Conditions and Regulations

• The competition entry form must be submitted on or before the entry deadline.  

• The teacher-in-charge of the competition is strongly encouraged to attend the Speak Up - Act Out Drama Competition Briefing Session (online) (see details above).  

• Schools may enter only one team as places are limited. If the competition is oversubscribed, entries will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. 

• A Speak Up - Act Out Drama professional development workshop (6 hours) will be offered to teachers entering students in the competition. The workshop focuses on using improvised drama techniques to devise a staged drama performance. Teachers who have not participated in the competition before are strongly encouraged to attend the workshop.  

• Teams must consist of four to six students. The students may come from the same or different year levels. 

• The students are solely responsible for devising a drama based on the stimulus provided. 

• The online team name list must be submitted no later than two weeks before the date of the competition session. Student No. 1 on the list will be the designated Team Leader on the day of the competition. Team Leaders will be asked to announce the title of the drama before the performance begins.    

• The team name list will also be used to issue the certificates. Teachers are responsible for ensuring that all the student names submitted are spelled correctly and in the correct format. 

• If a student is ill on the day of the competition, teams may choose to perform with a replacement student as a stand-in. The full name of the replacement student must be provided at the registration table on the day of the competition. 

• Certificates will be available for collection at the NET Section office in Tsuen Wan after the competition sessions. The teacher-in-charge will be notified by email when the certificates are ready for collection.

• The drama performance must be based on the stimulus provided. 

• The order in which teams perform will be decided by lucky draw at the competition session. 

• No written scripts or notecards are allowed during the performance.   

• All students and teachers in a team must stay for the entire event. 

• All team members must be actively involved in the performance.  

• Eight seats will be allocated to each team, including two seats for teachers. If teachers would like extra seats, they must contact the NET Section in advance.  

• All team members must wear sports shoes, solid black T-shirts, and dark comfortable pants suitable for drama. Long hair should be tied back so that the judges can see the performers’ faces clearly.  

• The time allowed for each performance is 4-5 minutes. A warning bell will be rung once at 4 minutes and a final bell twice at 5 minutes. On the final bell, the student speaking may finish their sentence. The performance must then stop, and the team must return to their seats. 

• No stage sets, lighting, music, costumes, props, or make-up are permitted. Two chairs will be provided for the performance, but standing on the chairs is not permitted. 

• Teams must behave like a good theatre audience. They must be attentive and respectful, and mobile phones must be switched off. Teams may be penalised for being disruptive after receiving one warning. 

• A stimulus for the dramas will be sent to the teacher-in-charge by email approximately two weeks before each competition session. After receiving the stimulus, teachers should provide the following support in a supervisory role: 

  • Structure improvisations with drama activities like Tableaux (Still Images/ Freeze Frame), Picture Postcards, The Martha Game, and improvisation skills like Miming, Focusing, Offering, Accepting and Extending, so that students can explore the stimulus and devise their drama “through play”. 

  • Introduce planning strategies like brainstorming ideas, mapping out the plot, storyboarding, developing dialogue, and viewing photos and videos of their improvisations.  

  • Organise reflection sessions, encouraging students to make their drama more interesting and entertaining, for example, by developing characters, action sequences and dramatic elements like exposition, tension/ conflict and dramatic climaxes. 

• The decision of the judging panel is considered final and no correspondence will be entered into after the results are announced.   

The judging panels will include representatives from the EDB, drama instructors, and English teachers with a background in drama.  

Student performances will be assessed on the criteria below: 

The full criteria can be found here.