Festival FAQs
Main stage shows
How are the shows selected?
There is a team of about fifty theatre educators and professionals that are sent out in pairs to view each show. They are asked to invite the best that they see. There are no other limitations set for them. They each have a four-page critique form they must complete which offers their perceptions on all aspects of each production.
Why are some shows that get invited better than others?
The selections are made based on people’s opinions and those opinions can vary greatly. One person may like a particular production, but another person may not like it—it’s not an exact science. Consider the movie reviewers one sees on TV. Both are considered to be movie experts, but often their opinions about some movies are in opposition. In addition, shows usually aren’t totally great or totally awful, more often they fall somewhere in between. Some shows will have wonderful strengths, but they may also have some areas that are weak. Adjudicators don’t take these decisions lightly and they often deliberate at great length trying to decide if a show should be invited based on its strengths, or declined because of a few weaknesses. Another reason the quality of a show may not be as strong as one would like is because sometimes a show just won’t hold up over time. Especially if a show is adjudicated in the fall, it is very difficult to keep the enthusiasm and focus strong all the way to June. Therefore some shows that may have looked great when they were adjudicated may not look as strong by the time they’re presented again at Festival. All of these factors result in varying levels of show quality.
Why are there so many musicals and not so many non-musicals?
The adjudicators are asked to recommend the best that they see and it seems that musicals generally are presented at a better quality level than non-musicals. Ideally we would like to offer a wide mix of show styles; unfortunately quality seems to be tilted towards the musical theatre style.
Why are the shows scheduled sometimes with similar styles together, such as three musicals in a row?
The ideal would be for the shows to be mixed up, intermingling musicals and non-musicals, however there are many factors to consider when scheduling the shows. First some shows will be moving between the two main stage theatres so they must be ordered to provide a smooth transition. We must consider how many trucks will be at the load-in docks at any given time as there are load-ins for three performance venues going on most of the day in the same area. It can become quite a traffic jam if not well-planned. Personnel schedules must be considered, because for some shows their technical director or choral director can’t be there for the whole week. We must schedule their show when they can be there. These are just a few of the factors that must be considered when scheduling the shows.
Why don’t you require the schools to build smaller sets so all the shows will fit in both main stage theatres?
Generally schools plan their season of shows based on what they think will appeal to their school and community audiences and they build their sets to fit their home stage. For us to dictate to any school what size show they should be presenting in their home school would be inappropriate, and we don’t want to be telling anyone how to plan their show season for their own school. Plus, some shows just require a larger set. We don’t want to limit the shows schools can bring because we want the opportunity to expose Festival audiences to as many different types and sizes of theatre as possible.
Why do you allow shows with mature content to be presented on the Festival Main stage?
We do not censor. We never want to tell Festival audiences what they can and cannot watch. Clearly, there are schools which are allowed and able to present shows with riskier content, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to bring those shows to the Festival. We realize there are some people who are not comfortable watching these types of shows or would not be allowed to view them in their schools, so we post the full Festival schedule a week before the event so they can make choices about which shows to watch. All main stage shows are given a rating so anyone can see which shows contain mature content. They can then decide to go to the show in the other theatre or to do something else.
Main stage seating
How are the main stage seats assigned?
We assign seating based on when a troupe’s registration and full payment have been received. As each troupe’s registration and payment are received they are assigned a number. The troupe that sends in their materials fifth will be given the number five and, when we begin seating, that troupe will be the fifth troupe to be seated. Once a troupe is assigned their seating number that number will not change even if they add, delete, or substitute delegates. Seating assignments are begun in the Lied and once the Lied is full we switch to the Kimball to assign seats. Seats for the Lied are still available up until about a week before the registration deadline. There are some troupes that prefer to be seated in the Kimball Theatre because they have better sight lines and can hear better in that venue. We try to duplicate as many shows as possible in both theatres and, when we can’t, we try to at least provide the same quality of theatre in both venues. So that everyone gets the chance to see at least one show in the Lied we schedule the opening show to play twice.
Why don’t you switch the audiences between the two main stage theatres?
The math doesn’t work - the Lied has 2,200 seats and the Kimball has 850 seats.
Why are we always assigned to the afternoon presentation of the opening show on Tuesday?
Running a main stage show twice creates many scheduling challenges as there are several activities going on at the same time in the afternoon. We try to schedule troupes with no viewing conflicts for the afternoon presentation and those delegates with afternoon conflicts will view the evening performance. A few of the possible conflicts are delegates in afternoon I.E.s, teams in Tech Challenge, auditions for college and scholarship judges, teachers registered for PDIs, and any of the playwrights and dramaturgs involved with Playworks. We do our best to schedule people to avoid conflicts, but it is not possible to catch them all. We are always willing to switch seats between the evening and afternoon performance to allow people to meet their obligations.
Often in Main Stage shows there appears to be many empty seats. Why don’t you fill all the seats?
We assign all the seats in both the Main stage venues but delegates often choose not to see a show. Sometimes the empty seats have been assigned to troupes who are performing in one of the main stage shows. We have tried different efforts to make empty seats available to other delegates including making forms available on which they can indicate which shows they will not be viewing. Many people choose not to give up their seats and in some cases it may be that they decided not to attend a show at the last minute.
Miscellaneous
Housing – Why aren’t we housed in closer dorms?
We assign housing in the residence halls that the university assigns to us, which varies from year to year. We are not the only guests on campus and some of the residence halls are assigned to other groups.
Housing/Meals – Why can’t we be assigned to the cafeteria that is closest to our residence hall?
We could assign delegates to the cafeteria closest to the residence hall if troupes did not want to eat together. The residence halls are divided by gender, so if we were to assign folks to the closest dining hall all the girls would be eating in one cafeteria and all the boys would be eating in the other cafeteria. We must assign cafeterias so that the cafeteria staff can accurately plan the amount of food they will need for each meal and to avoid waste as much as possible. We split the delegation in half to evenly split the workload for the dining hall staff—this is a random split.
Workshops – Why are there no workshops in the morning or the evening?
The morning and the evening are when the Main stage shows are scheduled and we want that to be a time when everyone at Festival comes together…it builds a greater sense of community. In addition, the university holds many of its classes in the morning, therefore workshop rooms are not available to us at that time.
Workshops – Why are the workshops so spread out on the campus?
The university assigns us the rooms we may use for workshops. They have many issues to consider, but of course their first priority is the needs of the university classes they are offering. For some rooms and buildings they do not want guests using their spaces, plus many of our workshops are active and noisy, so the university, when possible, will assign us spaces that are not near their classes.
Individual Events (I.E.s) – Why are Individual Events scheduled on Tuesday?
Tuesday is the day with the fewest conflicts. I.E.s involve many people and if we moved them to another day we would not be able to manage them. Many of the judges are guest artists or college representatives and none of them would be available on other days, as they are teaching workshops or judging auditions. Plus, if I.E.s were on another day, it would be very difficult to schedule the students around potential conflicts with one-act shows and college and scholarship auditions.
