Sophia students step onto the international stage at the COBIS Drama Competition
Adapting performance for the digital stage: Creativity, resilience, and connection.
TL;DR: Key Takeaways
- International Stage: Sophia students are competing in the COBIS Drama Competition, adapting performances for a global online audience.
- Digital Adaptation: Students faced the unique challenge of performing for a camera, mastering technical skills alongside acting truth and connection.
- Student Voice: Year 12 student Emma shares her journey of rehearsing online, overcoming technical hurdles, and gaining infinite confidence.
- Future Ready: Winners will be announced in March 2026, but the real success is the adaptability and creativity our students have already proven.
This term, our Drama students at Sophia High School are taking part in the COBIS Drama Competition, marking an exciting milestone for our creative community.
For our students, this has been about building confidence and learning how drama translates into an online space, while still holding onto what matters most in acting: truth, connection, and presence.
Students have been preparing monologues and duologues from scripted plays, choosing whether to stay faithful to the original text or adapt their performances for a contemporary audience. Alongside rehearsing, they have also had to think critically about intention, explaining to judges what they aim to communicate through their work.
Performing for a camera rather than a stage brought a new layer of challenge, one that demanded adaptability, creativity, and teamwork.
Emma's Journey
Emma, a Year 12 student, describes that journey in her own words:
"We found out about an amazing opportunity to partake in an international competition between COBIS Schools from all across the world, on a normal Thursday Assembly just before the Christmas break. I was so excited to enter as it had been a couple of years since I last did any Drama performances, so my best friend and I decided to prepare our Duologue together, I did a monologue separately, in hopes we would be selected… and we were!
We had one workshop before the break where we were introduced to the senior duologue and decided on who was going to play each character. Over the holidays we practiced our lines individually before coming together in the beginning of January to do a full run through. Every Friday for 3 weeks we had an enrichment where we kept rehearsing until our scripts were perfect and we understood how to perform online rather than in person.
I loved doing a performance online, it feels so different to being on stage but the important aspects are still the same: acting is amazing. It was really interesting as we had to figure out how to record on a google meet without our teacher’s picture being too big in the frame. I learnt how even performing remotely, with only 3 full sessions to practice, drama is so much fun and the confidence we gained from performing with such little rehearsal time is infinite."
— Emma, Year 12
Emma’s reflection captures exactly what we value at Sophia. Learning does not stop when the format changes.
Performing online required our students to think differently about space, voice, and audience, but it also gave them a sense of ownership and confidence that will stay with them far beyond this competition.
Looking Ahead to March 2026
We are incredibly proud of all the students who committed their time, energy, and creativity to these performances.
Winners and runners-up will be announced by COBIS in March 2026, with selected performances shared through official COBIS channels.
Whatever the outcome, this experience has already been a success. Our students stepped forward, took creative risks, and proved that meaningful performance can happen anywhere.
