A completely new inter-house competition – Theatresports- is under way right now. “What is Theatresports?” I hear you cry? Theatresports is essentially the dramatic technique of Improvisation, the ability to react, respond and create on the spot. The term ‘Theatresports’ was coined by British drama practitioner Keith Johnstone around 1977 to describe his ideas on teaching actors to improvise and allow them to access their creativity. Keith actually teaches this technique to leaders of business and industry world-wide as the ability to adapt and engage with new ideas is a skill that is valued highly in the modern workplace.

Here at Prem, four valiant house teams are going through a series of improvisation games whereby they must take on suggestions from the audience and work together to make a scene within the rules of the game they are given. You may have seen such games on TV with programs like ‘Whose Line is it Anyway’. Players are judged on technique (such as the technique of the ‘Yes And’ accepting a players suggestion and building upon it), on Narrative (does the scene progress, do the characters develop?) and Entertainment (are they playing to the audience, are the players engaging?).

As you can imagine, it takes skill, daring, teamwork and risk-taking to take part and our IB learners are delighting us with their talent and tenacity.

Two teams will progress to the finals next week. I’d like to tell you who, but we’re making it up as we go!