FAQ Category: Rules
Who sets the minimum and maximum running-time?
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.
Read moreWhat are the award categories?
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.
Read moreWho is responsible for performing rights?
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.…
Read moreHow come the same groups get to perform on Sunday and Monday each year?
The running order is determined by the organising committee of the current festival, taking into account the following criteria: Any impression that certain groups are favoured in the running order by getting their requested “slots” as a matter of course is mistaken.
Read moreDo the previous year’s winners have automatic entry to the following festival?
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.
Read moreIs FEATS an amateur festival?
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.
Read moreHow are the adjudicator’s marks allocated?
FEATS now uses the NDFA marking system, although in past years there was one addition specific to FEATS. The standard NDFA marking system is: 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.
Read moreWhat constitutes an original script?
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…
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