Our robust theater program encompasses performing, design, and stagecraft. Students engage in dynamic productions that allow them to explore acting, directing, and script writing while gaining hands-on experience in set design, lighting, and costume creation. This comprehensive approach fosters creativity, teamwork, and technical skills, preparing students for diverse roles in the theater world.

In Theater in Grades 3-5, our aim is to:

• Develop performing skills— voice awareness and control, body language, memory, interactions with fellow actors.

• Develop linguistic skills—the ability to dialogue in French at appropriate speed, and internalize idiomatic structures and expressions.

• Provide a safe space where students can express themselves freely without fear.

• Provide opportunities where students can perform and shine in the limelight while remaining team players who respect and support their co-actors.

The teaching methods include games and exercises performed individually, in pairs, and in groups, as well as long term involvement in the production of plays, which are to be performed by each class in front of audiences. Students learn how to act in front of a camera, and how to use their voice, eyes, facial expressions, and body language to tell a story via a recorded medium.

The topics addressed in class include: 

• Improvising scenes with dialogue, or without resorting to words.

• Understanding the basic concepts of stage acting—entrances and exit, performing space, lighting, props, costumes etc.

• Trusting their fellow actors and feeling committed to, and engaged in, the group effort of a theatrical production.

The plays performed by the students are customized for each class to ensure that every student gets a speaking part. The casting of the students over the three years of the program is weighted to ensure that all the students who wish to play more involved parts get a chance to do so.

In Middle School, Theater is part of the 3 year curriculum. In each year of Middle School, students participate in theater performances through curricular theater classes. 

In Grade 6, the curriculum is performance based, designed to give each student an opportunity to perform in front of an audience as an individual and within a performance ensemble. Units covered are Ensemble Movement, Monologues and Scene Study. In Grade 7, students study Shakespeare in performance, and begin by looking at the structure of Shakespeare’s writing (sonnets, iambic pentameter) and how his writing influences an actor’s interpretation. Then we apply this knowledge into a Shakespeare Scene Study performance. In Grade 8, students study playwriting and production. Grade 8 students will write their own short play (approximately 3 to 5 minutes) and then produce that play. Students rehearse in class, find/build props, create costumes, and other technical elements as needed. The Children’s Theater performance is designed for our young audience from Maternelle to Grade 1. Parents are welcome to attend and we encourage them to bring their inner child to the performance. 

In High School, students explore theater as an interdisciplinary, collaborative art form through curricular work and extracurricular productions. In the process, they gain skills in performance as well as stagecraft, design, and production. They nurture their creativity, and also build skills in communication and collaboration. In High School, students pursuing both the International Baccalaureate and French Baccalaureate programs can study theater for all four years. Robust curricular programs train students to become well-rounded theater artists as they undertake a range of performance projects, including classical and contemporary plays, as well as original, devised creations.

Every year, our extracurricular theater company, Back à Dos, produces five major shows, in which students are involved in all aspects, including backstage support. The ethos and artistry of the company reflects the character of the school: bold, inclusive, international, multilingual, thought-provoking, and rigorous.