When Your Passion Comes as a Surprise: Performing Arts at ISD
Sometimes the thing you are meant to do is not the thing you expected at all.
A great education should leave room for that discovery.
At ISD, academic achievement is important, but students also need opportunities to explore what excites them. Through theatre, music and the performing arts, they can discover talents and interests they may never have known they had.
And occasionally, that discovery changes the direction of their future.
More than performing on stage
Theatre at ISD is much more than the school play.
Students experience what it actually takes to create a production: acting, directing and writing, but also lighting, sound, set design, props, costume, makeup, production and theatre management.
Some naturally gravitate towards the spotlight. Others find their place behind the scenes, where an entirely different range of creative and technical skills comes into play.
As students progress through school, these opportunities can become increasingly serious. In the IB Diploma Programme, Theatre is offered as an academic subject at both Higher Level and Standard Level.
Students explore theatre as an art form, study different theatrical traditions and approaches, create original work and develop their skills as theatre-makers.
Link: Explore Theatre & Performing Arts at ISD →
When the expected path changes
One former ISD student had a future that seemed relatively clear. His family had a strong background in the chemical industry, and there was an obvious professional path he could have followed.
Then, at ISD, he discovered acting.
What started as an interest became a passion. He had the space to explore it, but also the opportunity to take it seriously: to develop his craft, perform, study theatre academically and begin to see acting as a genuine professional possibility.
He ultimately chose a completely different direction and went on to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, one of the world's most prestigious drama schools.
It is a wonderful example of what can happen when school does more than prepare students for an expected next step. Sometimes education opens a door a student did not even know was there.
From passion to profession
Discovering something you love is one thing. Developing the skills to pursue it seriously is another.
IB Theatre gives students the opportunity to combine creativity and performance with academic study, research, collaboration and reflection. An interest sparked through a school production can develop into an academic pathway and, potentially, a future career.
And those careers are not limited to performing.
A recent ISD graduate has gone on to study theatre management at LAMDA, the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art, reflecting the breadth of possibilities within the industry.
Productions need actors and singers, but also producers, directors, stage managers, designers, technicians, writers and creative teams. Giving students exposure to these different roles while they are still at school can help them understand where their own strengths and interests lie.
A place to discover what you are good at
Over the years, professional actors, singers, musicians and performers have begun developing their talents at ISD.
Some students arrive already knowing that performing is their passion. Others walk into an audition, pick up an instrument, join a production or volunteer backstage almost by accident, and find something they never expected.
For some, it becomes a profession. For others, it becomes a lifelong interest, a source of confidence or simply one of the things that made their school years memorable.
The important thing is having the opportunity to discover it in the first place.
We want to give them enough opportunities to explore, the confidence to try and, when they find something they love, the tools to see how far they can take it. Sometimes that reinforces the path they were already on. And sometimes it comes as a complete surprise.
