IB theatre tutor for IA and HL written exam
How to find an IB theatre tutor: what they cover, HL vs SL differences, and the criteria that separate a good match from a poor one.
An IB theatre tutor helps a Diploma Programme student with the four-part assessment: the collaborative theatre project, the solo theatre piece, the director's notebook and the research presentation. The tutor's job is to build a student's confidence in both the practical work and the written HL paper, because the subject assesses performance, process and reflection together. A good match has real theatre experience, knows the IB Theatre guide, and can mark to the four internal assessment criteria and the HL written exam rubric.
What an IB theatre tutor actually covers
The IB Theatre syllabus is built around the four assessed components at both Higher Level and Standard Level. A tutor needs to be comfortable with all of them, not just the performance side.
- Collaborative theatre project (SL and HL): working in a group of three to seven to create a piece of original theatre, with the candidate contributing a theatre-maker role such as actor, director or designer.
- Solo theatre piece (HL only): a four to eight minute solo that must demonstrate a clear theatre tradition, theorist or culture as a starting point.
- Research presentation (SL and HL): a fifteen-minute recorded presentation on a theatre theorist whose work is not from the candidate's own culture.
- Director's notebook (HL only): a 3,000-word process record for a fifteen-minute extract from a published play, where the student is the director.
Beyond the assessments, a tutor can support the broader syllabus: world theatre traditions, play analysis in context, and the practical application of practitioners such as Stanislavski, Brecht, Boal and Brook. A tutor who only coaches acting is missing most of the course.
IB theatre HL vs SL: what changes the tutor's focus
SL and HL share the same four assessment tasks, but HL students do the solo theatre piece and the director's notebook in addition, and sit a two-hour written exam. SL students sit a one-hour written exam. The HL exam asks students to answer two extended response questions on a play they have studied in its theatrical context, and one question linking two play extracts.
For an SL student, a tutor's time goes mostly into the collaborative project, the research presentation, and exam technique on a single play. For an HL student, the solo piece, the director's notebook, and the play extract analysis take far more hours, and the tutor needs to read and respond to written work in detail. Make sure the tutor you choose has marked or supervised both levels, not just one.
How to judge whether an IB theatre tutor is a good fit
Past theatre experience is not the same as IB theatre experience. Use these criteria when you speak to a potential tutor.
- Knowledge of the current IB Theatre guide. Ask which guide year they teach from. The guide is revised periodically, and the assessment weighting, word counts and task specifications have changed over time.
- Familiarity with the four internal assessment criteria. The IA criteria for each task cover skills, knowledge, thinking and reflection in different proportions. A tutor should be able to explain, for example, how the director's notebook is weighted differently from the research presentation.
- Marked or supervised recent candidates. Ask for examples of feedback they have written on solo theatre pieces or director's notebooks. Strong tutors can show you anonymised samples.
- A clear view on the HL written exam structure. They should know the command terms used in the exam and the difference between a play analysis question and a play extract question.
- The ability to watch and respond to performance work. Theatre is performance-based, so the tutor must be able to give useful notes on video, not only on paper.
Where IB theatre tutors work
Most IB theatre tutoring is one-to-one online, with occasional in-person sessions for schools that commission a visiting specialist. Online tuition works well for the written tasks and the research presentation, and platforms that record lessons let the student revisit feedback on the solo piece. For the collaborative project, tutors usually coach an individual student on their own theatre-maker role and on how to document the process, since they cannot be in the room with the group.
Tutors set their own rates, and prices vary by experience and by region. Treat any figure you see as a starting point to negotiate, not a fixed IB rate, and confirm the hourly length and cancellation terms before booking.
How to get the most from the first sessions
The first two or three lessons set the direction. Bring a clear copy of the assignment brief, the relevant assessment criteria, and any draft material. A useful first session usually covers three things: a diagnostic look at where the student is now against the criteria, a rough timeline of the remaining tasks before the exam, and one piece of practical work to do before the next session. If a tutor starts teaching without doing this diagnostic, ask why.
For practical tasks, expect the tutor to set short, regular practice: a five-minute devised piece, a recorded research presentation, a paragraph of reflection written to a specific criterion. For the written exam, they should be marking past-paper answers against the published mark scheme, not just giving general feedback.
Common questions students ask an IB theatre tutor
Three questions come up often. The first is whether the tutor can help with the collaborative project if they are not present in the rehearsal room. The answer is yes, because the assessed output is a written process journal, a video of the piece and a reflection, all of which the tutor can review remotely. The second is whether the solo theatre piece needs to be scripted. It does not; the solo is assessed on the candidate's theatre-maker practice, not on writing a script. The third is how the research presentation is recorded. The student films it themselves in one continuous take, between thirteen and fifteen minutes, and submits the recording to the IB.
Next steps
Before you book, write a short list of the deadlines you are working to and the marks you are currently achieving on each task, if you have them. Share those with the tutor in the first message so the conversation is about your work, not about their background. If you would like guided preparation across the IB Theatre assessment tasks, IB Courses runs a structured programme for the IB Diploma Programme that covers the four components and the written exam at both levels.