In simple terms
A friendly intro before the formal notes — no formulas yet.
Decoding the Processes Portfolio
The Processes portfolio is not a scrapbook of your activities; it's a curated narrative of your journey as a theatre-maker. It demands you articulate your intentions, document your explorations with theoretical backing, and critically reflect on your discoveries to show how you have grown.
Imagine your portfolio is a detective's case file. The 'case' is a theatrical problem you need to solve (e.g., how to stage a scene or embody a character). Your portfolio pages are the evidence: annotated photos are crime scene pictures, your notes on exercises are witness statements, and your reflections are your deductions. Research into theatre practitioners is like consulting with expert witnesses. The examiner is the chief inspector who needs to see a clear, logical, and insightful investigation from start to finish, not just a random collection of clues.
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Select & Curate: Choose moments of significant learning, not just successful outcomes. Focus on the process of discovery, including challenges, 'failures', and breakthroughs.
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Articulate & Annotate: For each piece of evidence (e.g., a photo), clearly explain your intention (what you tried to do), your process (how you did it), and the immediate impact (what happened). Use precise theatre vocabulary.
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Connect & Contextualise: Explicitly link your practical work to specific theatre theorists, practitioners, or world theatre traditions. Explain how an exercise is an application of a particular theory.
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Reflect & Evaluate: Move beyond description. Analyse why something worked or did not, what this reveals about the theatrical concept you are exploring, and how it will inform your future practice.
Explore the concept
Use the live diagram and synced steps — play it or tap a step card to walk through.
Full topic notes
Formal explanation with the rigour you need for the exam.
Criterion A: The Student's Intentions
This criterion assesses the starting point of your explorations. Examiners are looking for clarity, focus, and a genuine sense of inquiry. A weak portfolio might state, 'We wanted to look at Brecht.' A strong portfolio will frame the intention as a specific, research-informed question.
Be Specific: Instead of 'exploring physical theatre', state 'My intention is to investigate how Frantic Assembly's principles of weight-taking and counterbalance can be used to physicalise the power dynamics in a chosen scene from A Streetcar Named Desire.'
Frame as an Inquiry: Pose a question that your practical work will seek to answer. This immediately establishes a clear focus for the examiner.
Show it's Informed: Briefly mention the research that led to this intention. 'Having researched Tadashi Suzuki's grammar of the feet, I intended to explore if his stamping and walking exercises could generate the required level of ritualistic tension for a chorus in The Bacchae.'
Criterion B: The Student's Processes and Practices
This is the core of your documentation. It is where you 'show your work'. The highest marks are awarded not just for documenting what you did, but for making explicit, tangible links between the theory you are exploring and the practical exercises you undertook. The examiner must be able to see the theory in action.
Use Varied Evidence: Combine annotated photographs, diagrams, script excerpts with your notes, and concise descriptions of exercises. Each piece of evidence should have a purpose.
Be Explicit with Links: Do not just say 'We did a Lecoq exercise.' Instead, say: 'Here, we are applying Lecoq's 'Seven Levels of Tension'. The image shows us attempting to embody Level 6 (Tragedy) to understand the heightened state required for the climax of the scene. Notice the rigid posture and unfocused gaze, as prescribed by the theory.'
Annotate Purposefully: Use arrows and labels on photos to point out specific physical details, spatial relationships, or design elements that relate directly to your process and the practitioner's ideas.
Criterion C: The Student's Moments of Learning and Reflection
This is where you demonstrate higher-order thinking and secure the top marks. Reflection is not just stating what you learned; it is about analysing how and why you learned it, and its significance. Perceptive reflection often comes from analysing challenges, failures, and unexpected outcomes.
Signpost Your Learning: Use phrases like 'A significant moment of learning occurred when...', 'This discovery challenged my initial assumption that...', or 'I realised the importance of...' to make your reflections explicit to the examiner.
Analyse, Don't Describe: Instead of 'The exercise was hard', write 'The exercise was challenging because it revealed a personal tendency towards naturalistic gesture, which was hindering my ability to create the exaggerated form required by Meyerhold's Biomechanics. This highlighted the unlearning process required to adopt a new theatrical language.'
Reflect on 'Failures': Documenting an experiment that did not work and perceptively analysing why it failed is more valuable than only showing successes. It demonstrates a robust and authentic process of inquiry.
Criterion D: The Student's Application of Learning
This criterion assesses your ability to look forwards and backwards, connecting your learning across the portfolio. It asks: 'So what?'. How has this discovery changed you as a theatre-maker? How did it influence what you did next? The examiner is looking for a 'chain of learning' that shows your development over time.
Create a Narrative Thread: Show how a discovery on page 5 led to a new intention or a refined approach on page 6. This demonstrates that your learning is cumulative.
Use Forward-Looking Statements: Conclude reflections with sentences like, 'This understanding of spatial dynamics will directly inform my directorial concept for the next scene...', or 'As a result of this workshop, I will now consciously integrate...'
Connect to Self: Reflect on how the process has shaped your own identity as a theatre-maker. 'This exploration has solidified my interest in directing, as I discovered a passion for shaping meaning through the precise arrangement of bodies in space.'
Worked examples
See the formulas applied — reveal one step at a time, like the exam.
A student is exploring the use of Augusto Boal's Forum Theatre to investigate a community issue. Provide a sample portfolio entry extract (approx. 150 words) that would score highly in Criteria A and B.
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My intention for this exploration was to determine how Boal's Forum Theatre could be used to empower both actors and audience to find tangible solutions to the issue of cyberbullying in our school community (Criterion A: Clear, specific, and inquiry-based intention). Our process began with creating a short model scene showing a protagonist being targeted online. We drew directly on Boal's techniques for creating clear 'oppressor' and 'oppressed' characters to ensure the power imbalance was unambiguous. The photograph below shows the 'Joker' (facilitator) intervening at the moment of crisis, a key part of the Forum Theatre structure. Our practical application of Boal's methodology was focused on ensuring the problem was presented as solvable, not inevitable, thereby inviting intervention (Criterion B: Explicit link between Boal's methodology and the specific practical choices made).
Following the Boal Forum Theatre exploration, write a reflective paragraph (approx. 150 words) that would satisfy the top bands of Criteria C and D.
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A pivotal moment of learning (Criterion C) occurred during the first intervention from a 'spect-actor'. They suggested the protagonist simply block the bully online. While a practical solution, Boal's writing warns against 'magic' solutions that don't address the underlying oppression. This was a profound realisation: Forum Theatre is not about finding a quick fix, but about rehearsing for a real-world revolution, however small. This insight directly reshaped my facilitation approach (Criterion D). In the next round, I, as the Joker, posed a new rule: 'The solution cannot be something the protagonist does alone in their room.' This application of learning forced the spect-actors to propose community-based solutions, such as bystander intervention, which was far more aligned with Boal's political aims and transformed my understanding of the form's true purpose.
How it all connects
The big idea sits in the middle — tap a linked idea to explore the link.
Tap a linked idea to see how it connects back to the main topic — that connection is what examiners reward.
Glossary
Try to recall each definition before you reveal it.
Quick check
Answer in your head first — then tap to check. No pressure.
Revision flashcards
Flip the card. Test yourself before the exam.
Criterion A: The student's intentions
Assesses the clarity and focus of the aims for the practical explorations. Top marks require intentions that are specific, informed by research, and frame the exploration as a genuine inquiry.
Key takeaways
Review these before you close the topic — retrieval beats re-reading.
- ✓
Be Specific: Instead of 'exploring physical theatre', state 'My intention is to investigate how Frantic Assembly's principles of weight-taking and counterbalance can be used to physicalise the power dynamics in a chosen scene from A Streetcar Named Desire.'
- ✓
Frame as an Inquiry: Pose a question that your practical work will seek to answer. This immediately establishes a clear focus for the examiner.
- ✓
Show it's Informed: Briefly mention the research that led to this intention. 'Having researched Tadashi Suzuki's grammar of the feet, I intended to explore if his stamping and walking exercises could generate the required level of ritualistic tension for a chorus in The Bacchae.'
Practice — then mark it
The whole point: a real Cambridge question, marked mark-by-mark.
Test your understanding of the criteria by annotating a sample portfolio page. Identify where the student demonstrates intentions, processes, learning, and application. Then, rewrite a section to move it into a higher markband.
Test your understanding of the criteria by annotating a sample portfolio page. Identify where the student demonstrates intentions, processes, learning, and application. Then, rewrite a section to move it into a higher markband.
Extra simulations & links
PhET, GeoGebra and other curated tools — open in a new tab.
Frequently asked
Checkpoint
One marked question is worth ten re-reads — close the loop before you move on.
Reading it isn’t knowing it — prove it.
Before you move on: do Test your understanding of the criteria by annotating a sample portfolio page. Identify where the student demonstrates intentions, processes, learning, and application. Then, rewrite a section to move it into a higher markband. on paper, snap a photo, and get examiner-style feedback on exactly where you win and lose marks.