Students who have designed in any of the following areas: scenery, costumes, lighting, or sound for a production, may take part in the KCACTF Awards for Theatrical Design Excellence, as long as their school has entered at least one associate or participating entry during the festival year. All entries must have been realized and produced at their home institution. Participants must attend their regional festival, and display their supporting materials and documentation. “Student” is defined as: a) an undergraduate student who is registered for a minimum of six semester hours or nine quarter hours at the time of production; b) a graduate student who is enrolled for three semester hours or four quarter hours at the time of production; c) a continuing part-time student who is enrolled in a regular degree program at the time of production.

Participants are asked to prepare a display showing their design and present it at the Region III Festival. In order to help the respondents understand the design process and intentions, it is important that designers in all categories present, as part of the display support, materials, which most clearly tell of the story of the process and evolution of the design.

Supporting materials that have proven most useful include combinations of the following: research images, preliminary sketches, white models, color models, color sketches, drafting (including ground plans and sections), recordings of sound cues and manipulations that lead to those compositions, design bibles, storyboards, fabric and trim swatches, cue synopsis, production photographs, tracking sheets, sound plot, board hook-up, and the like.

This is in no way meant to be a definitive list. Your guide should be those items that help us understand your approach to YOUR design.

A one-page statement of the design approach to the production is strongly recommended.

For sound designs, in addition to their posters, a 5.1 Q-lab system with a large 1080p display will be provided. Students will each be scheduled 15min of tech time to test their Q-lab presentation. Students should make a Q-Lab with their sounds and 1080 x 1920 images/slides to provide context for each cue. The presentation should run from 1-3 minutes of length. This will not be shared with the respondents during your presentation. Instead, during your presentation you need to provide two to four specific cues you can ask a provided board op to play. Respondents, will have access to your full Q-Lab presentation. With such limited tech time students will only be successful if they come with a well programmed Q-Lab project that they are simply testing on the display system. Students with questions should contact the Regional DTM Chair.

For specific details on size and format of display panels and instruction on how to mount and present materials, please see:

Region III Exhibit Format

It is strongly recommended that students bring their materials in person to the design exposition space at the specifically scheduled time for installation of all exposition materials (see top of page). Those who cannot bring materials in person may send materials to the festival host. The designer is responsible for providing the appropriate mailing and insurance charges, and a diagram of how to mount the design.