Festival Info

We are back at the Doubletree in downtown Omaha this year for the 2022 Nebraska State Thespian Festival! The festival will run from January 6-8, 2022, and will cost $130 for inducted Thespian students, and $140 for non-inducted students.

Registration will open on Wednesday, September 8, 2021, and will remain open until Thursday, November 11, 2021. Troupe directors can register at nebraska.cothespians.net. Colleges, vendors, and adjudicators, and workshop presenters can register here. Students, your troupe director will register you. Please follow their instructions and timeline for registration, so they can complete registration on time!

Improv Challenge Guidelines

**PLEASE NOTE: The information below pertains to the 2020 festival. Information for the 2022 festival will be posted as soon as it is available. We apologize for the inconvenience (updated November 7, 2021)**

Each school may bring one team for qualifying competition on Thursday night. From this qualifying event, 15 teams will be selected to move forward to semi-finals later on during festival.

  1. Teams are limited to six actually performing at one time, although if you have alternates or extras, that’s fine—you will need to decide as a team who will actually perform each round of competition.
  2. Teams need a school appropriate name.
  3. Audience is encouraged to watch the events.
  4. Profanity, sexually explicit scenarios, or other inappropriate material will result in forfeiting of the round. Decisions on what is profane etc. is up to the improv judge(s).
  5. All rounds will be judged by outside judges that are professional improvisation artists.
  6. Each team is required to attend check-in 30 minutes prior to the start of the semi-final rounds.
  7. Games may be announced prior to Festival via Nebraska Thespians website, Facebook or twitter.

Improv Preliminary Rounds

There will be three preliminary rounds. Each round will consist of one improvisational exercise. A judge will be posted at each of the three events to tally points for each team. At the end of each round, judges rotate to the next room to start a new round. Once all three rounds are completed, the top teams with the most points will advance to the Improv Finals.

Improv Finals

The top four teams will compete in the final improvisational event for all three judges at once on the Mainstage in The Holland.

The top three winning teams will be announced at awards. Ballots will be sent home with the troupe director

The National Individual Events Showcase is now the International Thespian Excellence Awards, or Thespys! Preliminary rounds will now be conducted via OpenWater, and callbacks will be invited to perform for a panel of judges at the Doubletree for a chance to perform at our final showcase, as well as an opportunity to advance to the International Thespian Festival this summer. Students who perform their events at the International Thespian Festival have a chance to win Thespy awards, and are eligible for scholarship opportunities through EdTA.

Registration for Thespys for the 2022 Nebraska State Thespian Festival is $10 per event, to be paid to troupe directors with state festival registration, with a maximum of two events per student.

All information for Thespys can be found by clicking the link below.