One Act Festival

This Festival operates as a national event with three main stages. All entrants participate within their own District with the leading team or teams progressing to the Divisional Festival. The winning two entrants from the Divisionals then go through to the Scottish Final and the Scottish winner proceeds to the British Final. At all levels the performances are reviewed by an adjudicator who gives a short assessment of the plays to the audience, as well as choosing the winners of the various awards available. Festivals at all levels are held at a specific venue and spread over a number of nights.

Tryst in Swindon District Festivals should normally be completed by the end of February and District Secretaries need to receive notice of intended entries by the end of November of the preceding year. Any club considering entering for the first time should discuss their plans with their District Secretary at the earliest possible time. Divisional Festivals are normally over by the end of March with the Scottish Final in late April.

If a club is premiering an original play in the festival then the author can be eligible to enter the Scott Salver competition with the play, not the performance, being judged by a panel of readers.

Details of the teams competing in festivals are compiled and placed on the SCDA website by late January and published in the Spring edition of SCENE magazine.

Although competition forms part of the motivation for our Festivals we cannot stress strongly enough that they are not cut-throat competitions but an opportunity for clubs to meet together, socialise and learn both from the adjudicators and from each other.