IB Theater and Music Students Wrap Up Semester with Solos and Recitals

On Tuesday, March 21, the IB Theater students of AISG’s Class of 2023 performed their solo pieces. In addition, the IB Music students of AISG’s Class of 2024 held a recital to perform pieces they had been working on all year.

The Solo Piece is the final project in the syllabus for students partaking in Higher Level IB Theater, as it is optional for Standard Level students. However, in the 2023 cohort’s theater class there were two HL students and only one SL, so all three worked to craft and perform individual solo performances.

Senior IB Theater students began the solo project in mid-February by choosing a theater practitioner to study and base an aspect or convention of their performance off of. The three students were allowed to either choose already-existing texts to perform or create an original script.

From a puppet show to masks to an elaborate set-up of chairs, rope, and a chandelier taken from AISG’s blackbox storage room, the theater students presented a wide range of forms of theater for parents, teachers, and other students who attended the performance to enjoy.

“I felt that it was fun, for both myself and the audience, and a good way for me to present and improve my acting skills,” said Sydney T., a senior AISG and IB HL Theater student.

The texts chosen by each student to voice during their solos ranged from children’s books to passages and excerpts from plays, and the students projected their words across the blackbox using emotion and sometimes microphones. As part of the project, questions were asked to the audience after each individual performances for the purpose of the students being able to receive audience feedback and see if their intentions and aims for their pieces were achieved and reached effectively.

The juniors taking IB Music also performed pieces they had chosen to practice throughout the semester thus far, playing instruments including violin, piano, drums, and trumpet. The theater students were able to watch their recital and vice versa, which created an atmosphere of appreciation and sense of community between the arts students as they shared the products of their hard work.