Theater Merit Badge Requirements

5 Requirements Updated January 21, 2026 View Official Page ↗ Download Free Pamphlet ↓

Learn mime, master theater terminology like proscenium and cyclorama, and review three full-length plays to earn this merit badge.

Requirements

  1. Copy link to requirement 1
    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. Note: Watching plays on television, video, or as a movie is not permitted.
  2. Copy link to requirement 2
    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.
  3. Copy link to requirement 3
    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:
    1. Copy link to requirement 3.a
      Act a major part in a full-length play; or act a part in three one-act plays.
    2. Copy link to requirement 3.b
      Direct a play. Cast, rehearse, and stage it. The play must be at least 10 minutes long.
    3. Copy link to requirement 3.c
      Design the set for a play or a theatrical production. Make a model of it.
    4. Copy link to requirement 3.d
      Design the costumes for five characters in a theatrical production set in a historical time.
    5. Copy link to requirement 3.e
      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.
    6. Copy link to requirement 3.f
      With your counselor’s approval, help with the building and painting of the scenery for a theatrical production.
    7. Copy link to requirement 3.g
      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.
    8. Copy link to requirement 3.h
      With your counselor’s approval, help install, focus, equalize, program, and operate the sound for a theatrical production.
    9. Copy link to requirement 3.i
      Serve as the stage manager for a theatrical production. Document all cues and stage setups in your calling script.
    10. Copy link to requirement 3.j
      Serve as musical director for a musical theater production.
  4. Copy link to requirement 4
    Mime or pantomime any ONE of the following, chosen by your counselor.
    1. Copy link to requirement 4.a
      You have come into a large room. It is full of pictures, furniture, and other things of interest.
    2. Copy link to requirement 4.b
      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.
    3. Copy link to requirement 4.c
      You have failed a school test. You are talking with your teacher, who does not buy your story.
    4. Copy link to requirement 4.d
      You are at camp with a new Scout. You try to help them pass a cooking test. The Scout learns very slowly.
    5. Copy link to requirement 4.e
      You are at a banquet. The meat is good. You don’t like the vegetable. The dessert is ice cream.
    6. Copy link to requirement 4.f
      You are a circus performer such as a juggler, high-wire artist, or lion tamer doing a routine.
  5. Copy link to requirement 5
    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.