Theater - In-Person Class Notes

Please be courteous and arrive early for registration and instructions PRIOR to your scheduled class start time. Remember that your Scout uniform is required to be worn when attending.

It is NOT acceptable to come unprepared to a Scoutmaster Bucky event. You can (and should) use the Scoutmaster Bucky Theater Merit Badge Workbook to help organize your preparation work. Please note that the use of any workbook is merely for note taking and reference. Completion of any merit badge workbook does not warrant, guarantee, or confirm a Scout's completion of any merit badge requirements. Merit badge counselors may refuse to accept workbooks, but they are NEVER allowed to require their use.

The merit badge pamphlet has a wealth of information that provides valuable insight and clarification and can make earning any merit badge a lot easier. Doing preparation work and reviewing the merit badge pamphlet PRIOR to attending will ensure that Scouts get the most out of these class opportunities.

If you have any additional questions or need further clarification, please feel free to contact Brian Reiners (Scoutmaster Bucky) via email at scoutmasterbucky@yahoo.com or via cell phone at 612-483-0665.

Things to remember to bring for this merit badge class:

Your BSA ID # (not your Scoutbook ID #)
If you do not have your BSA ID # (or did not provide it with your online registration) you will need a Merit badge blue card properly filled out and signed off by your Scout Leader
Theater Merit Badge Pamphlet
Scout uniform
Supporting documentation or project work pertinent to the Theater merit badge, which may also include a merit badge workbook for reference with notes
A positive Scouting focus and attitude

If you are unfamiliar with the Blue Card Process, please read and understand the Scoutmaster Bucky Blue Card Process.

Theater - Online Class Notes

Scoutmaster Bucky Online Class links will be sent out 12 to 24 hours prior to the class start time. Notification will be sent to the email address provided in the registration, so please make sure your email is correctly entered.

Please be courteous and arrive 10-15 minutes prior to the scheduled class start time. Ensure that your internet connection, camera, microphone, and broadcasting environment are working and optimal for class participation. Remember that your Scout uniform is required to be worn when attending.

Theater Merit Badge
Current Scouts BSA Requirements
as of February 17, 2023

Please make sure you read the top portion of this page for general participation expectations in a Scoutmaster Bucky merit badge class.

Pay careful attention to the action verbs within the requirements. An example to note:

"Tell", "explain", "describe", and "discuss" are commonly used and will require the Scout to perform these actions during the class. When these action verbs are a part of any requirement, Scouts are expected to be prepared to share. Reading responses is not acceptable since it does not fulfill the requirement of showing the Scout's knowledge and understanding.

See or read three full-length plays.* Write a review of each. Discuss with your counselor the plot or story. If you chose to watch the plays, comment on the acting and the staging.

* Watching plays on television, video, or as a movie is not permitted.

Write a one-act play that will take at least 10 minutes to perform. The play must have a main character, conflict, and a climax.

Discuss with your counselor the safety precautions that should be practiced when working in a theater to protect the cast and crew. Then do THREE of the following:

Act a major part in a full-length play; or act a part in three one-act plays.

Direct a play. Cast, rehearse, and stage it. The play must be at least 10 minutes long.

Design the set for a play or a theatrical production. Make a model of it.

Design the costumes for five characters in a theatrical production set in a historical time.

Show skill in hair and makeup design. Make up yourself or a friend as a historical figure, a clown, an extraterrestrial, or a monster as directed.

With your counselor’s approval, help with the building and painting of the scenery for a theatrical production.

With your counselor’s approval, design the lighting for a play; or help install, focus, color, program, and operate the lighting for a theatrical production.

With your counselor’s approval, help install, focus, equalize, program, and operate the sound for a theatrical production.

Serve as the stage manager for a theatrical production. Document all cues and stage setups in your calling script.

Serve as musical director for a musical theater production.

Mime or pantomime any ONE of the following, chosen by your counselor.

You have come into a large room. It is full of pictures, furniture, and other things of interest.

As you are getting on a bus, your books fall into a puddle. By the time you pick them up, the bus has driven off.

You have failed a school test. You are talking with your teacher, who does not buy your story.

You are at camp with a new Scout. You try to help them pass a cooking test. The Scout learns very slowly.

You are at a banquet. The meat is good. You don’t like the vegetable. The dessert is ice cream.

You are a circus performer such as a juggler, high-wire artist, or lion tamer doing a routine.

Explain the following: proscenium arch, central or arena staging, center stage, stage right, stage left, downstage, upstage, stage crew, flies, portal, cyclorama, stage brace, spotlight, floodlight, lighting control board, sound mixing desk, thrust staging, ground plans, and sightlines.

Theater - In-Person Class Notes

Theater - Online Class Notes

Theater Merit BadgeCurrent Scouts BSA Requirementsas of February 17, 2023

Theater Merit Badge
Current Scouts BSA Requirements
as of February 17, 2023