Peter Brook

Encore lives inside STAGE, ISTA’s online platform. A free account lets you open any course, watch its free preview lessons where they’re offered, and keeps everything you buy together on your ISTA profile. It takes a minute and there’s no charge to join.

For as long as the course stays on Encore, so you can come back to it whenever you like. ISTA may retire a course that becomes outdated or no longer meets our standards; where we can, we’ll give advance notice and time to finish it first.

Each All-Access Pass unlocks the whole Encore library for 12 months, including every new release during that year. There are three: the Educator Pass for one educator (£300 a year), the Class Pass for one educator and 30 students (£375 a year, with Ensemble or Company membership), and the Extended Class Pass for whole departments (from £400 a year, with Company membership). Changes to the library don’t affect the price of your pass.

No. Anyone can buy single courses, or the Educator Pass for £300 a year, with a free ISTA account. Membership is only needed for the Class Pass and the Extended Class Pass, which bring Encore to your students.

Ensemble and Company members pay £250 a year for the Educator Pass, saving £50, and can add a Class Pass for their students. Company members can also build an Extended Class Pass for their department. Your pass sits on your membership, so you renew both together on one invoice. Solo members can add the Educator Pass at £300 to the same renewal.

Passes can be bought at any time of year, and access begins straight away, whether you pay by card or by invoice. Invoices are due within 30 days. Members pay their member price, prorated by day to their next membership renewal; after that, pass and membership renew together each year on one invoice. If you join ISTA and buy a pass at the same time, both start and renew on the same date. Non-members pay £300 a year for the Educator Pass, renewing each year from the purchase date. Buying a pass never changes a membership renewal date.

Any unused value from your pass is credited towards your new subscription, and your pass moves to your membership renewal date. From then on your membership tier sets your Encore price: £250 a year with Ensemble or Company.

Extra educator and student seats can be added at any time, prorated to your existing renewal date. Reductions take effect at your next renewal, with no mid-term refunds.

Upgrading starts straight away: the time left on your current plan comes off the price, and an Educator Pass moves to your new member price, with its unused time credited too. If you move to a tier that doesn’t include your pass, it stays active until the end of the paid term and isn’t renewed. If you leave, an Educator Pass can continue at the standard rate of £300 a year from your next renewal date; Class Passes and Extended Class Passes need eligible membership, so they stay active to the end of the paid membership term and aren’t renewed.

It’s a Class Pass with more seats, for Company members. Add educators at £75 a year each and students in blocks of 10 at £25 a year, and pay only for what your school needs. For example, 3 educators and 60 students cost £600 a year.

Students with an email address on the same domain as their teacher’s, each signing in with their own free ISTA account. You can reassign or reset a seat at any time, so seats move on when a class changes.

No. They support IB programmes well, and they’re just as useful for AP, BTEC, A level and a wide range of other theatre and arts courses.

Yes. Every course includes a personalised ISTA Encore Certificate of Completion for your professional development records.

Both. Teachers can take a course themselves and then use its lesson plans, presentations and resources with their classes, or students can explore a practitioner or tradition independently.