FAQs

Most host groups will arrange a specific date – usually a Saturday – when performing groups will be invited on a guided tour of the theatre, including backstage areas and technical facilities.

Categories: Organisation, Rules

No. Entry is by a rota system, in which groups having taken part in one year go to the end of the “queue” in the following year.

Categories: NDFA, Organisation

All FEATS adjudicators are theatrical professionals with considerable experience. They are drawn from the members of GODA, the Guild of Drama Adjudicators, membership of which is subject to a selection procedure.

Categories: NDFA, Rules

FEATS now uses the NDFA marking system, although in past years there was one addition specific to FEATS. The standard NDFA marking system is:

  • 40 points for acting
  • 35 points for production
  • 15 points for stage presentation
  • 10 points for O, E & A (originality, endeavour and achievement)

Total: 100 marks

To these, FEATS has for many years added 10 points for Innovation, making a total of 110 points. From 2009, however, these additional points were dropped.

Categories: Organisation, Rules

The running order is determined by the organising committee of the current festival, taking into account the following criteria:

  • length of productions – to control, as far as possible, the length of each evening’s entertainment
  • technical requirements
  • type of piece – with the aim of ensuring a varied evening’s entertainment
  • the groups’ expressed preferences.

Any impression that certain groups are favoured in the running order by getting their requested “slots” as a matter of course is mistaken.

Categories: Festivals, Organisation

The festival runs for four evenings, usually Friday to Monday. So to make sure you see all the plays you should plan to arrive on Friday afternoon or early evening and leave the following Tuesday morning.

Generally each evening will begin at 19:30 and end around midnight – later on the last evening to allow time for the awards ceremony. During the day on Saturday, Sunday and Monday you can enjoy the FEATS fringe.

Category: Festivals

The first festival was organised in 1976 in The Hague. For more about the origins of FEATS, see Brief history.

This is covered by the FEATS rules. Each group has ten minutes to set and five minutes to strike. This is strictly timed, in order to ensure a level playing-field. For the same reason, only a maximum of five named persons may participate in setting and striking. Actors may be included in the team of five, in addition to stage staff.

Categories: Festivals, Rules

Yes, in the sense that the rules state that “No member of a participating group may be paid for taking part in FEATS”. However, groups composed wholly or partly of professional performers are not excluded under competition rules.

Category: Rules

Nine different trophies are awarded at the end of each festival. They include first, second and third place, best actor and best actress. See the full list of FEATS awards.

Category: Rules

From the FEATS rules:

It shall be written by a member of the participating group.

Its original production shall have had its first public performance within the previous two years or at the current FEATS; and it shall have the same director, set and interpretation that it had when first performed in public, although individual cast members can have changed since that first performance.

A longer discussion on the notion of original script is published here, with the approval of the FEATS steering committee.

Categories: Festivals, NDFA

The National Drama Festivals Association (NDFA) was formed in 1964 to encourage and support amateur theatre in all its forms in the United Kingdom, and in particular through the organisation of drama festivals. Each year, the NDFA organises the National Theatre Festival, to which any group scoring 80 points or more in a qualifying festival (including FEATS) is eligible to be invited.

NDFA’s home page  • NDFA on Wikipedia

Categories: Festivals, Organisation

Any group that puts on productions in English and is based in mainland Europe.

If a group has not taken part before, it is recommended that it applies to put on a production in the Fringe Festival which accompanies the main festival, and also sits in the audience for at least one main festival. Immediately following the FEATS at which it has been present, as part of the Fringe, in the audience or both, the group should then send its application to perform to the following year’s host group. A new group to the Festival has an automatic right of entry for its first appearance and does not have to go through the annual selection procedure for that year.

See also the page containing information for new groups.

Categories: Organisation, Rules

Participating groups must ensure that performing rights for plays are paid where required. Within the EU, copyright protection is applicable until seventy years after the author’s death; so even if you are performing a play written long ago, you need to check whether rights have to be paid, especially in the case of a translation.

One of the first things to do when choosing a play is to acquire the performing rights from the author or publisher. In addition, you must secure written authorisation for any cuts or changes made to the script.

Proof that rights have been granted must reach the organising committee within the time constraints allowed in the technical package. The absence of performing rights means that you will not be permitted to perform at the festival.

Categories: Organisation, Rules

The rules stipulate a length of “not less than twenty minutes or more than fifty-five”. However, they add that the organising committee may set different minimum and maximum times within these bounds. In practice the maximum is very often set at 50 minutes or under in order to manage the evening timetable.

Categories: Festivals, NDFA

There are a large number of amateur dramatic festivals in the UK, whereas there is – to the best of our knowledge – only one in English (FEATS) in mainland Europe. It doesn’t seem fair to allow UK groups yet another festival to enter, when groups in mainland Europe don’t have the same reciprocal possibilities, owing to distance and logistical considerations.

However, high-scoring groups in FEATS may be invited to take part in the UK National Drama Festival each year.