Information Page

 SGPHS Middle School Theatre/Speech Festival Information

Thank you for being involved and competing in the SGPHS Middle School Theatre/Speech Festival (Virtual Edition 1.0). Below, we have all the information to prepare and register for the tournament. This is an Invitational only tournament/festival, so if you are getting this e-mail, you are INVITED. :)

We are using Tabroom.com for the tournament. You need to create an account for your school and enter your students as your competitors. Once they are entered in Tabroom, they will be good to go for any tournament using Tabroom.

Registration Notes and Fees:

We will inform you when our tournament is open to register. But, we highly, highly recommend getting yourself/school and students set up in Tabroom now.

All videos/registration will be due by November 18^th. No exceptions on this. But, if you have your kids set up in Tabroom, it will be easy to enter. Hopefully, we will have registration open by October 28^th.  We have Dave Huston (The North Texas representative/committee member for National Speech and Debate Association) running the tournament and he is a master at it. He runs almost all of the North Texas High School Tournaments.

As far as fees, all events will be $8. When you officially register, it will tell you where to send your payment to and we will give you a current W9.

Information about our Virtual Tournament/Festival:

1. We are using Tabroom.com for this tournament/festival. That is what all the high schools are using right now. The site “Joy of Tournaments” is no longer available to use and is no longer an option.

2. From our experiences, Tabroom.com may seem very confusing to use at first, but once you get all your students registered, it is very easy. By using Tabroom.com, it notifies every student when their rounds have started, when/if they advanced to Semis or Finals and the final outcomes/results. Also, you can view all ballots.

3. Below are examples/instructions on how to put your students into Tabroom. Once they are in Tabroom, they are “good to go” for any tournament that is run by Tabroom.com. Tabroom.com is how all of us are doing all tournaments now. It is provided by the National Speech and Debate Association and, also, by the Texas Forensics Association. As of now, all tournaments offered by Grand Prairie Independent School District will be using Tabroom.com. and that includes all High School tournaments.

Judging, Ballots, Sections and Awards:

1. There are NO sections. Your students can enter anything they want.

2. The judging is being done in our Varsity Theatre/Speech class, so we are judging over the course of a week or so. We will let you know when we are going to have awards and post the results.

3. But, with Tabroom, you will receive notifications about advancing students and when they are being judged.

4. All ballots will be listed and put on Tabroom for you and your students to view.

5. We will be mailing all Finalists and Sweepstakes Winners their medals and trophies.

6. Link to Tabroom: https://www.tabroom.com/index/index.mhtml

How to Add Students into Tabroom.com and Register:

How to Create an Account and Add Competitors:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i61wj6YeB2vhtcRJdJphH9dFz0UEKY40srIdQRwRZKo/edit

Another Video on Adding a Tabroom Account:

 https://youtu.be/DyTqMwhRJpo

Yet Another Video on Adding a Tabroom Account and Enter Students:

https://youtu.be/Jw624kw0JI0

Linking Students to a Tabroom Account:

 https://youtu.be/3YNrHUweRPA

Another Video About Putting Students in Tabroom:

https://youtu.be/_IVqycPo4b4

Another Video to Link a Student to a Tabroom Account:

https://youtu.be/3YNrHUweRPA

Please Note:

1. The reason Tabroom asks for emails and phone numbers is because it will notify all the students in the events when a judged round has started, then will email/text the students if they advanced.

2. If you don’t want students to receive this information, enter your email and phone number. You will get all the notifications and results. However, our students love to get the notifications, so they know where they stand. But, how you set it up is up to you as Tabroom allows.

3. If you need more help, there a tons of tutorials on YouTube and Tabroom has tutorials/help on the site.

How you will enter Videos/Google Slide Presentations:

1. Create a file in your teacher Google Drive for tournaments.

2. Add a file for each student/performance group.

3. Have students upload their videos to their specific folder. Or, whatever is easiest for you.

4. Make sure the videos are available to view by anyone…not just your district.

5. When you register, it will ask you for the link to their video/presentation. There is a spot for each entry to enter that video link. On the entry page for each contestant, look for the “Piece/Quals” link. Open that, and you will see a space for you to enter the video link to your video or presentation.  If it is coming from a shared drive,  you must set the link to “anyone with a link may view” or the presentation will not be seen.

6. If we cannot view the video/presentation, they will be ranked last. So, make sure you check to make sure your “settings” make it available for someone who has the link, regardless if they are in your district or not.

7. We are asking that all Technical Events (Poster Design, Costume Design and Set Design) be submitted on Google Slides. They can be fully digital creations or hand-drawn but put on Google Slides. They can use as many slides as needed. We are asking this because we want to make sure we can view them and no submissions have some type of weird format that we can’t open. Again, make sure they are viewable by anyone.

These are the schools allowed to compete:

1. Adams

2. Fannin

3. GPCI

4. GPFAA

5. Jackson

6. Reagan

7. Truman

8. YWLA

9. Bailey

10. Bowie FAA

11. Garner FAA

12. Rayburn STEAM

13. Whitt FAA