Individual & Group IE FAQs
What are National IEs?
Individual Events or IEs are competitive events which qualify for National Competitions at the International Thespian Festival.
• Performance IEs: Solo Musical, Duet Musical, Group Musical, Monologue, Duet Acting, Group Acting
• Technical IEs: Sound Design, Lighting Design, Stage Management, Marketing, Costume Construction, Costume Design, Set Design
• Short Film (Documentary, Live Action and Animation)
• Playworks - playwriting competition
• Musicalworks - music composition competition
IE Entries
Is there Acceptable & Unacceptable Material?
Acceptable material for all Individual Performance Events:
In what events may my students participate?
How do Tech Competitions work?
All design competition teams are comprised of 4 people. They show up with EVERY possible supply that one would need.
What if I have students who are cross-entered into Individual Events AND Tech Challenge AND Scholarship Auditions?
Students may only enter one (1) National Qualifying Event. A National Qualifying Event is a Performance IE: Solo Musical, Duet Musical, Group Musical, Monologue, Duet Acting, Group Acting or a Technical IE: Sound Design, Lighting Design, Stage Management, Marketing, Costume Construction, Costume Design, Set Design
What’s the difference between Nationals and Finals Qualifying?
A National Qualifier is an IE (Individual Event) performance score which must receive an overall superior rating from the judges.
How are main stage performers chosen?
Students may qualify for Nationals, but may not necessarily be a IE finalist.
Students who receive three perfect superior ballots in performance IEs advance to IE finals.
The Main Stage finalists will then be chosen by the IE Finals judges.
Why are students required to wear black clothing for technical and performance IEs? Why can’t we just wear nice clothes?
This is a national model which Texas Thespians follow. Wearing all-black clothing promotes professionalism and creates a level playing ground for all participants.
Click here for examples of What to Wear and What Not to Wear.
If we qualify for Nationals, are we required to go to the International Thespian Festival?
You are not required, but if you’ve never taken a troupe, you might want to look into it! National Festival is a blast!!
Does EVERY student have to be registered for events?
Yes - it's required for every student who is competing.
The reason? We want to give every student the opportunity to participate in all facets of festival and in doing so, we have had MASSIVE conflicts in the past with students participating in the competitions, the shows, and the scholarship auditions.
To rectify this, we are creating personalized schedules for each student and troupe. After registration, we can cross-reference to see if your scholarship auditioning senior is also scheduled for an Individual Event. This process gives us the ability to see conflicts before we get to festival, and prevents stressed out troupe directors, Thespians, and festival personnel who are juggling 7,000+ schedules.
What pitfalls should I be aware of?
Each student competing in each event must be registered in Cvent by the registration deadline. This includes each student in each group or duet event. For example, Sam and Mary are competing in Duet Acting. BOTH Sam and Mary must be entered in Duet Acting and the competition piece info must be entered for BOTH students.
The competition piece info must also be entered into Cvent by the registration deadline. All entries that do not include title info will be dropped and not allowed to compete. They will also not receive a refund for being dropped.
Be VERY careful and check EVERY IE entry to make sure you have included title information.
Individual Events or IEs are competitive events which qualify for National Competitions at the International Thespian Festival.
• Performance IEs: Solo Musical, Duet Musical, Group Musical, Monologue, Duet Acting, Group Acting
• Technical IEs: Sound Design, Lighting Design, Stage Management, Marketing, Costume Construction, Costume Design, Set Design
• Short Film (Documentary, Live Action and Animation)
• Playworks - playwriting competition
• Musicalworks - music composition competition
IE Entries
- Troupes are allowed to have any six (6) performance IEs - whatever six best fit your students' strengths (ex: 3 monologues, 2 duet musicals, and a group musical).
- Troupes are allowed to submit any seven (7) technical events in any combination (ex: 3 stage managers, 2 lighting designs, and 2 scenic designs)
Is there Acceptable & Unacceptable Material?
Acceptable material for all Individual Performance Events:
- Published scripts written for the theater ONLY
- Songs from a musical that have been written for the theater (regardless of its previous publication as a classical or popular song).
- Poetry
- Fiction
- Scripts or songs from films
- Scripts or songs from television
- Stand-alone monologues found on the internet or in monologue books
- Popular songs not used in a published work for the theater
- Classical songs not used in a published work for the theater.
In what events may my students participate?
- Tech Challenges: Troupes can enter 5 to 7 delegates who compete in a Tech Challenge relay (for example: leg a platform, focus a light, fold a backdrop, costume quick changes, setting props, sewing, roll cables, etc.)
- Tech Team Design: During a 2-hour time slot, a team of four (4) students produce and bring to life a theatrically-based design for set, costumes, hair & makeup, or masks based on a show-specific prompt. Students/troupes will need to provide their own materials.
- Students cannot cross enter team tech design events.
How do Tech Competitions work?
All design competition teams are comprised of 4 people. They show up with EVERY possible supply that one would need.
- When they get to the competition, they will be given a prompt... for Hair & Makeup, think fantasy or animal categories... The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe characters; The Lion King characters... you get the idea.
- For Hair/Makeup, students created designs on themselves.
- Plan on bringing feathers, raffia, sequins, eyelash glue (much easier than spirit gum to work with and to get off), eye pencils, cream makeup, blush, eyeshadow, brushes, mirrors, leaves, pearls, shells, plastic snowflakes, ANYTHING that might possibly be useful for a makeup design.
- For Costumes, students create designs on 12" wooden art models which are provided for them.
- For costumes, some bring sewing machines, tubs of scraps, buttons, trim, etc.
- For Set Designs, students create sets in a box that holds paper reams. Teams must bring their own box.
- For Mask Making, students will create designs on plastic mask forms. Items that can be used for Hair/Makeup would be useful for mask making.
- For set designs, bring foam core, paint, hot glue guns & sticks, model furniture, toothpicks, battery operated Christmas lights, balsa wood, wire, etc.
- Students will have use of an electrical power strip and will work in a designated 8' x 8' space.
What if I have students who are cross-entered into Individual Events AND Tech Challenge AND Scholarship Auditions?
Students may only enter one (1) National Qualifying Event. A National Qualifying Event is a Performance IE: Solo Musical, Duet Musical, Group Musical, Monologue, Duet Acting, Group Acting or a Technical IE: Sound Design, Lighting Design, Stage Management, Marketing, Costume Construction, Costume Design, Set Design
- Students may be entered into an IE and a Tech Challenge relay.
- Tech Challenges and Technical Events will be scheduled on Thursday; Performance IEs are scheduled on Friday.
- Scholarship audition times are pre-assigned. Changes will only be made under certain circumstances.
- What this means is that students need to be aware that timing could be difficult or busy but all students wanting to participate in all an IE, a tech event, and a scholarship audition could.
What’s the difference between Nationals and Finals Qualifying?
A National Qualifier is an IE (Individual Event) performance score which must receive an overall superior rating from the judges.
How are main stage performers chosen?
Students may qualify for Nationals, but may not necessarily be a IE finalist.
Students who receive three perfect superior ballots in performance IEs advance to IE finals.
The Main Stage finalists will then be chosen by the IE Finals judges.
Why are students required to wear black clothing for technical and performance IEs? Why can’t we just wear nice clothes?
This is a national model which Texas Thespians follow. Wearing all-black clothing promotes professionalism and creates a level playing ground for all participants.
Click here for examples of What to Wear and What Not to Wear.
If we qualify for Nationals, are we required to go to the International Thespian Festival?
You are not required, but if you’ve never taken a troupe, you might want to look into it! National Festival is a blast!!
Does EVERY student have to be registered for events?
Yes - it's required for every student who is competing.
The reason? We want to give every student the opportunity to participate in all facets of festival and in doing so, we have had MASSIVE conflicts in the past with students participating in the competitions, the shows, and the scholarship auditions.
To rectify this, we are creating personalized schedules for each student and troupe. After registration, we can cross-reference to see if your scholarship auditioning senior is also scheduled for an Individual Event. This process gives us the ability to see conflicts before we get to festival, and prevents stressed out troupe directors, Thespians, and festival personnel who are juggling 7,000+ schedules.
What pitfalls should I be aware of?
Each student competing in each event must be registered in Cvent by the registration deadline. This includes each student in each group or duet event. For example, Sam and Mary are competing in Duet Acting. BOTH Sam and Mary must be entered in Duet Acting and the competition piece info must be entered for BOTH students.
The competition piece info must also be entered into Cvent by the registration deadline. All entries that do not include title info will be dropped and not allowed to compete. They will also not receive a refund for being dropped.
Be VERY careful and check EVERY IE entry to make sure you have included title information.
