From Bangkok to Phnom Penh, Doha to Oberoi. Seven schools, a dozen international artists and a team of ISTA’s (International Schools Theatre Association) exceptional facilitators, workshop leaders, directors and project managers returned to our campus. This last week we have been excited and honoured to once again be producing the largest annual gathering for IB theatre arts students on the planet.

Now in our eighth year, our work with ISTA remains to be one of our most important international partnerships; a collaboration that continues to evolve and grow, carrying the name of our school into conversations around the world. After a near three-year pause, it was uplifting to welcome back to our campus so many dedicated, passionate young people and inspiring theatre educators. Focused on mastering all of the components necessary to succeed in their diploma level theatre arts course, the four-day event saw workshops, master classes, devising exploration and two incredible performances from some of Thailand’s very best contemporary theatre companies.

As Prem continues along its journey to become one of only five international centres for creativity and innovation, it is our events and collaborations with ISTA that will continue to be at the centre of this work. Self-confidence and skills relating to performance and the necessary vocational skills that are inherent in the arts, cultural and other sectors, allow all students who take part to develop their competencies in communication, group goal-setting and acquiescence, as well as complex problem-solving and the engendering of emotional intelligence.

As ISTA’S patron Dr. Jonathon Neelands points out, “it’s skills like these that the world is in desperate need of and skills like these that won’t be developed through literacy and numeracy alone.”

Moving forward with our work with ISTA, we look forward to sharing news of developments, events and opportunities for our students, educators and the wider community.

Finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge thanks to Prem’s faculty for the flexibility in supporting this event, to Michael Cumes and the VSP team for their dedicated help and support with logistics, and to our Director of theatre Ian Johnson for going above and beyond to ensure a world class event for everyone involved.

Alex Soulsby, 

Creative Director