Legislative Council Approves Theatrical Design Contest Officially
By Ronald L. Watson, Theatrical Design State Contest Director | Monday, December 05, 2011 12:06 PM
A marvelous thing happened in October to advance the state of theatre education in Texas. At its regular meeting on Oct. 17, the UIL Legislative Council voted to make the Theatrical Design Contest an officially sanctioned contest by the League. Officially sanctioned means that the Council recognizes the educational benefits that the Theatrical Design Contest provides students in the state of Texas and encourages all schools to participate. The contest will not be a part of the district academic meet, though.
The Theatrical Design Contest began as a pilot contest in the spring of 2006 and has been held every year since. Growth in participation has been tremendous. There were 36 entries in 2006 for the first contest and more than 300 entries for last year’s contest. Participants include students from schools all over the state and from every conference from A to 5A. State finalists and winners have come from all five conferences as well.
The contest is designed to be about the design of the production, not the execution of said designs. A play is chosen in July and a prompt is written as a type of director’s approach to the production. Each participant designs an element of a fictitious production of that play. Design categories include scene design, costume design, hair and makeup design and theatre marketing.
All entries due to the League Theatre Office by Feb. 5 and preliminary judging takes place in March. Entries earning high enough scores as deemed by the preliminary judges then become state finalists where they are displayed during the State One-Act Play Contest. Then, the entries are adjudicated by another set of judges who chose first through fifth place. Those placing first through fifth are awarded League medals.
The most amazing thing about this contest is the level of creativity and the quality of the entries. As the contest continues to grow, the overall quality of the student work has also made great strides.