objectives

   
I. To enrich the education of high school students:

• By helping them realize through this experience that theatre is one means of fulfilling each individual's innate need and desire to create.
  
• By bringing diverse young persons together into an environment of creative and imaginative stimulus where theatre can be witnessed, experienced, ingested, talked about, and lived.
  
• By providing experiences in which each student can recognize and share common ambitions, goals, and interests with other students from diverse communities and programs.
  
• By allowing them to witness different types and styles of theatrical process and performance.
  
• By providing and involving students in a showcase of their creative efforts.

II. To inservice teachers, directors, and theatre sponsors:

• By demonstrating specific theatre educational materials and techniques.
  
• Through the exposure of teachers from various program sizes and configurations to alternative approaches for theatre programs.
  
• By providing a showcase for accomplishments of student groups.
  
• Through developing a forum and network for the exchange and sharing of ideas for building theatre programs.

    overriding philosophies

There were several overriding philosophies and agreements of the Festival committees through the years. Some of these are listed here:

1. The committees have always felt strongly that the Festival experience does not totally rest in the three day program and, thus, should be expanded as a service-oriented program which would feed and rejuvenate the Festival event.

The Festival as a "service" and not just an "event" is a concept that festival committees have given     greater emphasis over the years. It was one of the original Festival intents.

The Festival begins at the time schools decide to apply for performance slots at the Festival. At that time, students and directors in their local communities are involved in the theatre festival process. Also, when they perform in their local viewing for Festival evaluators, they are involved in the Festival process as much as when they are at the Festival event itself. Thus the Festival begins in the early fall or sometimes in the spring prior to the beginning of the school year and continues through the Festival dates.

2. The "Illinois High School Theatre Festival" is focused on high school audiences and is not a "Theatre Festival" for all kinds of theatre and theatre communities.

3. The original intent of creating a Festival was that it not over-emphasize "product," as contests usually do, but that it offer a balanced picture of "product and process." This has been reaffirmed as the major focus of the Festivals. The workshops, the critique sessions, the discussions following showcase performances, the attempt in early Festivals of trying to ticket workshops so that a variety of students from different kinds of programs and different geographies are sharing together in the same rooms, the artistic projects sessions, and the longer pre-registered workshops all contribute to a balance with process/product at the Festival.

The Festival experience is an alternative to contest and should always remain a separate experience.

4. The committee has not always used the "quality" of the performance as the main criteria for selection of performances, but has selected productions which demonstrate and showcase the different kinds of theatre that take place throughout the state. It also takes into consideration a balanced Festival showbill for the entertainment and education of the audience. It has been noted that there has been an increased "quality" in the selection of productions through the years. However, without an attempt at maintaining and improving "quality" (not only in productions but also in workshops, etc.), participation and enthusiasm could disintegrate over the years of the Festival.

There must be a broad (north, central, south) geographical representation in the selection of productions to perform at the Festival as well as in the other phases of the Festival in order to meet the purposes of the Festival. There also has to be a broad representation in the size of schools and theatrical facilities.

5. It has remained an operating philosophy that the location of the Festival remain in the central part of the State in order for the Festival to appear to be a state-wide event attracting students from all over Illinois. The two state universities in the central part of Illinois are prime locations providing facilities for the special needs of the Festival, including several theatre facilities as well as convenient workshop spaces and small performance spaces. It is also important that the Festival occur at a time of year convenient for theatre people, even though it is not a time of year convenient because of the weather. The January date is a time where most schools are not meeting a production deadline and one in which the university facilities are available because university students are still on break. Other dates and locations have been explored but none have been found to be as effective as the present system.

6. The structure of the management of the Festival through the years has reflected in the Festival events or work to be done.This can be seen in the Festival Committee titles. It also is evident that the Festival Committee is a working committee. The director of the Festival Committee is officially appointed by the Illinois Theatre Association president as are other project committees of the organization. The committee members are then appointed by the director.

The Festival Committee is comprised of representatives from sponsoring organizations as well as the associate directors who chair activities/events within the Festival schedule.

7. The Illinois High School Association originally sanctioned the Festival each year, making it an authorized event so that all schools could participate. The IHSA no longer requires this sanction, but the IHSA is still informed.

8. The Festival has received grants from the Illinois Arts Council to support professional theatre performances beginning with the third Festival. However, the rest of the budget is funded by student/ teacher fees and in-kind support from the sponsoring agencies.

9. It should be remembered that the Festival was created in response to a need from the secondary schools. Should monies accumulate in excess of expenses, those monies should be used specifically to further the Festival concept and promote quality and expanded high school theatre programs in Illinois.

10. There have been many developments in the Theatre Festival: the emergence of a theme approach; the design of recognition awards to performing schools, which are examples of art work as opposed to trophies; a photo contest developed to promote documentation for archives; a student cover design contest; artistic projects; all-state productions; college/university auditions; pre-registered workshops. These are important developments in the progression of the Festival. Souvenir items such as buttons, posters, and t-shirts have become important to the students participating in the Festival.

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