While athletic teams from Munich International School (MIS) and Bavarian International School (BIS) regularly face off on the sports field, opportunities for academic collaboration between the two schools have historically been rare due to the physical distance across opposite sides of the city. That changed this year with an inspiring, two-day collaborative theatre festival hosted on the BIS campus, bringing together 15 students from each school across grades 8 through 10 for a 30-student drama intensive.
Organized primarily by MIS Middle School Drama Teacher, Maddy Smith and led by MIS Middle and Senior School drama teachers Dr. Wro and Judith Markthaler, alongside BIS drama teachers Jen Blastorah and Dasha Laveau, the event was fully supported and funded by school leadership so that students could participate entirely free of cost. The hope is for this festival to become an annual tradition, expanding to include other Munich-area international schools.
On the first day, students were divided into mixed groups combining actors from both schools and rotated through three specialized workshops designed to expand their theatre toolkit:
The Improv & Spontaneity workshop was taught by Maddy Smith (MIS) and Jen Blastorah (BIS). This workshop challenged students to embrace quick thinking and team building through dynamic improv games. Asahi (Grade 8) initially felt hesitant about improv, sharing: "When you hear improv, I think of going onto stage and saying what comes to mind... I always stutter. But this kind of improv where we did games and stopped a scene was just fun because you get to do whatever you want. We got pretty close to BIS students in a short matter of time."
The Lighting Design & Atmospheric Stagecraft workshop was led by Dr. Wro (MIS) and Dasha Laveau (BIS). Students moved into the main stage to get hands-on experience with stage lighting, mood creation, and lightboards. In one creative exercise, small groups were given five minutes to convey the concept of "isolation" using stage lights and just three props—a chair, a plant, and a carpet. Kira (Grade 8) highlighted: "It was really interesting to find out how lights can affect the mood and the overall scene and how the different colors also affected." Her peer Kaia (Grade 10) added that her highlight was "learning how the lightboard works and meeting new people who also have the same interest as me."
The third workshop focused on the ‘Seven Levels of Tension’, taught by Senior School drama teacher Judith Markthaler. This physical theatre workshop introduced the framework of famed French mime and theatre practitioner Jacques Lecoq. The exercise guides actors through seven physical states—from level 1 (a motionless "jellyfish") up to level 7 ("completely hysterical")—allowing young actors to ground their performances physically. Ms. Martkthaler explained that the technique "takes away the edge of students being nervous about what I am going to say. It gets them out of their heads and into their bodies." Tom (Grade 8) reflected that "the best thing was when we explored the seven levels of tension in more depth... I feel like my acting skills have improved."
The spirit of collaboration extended beyond the scheduled sessions. During the lunch break, an MIS student began playing the piano while a BIS student joined in to sing, drawing a crowd of students from both schools to sing along together to classics like "Zombie" and "Piano Man".
On Day 2, the students put their combined toolkit into action through an immersive devising workshop led by MIS drama teacher Dr. Wro, who holds a doctorate in theatre, specializing in devised performance.
In theatre, devising (or process drama) is a collaborative approach in which students create original mini-plays entirely from scratch using student-generated prompts, dialogue, and character concepts. Rather than working from a pre-written script, students improvise, shape scenes, and direct themselves while teachers provide structure through plot devices and feedback.
Dr. Wro explained the value of the process: "Students have complete ownership of the process, and the job of the teachers is really to guide... The students are creating all the work, and the best part about devising is that it's a lot of fun."
Ryan (Grade 8) shared that his highlight of the process was making "teamwork and creating a unique performance with each other."
By the end of the afternoon, the inter-school ensembles presented their original, inventive, and often hilarious final performances to an enthusiastic audience of peers and teachers. When asked to sum up the festival in one word, participating students enthusiastically described the experience as "fruitful," "theatrical," "chaotic," "magical," "creative," and "hilarious".
Reflecting on the success of the inaugural event, Maddy Smith expressed her gratitude for the support that made the festival possible: "We met as two theatre teams... and came up with this idea of doing a small BIS-MIS festival. Our schools were super supportive. It just brings our heart joy that they can just make theatre without worrying about cost."
With new friendships formed and theatrical toolkits expanded, MIS looks forward to welcoming BIS drama students to our campus next year to host the second annual festival!