IB Drama

The IB world is full of acronyms and IBTaPS is one of the more puzzling ones! It stands for IB Theatre arts Performance Symposia and it is something that is very important to Southbank.

IBTaPS events take place globally throughout the year to provide intensive teaching and support for students taking IB Theatre Arts at Diploma Programme level. ISTA (International Schools Theatre Association) are the professional body who run the workshops with the support of the IB and they provide invaluable staff and student training and support throughout the Symposia.

Our Grade 12 students recently completed their three day intensive workshop at various venues around London, led by professional actors, directors and theatre practitioners from around the world. They also took two master classes in areas such as the art of stand up comedy led by Sherri D Sutton and Stories led by Alex Clifton, a director at RADA. The group also attended two performances, War Horse at the New London Theatre, Drury Lane and Mother Courage and Her Children, starring Fiona Shaw, at the National Theatre.

Drama students in Grade 10, 11 and 12 enjoyed a centuries-old tradition in a one-day intensive Kathakali dance/drama workshop this year. This World Theatre tradition is over 400 years old and originates in Kerala, Southern India. As well as learning the detailed history and culture of this unique practice, students learnt how to create several different mudras, (sign language) and how to depict different moods and postures throughout their whole body and faces to tell the story. It was a physically demanding, fascinating and enthralling workshop and some of the students were still aching three days later!