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Edition 2026Active Merit Badge
Theater
Official Requirements & Fillable Workbook · 2026 Edition
Theater is about the magic of the stage, from playwriting and acting to backstage lighting, sound, and stagecraft. You will read and critique full-length plays, master stage directions, and practice pantomime. Requirement 2 asks you to write an original one-act play, while requirement 4 has you direct, design, or perform in a live production.
Key Requirements Covered:
- Stage Acting, Voice & Character Movement
- Playwriting, Scene Design & Costuming
- Stagecraft: Lighting, Sound & Stage Managing
- Directing Scenes & Theater Review
5Printable Pages
5Requirements
2021Reqs Revised
What is on the worksheet: Theater Requirements
Every requirement for the Theater merit badge, word for word as published, with room to write under each one on the printed worksheet.
1See or read three full-length plays
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.
2Write a One-Act Play
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.
3Safety and First Aid
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:
- a Act a major part in a full-length play; or act a part in three one-act plays.
- b Direct a play. Cast, rehearse, and stage it. The play must be at least 10 minutes long.
- c Design the set for a play or a theatrical production. Make a model of it.
- d Design the costumes for five characters in a theatrical production set in a historical time.
- 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.
- f With your counselor's approval, help with the building and painting of the scenery for a theatrical production.
- 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.
- h With your counselor's approval, help install, focus, equalize, program, and operate the sound for a theatrical production.
- i Serve as the stage manager for a theatrical production. Document all cues and stage setups in your calling script.
- j Serve as musical director for a musical theater production.
4Mime or Pantomime
Mime or pantomime any ONE of the following, chosen by your counselor.
- a You have come into a large room. It is full of pictures, furniture, and other things of interest.
- 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.
- c You have failed a school test. You are talking with your teacher, who does not buy your story.
- d You are at camp with a new Scout. You try to help them pass a cooking test. The Scout learns very slowly.
- e You are at a banquet. The meat is good. You don't like the vegetable. The dessert is ice cream.
- f You are a circus performer such as a juggler, high-wire artist, or lion tamer doing a routine.
5Stage Terms and Areas
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.
Two dates, two different things
Requirements Revision vs. Worksheet Date
Scouting America last revised the Theater requirements in 2021. That is the badge, not this sheet — an older year does not mean the worksheet is out of date.
Verbatim Fidelity & Verification
This worksheet was checked against https://www.scouting.org/merit-badges/theater/ in Aug 2026 and reproduces the requirements word for word. Both dates are printed on the sheet, so a copy in a binder can always be placed in time.
Requirement text is © Scouting America, reproduced verbatim. The worksheet layout and design are original to this project.
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