Performance Pieces

A celebration of courage, skill, and resilience! The Year 13 Higher Level Theatre Arts Solo performances took centre stage in the Jo Adamson Theatre and thoroughly impressed us with their professional productions, brilliant staging, and dramatic execution! 

This work culminated with a great deal of creativity and industry from these students as they emerged from VSE straight into the theatre!

In the final performance, each of them captured their moment on the stage, communicating ideas and issues of importance to them in an engaging and impactful manner.

For this assessment, students explore a theatre practitioner of their choice whose work is unfamiliar to them. This year's areas of focus were:

• The global refugee crisis employing Bertolt Brecht's epic Theatre techniques 

• The impact on 'identity of third culture adolescents utilising Robert Lepage's multimedia approach

• Olwen Wymark play 'Find Me' integrates Jaque Lecoq's 7 Levels of Tension 

• Lady Macbeth's soliloquy experimenting with Peter Brook's approach to movement.

Preparation

1. Initially, the students completed deep research into their practitioner, identifying how the cultural, social, and historical context influenced the formation of the ideas. These skills will benefit them immensely at the university level. 

2. They then identified their artistic intention and desired audience impact, followed by a sustained period of independent rehearsals. 

3. The students had all the High School resources at their disposal, including the theatre, rehearsal rooms, set, lighting, sound, music, costume, props, and also the support of our theatre technician Khun Nat. 

Throughout this process, feedback and reflection from mentors who included their teachers, peers, and family members were integral to their learning. Not only have they been challenged with managing a project from start to finish but they have acquired further technical skills as well as taking into account the arrangements of ensuring a physically distanced audience and safe performance space for all.

It takes a lot of courage to stand alone on stage and display your work publicly and then ask an audience to give you their feedback during a public talkback. This challenge will develop our students’ confidence in the future whether that future holds a career in theatre or other professions. It was wonderful to be given the opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the talents of our IB Year 13 Theatre Arts students.