IB Theatre - West High School

      YOU will choose a published play text that you have not previously studied and formulate a vision for the design and theoretical staging of the entire play text for an audience. Your ideas are then presented in the form of a written Production Proposal. You are NOT required to stage the play.

The BASIC requirements of the Production Proposal (PP)

• Your objective with the Production Proposal is to communicate your vision for the feasible staging of a play text for a live audience.

• You will approach this task using TWO perspectives - that of the director and that of the designer. 

• Your finished work will be a maximum of 12 pages of written text and images, with written text not exceed 4,000 words

• Your work will explain how performance and production elements could potentially work on stage to fulfill
  theatre-maker intentions.

• You will write your proposal in the first person and include visual production design ideas and images to help communicate your vision.

• The production proposal articulates your vision for the final staging of the play text. 

• You are not required to consider a hypothetical rehearsal process in this task.

• The list of any sources used is excluded from the page count.***

LET'S GET STARTED! 

CHOOSING YOUR PLAY TEXT

   You will need to choose a published play text you have NOT previously researched or practically engaged with for this assessment.

   So, let's say you read Little Women in Middle School and it is absolutely your favorite play of all time or in IB Language and Literature you read A Doll's House in class and during discussions your imagination exploded with ideas to stage the play.  Nope. You cannot use these scripts for this assessment.  You must choose a script you have not studied or participated in as a produced play.*

   HOWEVER, you can choose a play text you have not previously studied yet have been written by playwrights you have previously studied or encountered that you enjoy. This means if you loved Antigone you can look at the other plays written by Sophocles and consider those for this assessment or if you read A Doll's House by Ibsen you could choose An Enemy of the People or Hedda Gabler.

   Look for play texts that INTEREST you!  It is important that you choose a text that EXCITES YOUR IMAGINATION and that you feel passionate about transforming into a live theatre production.

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THE TEXT ITSELF - can I change the words in the play to fit my ideas?

   Just as in producing a play for the stage the the play text must remain unaltered.

You CANNOT edit, make additions or alterations to the original printed work.

You CAN communicate your vision for the staging of the selected play text, add additional moments of action on stage or introduce additional elements of design if this will help them to realize your vision for the staging.

• If you add moments or introduce design elements, they need to be appropriate to the play text and you must clearly identify and justify these additions.

• Your production of the play text does not necessarily have to be set within the original practice or style for which it was originally intended by the playwright.

• You are allowed to set the play in a contrasting practice or style in order to bring out a particular idea or theme appropriate to the work.

NEXT -

Now that you have chosen your play, read it.  Then read it again, and again.

• Remember to take notes as you read.

• Write down the ideas that come into your head as you read.

• Use post-it notes to mark important moments.

Then start organizing all your thoughts and imaginings into your Production Proposal!

--West Sound Academy. 

        Production Proposal Handbook by Keiran Burgess

 

     Design Resources from West Sound Academy 

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Sample Production Proposal

• Prod Proposal (PP) - Dancing at Lughnasa - Paper itself

• Prod Proposal (PP) - Dancing at Lughnasa - commentary/marks

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Production Proposal Rubric - Updated Oct. 2023

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