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Recommended Minimal Standards for Facilities Hosting One-Act Play Contests

The contest site should have an auditorium/theatre-type building which meets all state and civil safety codes and fulfills minimum requirements for the One-Act Play Contest.

Cafetorium/gymatorium-type facilities are not and cannot be made suitable for the League’s One-Act Play Contest.

The League strongly recommends the selection of the best theatre facility available.

Minimum Theatre Size

  1. The theatre should seat no fewer than 250 audience members.
  2. The stage house should have a proscenium opening not less than 30 feet wide by 18 feet high.
  3. The height of the stage from the audience floor level should be at least 40" with an incline or seating that allows for an unobstructed line-of-sight between a spectator and the stage.
  4. Minimum stage depth from curtain line to the upstage drapery should be no less than 20 feet.
  5. The stage house should have adequate offstage space for shifting and storage of scenery and properties. A space of not less than one-half the proscenium opening is strongly recommended and is essential on at least one side.
  6. A backstage crossover of not less than four feet should be available between the upstage drapery and the back wall.

Minimum Scenery

  1. The stage should have a house curtain and sufficient soft scenery: borders, legs, cyclorama, etc., to mask backstage and offstage areas allowing for offstage entrances and exits from either side and the rear.
  2. The League Approved Unit Set should be provided as per the working drawings found on this website.
  3. Standard door and window units should be provided as perthe working drawings found on this website.

Minimum Lighting

  1. The lighting plot should be laid out with nine or more acting areas established. Areas should be individually controlled with dimmers.
  2. The use of the three primary colors in light - red, blue and amber - as general washes is strongly recommended. Wash colors should be individually controlled with dimmers.
  3. Lighting instruments available should consist of sufficient instruments to create the acting area and general color washes noted above as well as one high-power follow-spot equipped with a variety of color filters.
  4. Lighting control systems should be able to handle, at a minimum, the above listed minimal standards.

Sound

  1. The theatre should be equipped with an in-house master amplification system and mixer control board into which competing companies can plug standard from all types of playback equipment (cd player,iPones, iPads, etc) and an intercommunication system between major operation systems (lights, sound, stage manager, etc.) in the theatre.
  2. The theatre should be equipped to supply at least two hand-held microphones with enough cable to reach the width of the proscenium opening.

Dressing Rooms

  1. All contest sites are expected to provide adequate dressing areas.
  2. The building facility should allow for at least four competing companies at one time with adequate lighting, mirrors, rest rooms, and lavatories to handle the maximum company size of twenty-four per company.