Festival Rules

Texas Thespians have hired security onsite to serve along with our teachers and administrative representatives from schools and districts attending our festival. Please understand that we take your safety and security very seriously and violations will be dealt with by the Festival Security Team.
A delegate who violates the Festival Rules will have to deal with the consequences of his/her behavior and in some instances will be sent home from festival. Please take time to review our Social Media Policy in addition to the following Rules & Code of Conduct.
Violations are divided into three categories:
Security Infractions include, but are not limited to the following:
MINOR INFRACTIONS
Badge removal and meeting with Troupe Director and State Chapter Director (or their designate). More than one minor infraction could result in a troupe being denied attendance at the following year’s festival.
MAJOR INFRACTIONS
Badge removal and mandatory meeting with Troupe Director, State Chapter Director (or their designate) and the Security Chair and could result is delegate being sent home at their families expense. Major infractions could result in a troupe being denied attendance at the following year’s festival.
IMMEDIATE REMOVAL FROM FESTIVAL AT OWN EXPENSE
**Badge will be turned in to the Festival Staff Office and Student and their director will meet immediately with the appropriate people.
A delegate who violates the Festival Rules will have to deal with the consequences of his/her behavior and in some instances will be sent home from festival. Please take time to review our Social Media Policy in addition to the following Rules & Code of Conduct.
Violations are divided into three categories:
- Minor Infractions
- Major Infractions
- Immediate Removal from the Festival
Security Infractions include, but are not limited to the following:
MINOR INFRACTIONS
Badge removal and meeting with Troupe Director and State Chapter Director (or their designate). More than one minor infraction could result in a troupe being denied attendance at the following year’s festival.
- Not wearing badge above the waist with nametag visible and producing it when asked
- Not participating in festival activities and hanging out in hallways
- Posting messages or flyers in the convention center or hotel
- Using non-appropriate school language or profanity
- Found outside of festival space during festival time without a director
- Using cellphones, texting or causing disruptive audience behavior during a performance
- Throwing food or inappropriate behavior in the dining halls
- Playing on escalators or in elevators
- Being disrespectful to adult delegates, security staff, hotel or convention staff
MAJOR INFRACTIONS
Badge removal and mandatory meeting with Troupe Director, State Chapter Director (or their designate) and the Security Chair and could result is delegate being sent home at their families expense. Major infractions could result in a troupe being denied attendance at the following year’s festival.
- Found outside of hotel room after curfew
- Causing excessive noise/disruption in the hotel
- Throwing an object out of the hotel, hanging out of hotel windows, or damage to the hotel or convention center
- Severely disruptive behavior during festival
- Acts of theft, vandalism or disregard for property that is part of the festival or it’s participants
- Use of fireworks, noise-making devices
- Failure to show up at a Security Meeting
IMMEDIATE REMOVAL FROM FESTIVAL AT OWN EXPENSE
- Willful setting off a false alarm or causing a public disturbance
- Theft
- Found in possession of or under the influence of alcohol
- Found in possession of or under the influence of drugs or controlled substances
- Found with a firearm or other weapon in his/her possession
**Badge will be turned in to the Festival Staff Office and Student and their director will meet immediately with the appropriate people.

Social Media Policy
At the Texas Thespian State Festival we encourage students, teachers, guest artists, and all other delegates to learn and grow from each other to become better Thespians.
Social media, both personal and professional, is a great way to collaborate and share our own personal experiences. Social media is a great tool to use, but can also be misused in ways deemed inappropriate by Texas Thespians.
Below is the policy approved for Texas Thespian Festival that must be followed by all of our delegates. If anyone is found breaking these rules there will be disciplinary actions taken which could result in your removal from current or future Texas Thespian State Festival
At the Texas Thespian State Festival we encourage students, teachers, guest artists, and all other delegates to learn and grow from each other to become better Thespians.
Social media, both personal and professional, is a great way to collaborate and share our own personal experiences. Social media is a great tool to use, but can also be misused in ways deemed inappropriate by Texas Thespians.
Below is the policy approved for Texas Thespian Festival that must be followed by all of our delegates. If anyone is found breaking these rules there will be disciplinary actions taken which could result in your removal from current or future Texas Thespian State Festival
Use of Social Media
First and foremost, delegates are encouraged to always exercise the utmost caution when participating in any form of social media or online communications, both within the Texas Thespian community and beyond.
Delegates who participate in online interactions must remember that their posts reflect on the entire Texas Thespian community and, as such, are subject to the same behavioral standards set forth by the Texas Thespian Board of Directors
In addition all delegates are expected to abide by the following:
- Delegates may not use social media sites to publish disparaging or harassing remarks about Texas Thespian members.
- Delegates who choose to post editorial content to websites or other forms of online media must ensure that their submission does not reflect poorly upon Texas Thespians.
Texas Thespian Social Media Comments and Participation Policy
Comments to Texas Thespian, such as its Website via blogs, online forms, etc., or other social media sites, are welcome and encouraged, and we look forward to hearing from you. To promote respectful discussion within this forum, we request that you be courteous and productive and avoid comments that are profane, obscene, offensive, sexually explicit, inappropriate, inflammatory or otherwise objectionable. Blogs often foster debate of an issue; users are to engage in such exchanges with mutual respect for others’ opinions.
For the privacy of users and their families, please assume that all postings to Texas Thespian sponsored social media will be publicly available on the Internet and therefore publicly accessible without limitation or protection of any kind. Please consider how much personal information to share, with the understanding that this information may be linked to your name and published on the Internet.
By posting a comment or other material to a Texas Thespian social media outlet as outlined above, users give Texas Thespians the irrevocable right and license to exercise all copyright, publicity, and moral rights with respect to any content you provide, which includes using your submission for any purpose in any form and on any media, including but not limited to: displaying, modifying, reproducing, distributing, creating other works from, and publishing your submission. Texas Thespians reserves the right to review all comments before they are posted, and to edit them to preserve readability for other users.
Texas Thespians further reserves the right to reject or remove comments for any reason, including but not limited to our belief that the comments violate this Comment Policy, to determine in its sole discretion which submissions meet its qualifications for posting, and to remove comments for any reason, including but not limited to our belief that the comments violate this Policy. Any submissions that fail to follow this Policy in any way or are otherwise irrelevant will be removed and disciplinary actions will be taken
We also reserve the right to amend this Policy from time to time in our judgment to address issues that may arise and changes in our operations or the law.
Posting or Tagging on Social Media
In posting or tagging on Texas Thespian sponsored social media, you agree not to:
Consequences for actions deemed inappropriate
Failure to abide by this Policy, as with other policies at Texas Thespians, may result in disciplinary action determined by the Texas Thespian Board.
Acceptance of Policy
User agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Texas Thespians, its affiliates, directors, employees, successors and assigns against any damages, losses, liabilities, judgments, causes of action, costs or expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs) arising out of any claim by a third party relating to any material user has posted on Texas Thespian sponsored social media.
By posting a comment or material of any kind on a Texas Thespian-sponsored site, the user hereby agrees to the Policy set forth above.
First and foremost, delegates are encouraged to always exercise the utmost caution when participating in any form of social media or online communications, both within the Texas Thespian community and beyond.
Delegates who participate in online interactions must remember that their posts reflect on the entire Texas Thespian community and, as such, are subject to the same behavioral standards set forth by the Texas Thespian Board of Directors
In addition all delegates are expected to abide by the following:
- Delegates may not use social media sites to publish disparaging or harassing remarks about Texas Thespian members.
- Delegates who choose to post editorial content to websites or other forms of online media must ensure that their submission does not reflect poorly upon Texas Thespians.
Texas Thespian Social Media Comments and Participation Policy
Comments to Texas Thespian, such as its Website via blogs, online forms, etc., or other social media sites, are welcome and encouraged, and we look forward to hearing from you. To promote respectful discussion within this forum, we request that you be courteous and productive and avoid comments that are profane, obscene, offensive, sexually explicit, inappropriate, inflammatory or otherwise objectionable. Blogs often foster debate of an issue; users are to engage in such exchanges with mutual respect for others’ opinions.
For the privacy of users and their families, please assume that all postings to Texas Thespian sponsored social media will be publicly available on the Internet and therefore publicly accessible without limitation or protection of any kind. Please consider how much personal information to share, with the understanding that this information may be linked to your name and published on the Internet.
By posting a comment or other material to a Texas Thespian social media outlet as outlined above, users give Texas Thespians the irrevocable right and license to exercise all copyright, publicity, and moral rights with respect to any content you provide, which includes using your submission for any purpose in any form and on any media, including but not limited to: displaying, modifying, reproducing, distributing, creating other works from, and publishing your submission. Texas Thespians reserves the right to review all comments before they are posted, and to edit them to preserve readability for other users.
Texas Thespians further reserves the right to reject or remove comments for any reason, including but not limited to our belief that the comments violate this Comment Policy, to determine in its sole discretion which submissions meet its qualifications for posting, and to remove comments for any reason, including but not limited to our belief that the comments violate this Policy. Any submissions that fail to follow this Policy in any way or are otherwise irrelevant will be removed and disciplinary actions will be taken
We also reserve the right to amend this Policy from time to time in our judgment to address issues that may arise and changes in our operations or the law.
Posting or Tagging on Social Media
In posting or tagging on Texas Thespian sponsored social media, you agree not to:
- Post material that Texas Thespians determines is threatening, harassing, illegal, obscene, defamatory, slanderous, or hostile towards any individual or entity.
- Post phone numbers, email addresses or other confidential information of student delegates, adult delegates, or any other person other than yourself.
- If you choose to post your own contact information for any reason, please be aware that the information will be available to the public and is, therefore, subject to misuse.
- Post material that infringes on the rights of Texas Thespians or any individual or entity, including privacy, intellectual property or publication rights.
- Post chain letters, post the same comment multiple times, or otherwise distribute “spam” via the Texas Thespian sponsored social media.
- Allow any other individual or entity to use your identification for posting or viewing comments.
- Post comments under multiple names or using another person’s name.
Consequences for actions deemed inappropriate
- Remove or edit comments at any time, whether or not they violate this Policy
- Ban future posts from people who repeatedly violate this Policy. We may affect such bans by refusing posts from specific email addresses or IP addresses, or through other means as necessary.
- Disciplinary actions that is decided on by the Texas Thespians Board of Directors
- Removal from Festival
Failure to abide by this Policy, as with other policies at Texas Thespians, may result in disciplinary action determined by the Texas Thespian Board.
Acceptance of Policy
User agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Texas Thespians, its affiliates, directors, employees, successors and assigns against any damages, losses, liabilities, judgments, causes of action, costs or expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs) arising out of any claim by a third party relating to any material user has posted on Texas Thespian sponsored social media.
By posting a comment or material of any kind on a Texas Thespian-sponsored site, the user hereby agrees to the Policy set forth above.