How MYP units are structured
Your unit
Every MYP PCUP runs inside a specific unit. A statement of inquiry, a global context, a key concept, a named style and a live production to critique. Your work is always read through that combination. This page explains the structure. Your year's specific content will be shared with you separately.
Waiting for this year's call
The new SOI and concepts are released in November each year. As soon as they are, this space carries the full breakdown for this year's coursework: the SOI, global context, key and related concepts, the style, the live production and the stimulus, in exactly the same shape as the example further down this page.
Until then, the frameworks on every criterion page already apply. Start with them. Your year's help sheets are shared on Google Classroom, not here.
You may not yet know your unit. That is fine. The criteria breakdowns, structures and frameworks across the rest of this companion apply regardless. Once your SOI, style and live production are confirmed, come back to this page to see how they fit into the structure below.
What will be decided by the exam board
Every year
- SOI
- A single claim, the lens for the whole unit. Every paragraph of your written work must argue through it.
- Global context
- The MYP global context the unit is set inside: identities and relationships, orientation in space and time, personal and cultural expression, scientific and technical innovation, globalisation and sustainability, or fairness and development.
- Key concept
- The dominant idea your work explores: aesthetics, change, communication, or identity.
- Related concept
- A secondary lens: audience, boundaries, composition, expression, genre, innovation, interpretation, narrative, play, presentation, representation, or structure.
- Style
- Chosen by the teacher, based on the statement of inquiry and what fits best with that year's concepts. The named theatre style you investigate in A·i and the main influence behind it. You are marked on the style, not the person. For example Epic Theatre, invented by Brecht; Naturalism, shaped by Stanislavski; Physical Theatre, shaped by Lecoq.
- Live production
- Chosen by your teacher once we receive the SOI and concept information. The named production you critique in A·ii, watched together live or recorded.
- Stimulus
- Decided by your group after workshops, once we know the SOI, the concepts and the style we will be focusing on. The starting material that sparks your devised piece: a text, an image, a statistic or a song.
What a fully set unit looks like, the 2026 cohort
The 2026 Brechtian unit is shown below as an example of what we will receive from the exam board in due course. Your year's content will be different. The shape of the page is constant across cohorts: the SOI, the concepts, the style work and the live production.
Beauty and uniqueness are found in our differences.The 2026 cohort worked in the Brechtian / Epic Theatre tradition.
Style, chosen by the teacher: Epic Theatre, invented by Brecht
Anti illusionist. V effekt, gestus, spass, direct address, placards, multi rolling, visible mechanics.
Live production critiqued, chosen by the teacher: Splendid's Antigone
The 2013 to 14 adaptation directed by Kerry Frampton and Mal Smith. Brechtian techniques throughout: the King Says game, the clown to guard multi roll, the clown narration of Antigone's fate.
One group's devised performance idea: Disney and pageant culture
Note, not a cohort wide stimulus. The group whose exemplar appears in this companion chose fairytale princesses and pageant aesthetics as their way into the SOI. Other groups arrived at their own ideas.
Stimulus: decided by your group after workshops
The starting material that sparks each group's devised piece, decided by the group once the SOI, concepts and style are known.
Once your unit is confirmed, here is where to look
For A·i, investigating the style
Open Criterion A. The criteria breakdown, structure and three level worked example apply to every cohort. The 2026 exemplar shows a top band response to Epic Theatre. Yours will be a top band response to whatever style is chosen.
For A·ii, critiquing the live production
Open Criterion A. The what, how, why framework and the voice, body and space adjective banks work for any style. The 2026 exemplar critiques Splendid's Antigone. Yours will critique whatever production your teacher pins.
For B, C and D, devising, performing, evaluating
Open each criterion in turn. The artistic intention structure, the three phase video and your evaluation points, PEEL or what, how, why, work regardless of style. Your SOI is the lens, not the structure.
For vocabulary
Open Glossary and commands. General drama vocabulary and the production element banks for lighting, set, sound and costume work for every style. The style specific terms come from your unit reading list.