Exploring & Experimenting in DP Theatre
- Kieran Burgess
- Feb 24
- 3 min read
Top tips for keeping it practical and student-led
I ran a virtual session today for IBSCA member schools' IB DP Theatre teachers, focusing on how we can get the balance right between teacher-led workshops in the taught course and student agency and moving seamlessly into independent practical exploration, particularly in the syllabus areas of Exploring World Theatre Traditions and Performing Theatre Theory, and their respective assessment tasks of the Research Presentation (RP) and the Solo Theatre Piece (STP).
We discussed how to distinguish between exploring and experimenting in criterion B of the RP, how to connect practical exploration with theory and theatre-maker intentions in criterion B1 of the STP, and what exactly examiners are looking for in the top band of each.
I talked through some ideas for how teachers can start in the taught course with a model-mimic approach across one chosen tradition or theorist for all, quickly building in a review and refine cycle, before smoothly taking off the training wheels by widening the parameters in which students have choice, whilst still in the safety of peer and teacher observation, feedback and correction. We explored the Limitation TreeI protocol for students to structure their process of exploration: the idea being that by observing one activity and attempt at applying a skill, they notice limitations in their application when compared to master practitioners, and for each limitation go on to propose a further activity or two to mitigate. Very quickly, this process provides a joined up, coherent process of strengthening the actor's muscle - the deepening of the skillset of the body or voice for the chosen convention or aspect - which is rich source material for demonstrating an effective process, or explaining their process, in criterion B1 of the RP and STP alike. By instilling a mindset of one activity's outcomes becoming the reasons for the next activity, students will naturally deepen and develop effectively (as defined by IB) and be able to explain (give reasons or causes) which are both required for top band.
We explored with our own examples how applying the new Actor's Muscle in the RP exploration to a piece of Traditional Performance Material (TPM) we are able to start with students on a path of recognising the important link between performer's skill and applying it in performance to affect the meaning conveyed to an audience. Again, the realisation being that when a teacher smoothly takes off the training wheels by asking students to create alternative options for applying the same techniques in different places, or different techniques in the same places of the TPM, or new TPM, we move from guidance to independence in an authentic way.
Finally, we tried out the Quadrant Reflection protocol (template here) as an example of a guided reflection in the development of the STP. As a method for ensuring students link practical outcomes with theory and with their own intentions, the protocol again steers students to reflecting on what it is from the outcome of one workshop that causes them to try a certain activity in the next one: explaining their process along the way.
In summary:
Somatic learning first beats intellectualising first every time
Exploring a traditional convention is narrower than exploring a theory
Exploring a convention is worthless without TPM to ‘hang on to’
Exploring a theory is worthless without Theatre-maker Intentions to express
DP Theatre is chiefly concerned with how knowledge is applied to performance, rather than knowledge per se.
The slides from the session are here:
Comments