TTAO Winter Newsletter

How is it possible that the first UIL One Act Play contests of the 2026 season are upon us? Time truly flies when you’re having fun—and when you are part of a community that never stops working to support theatre education across Texas.

Contest managers, I hope contracts are finalized and communication is already underway with the adjudicators serving the directors and students at your contests. Adjudicators, are you ready for those scripts to start arriving in your mailboxes or have they already reached you? Happy reading! Your preparation, care, and professionalism make a meaningful difference for every program you serve.

I still remember words spoken by adjudicators at my high school One Act Play contests nearly 40 years ago. That is the power of what you do. Your words matter. They linger. They shape confidence, growth, and a student’s relationship with theatre—sometimes for a lifetime. As you enter this season, I encourage you to remember: be kind, be eloquent, and be inclusive as you help companies to grow in their craft and performances through written and oral critiques.

As we begin this exciting season, I invite everyone to revisit and reflect on the TTAO Core Values, which guide our work and define who we are:

Education

Our priority is theatre education for students and their teachers. Our policies serve to improve

theatre training within the UIL contest framework.

Diversity

We celebrate differences and include all the varied voices that represent students and the

communities we serve.

Integrity

We hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards. We expect and practice personal and

professional integrity.

Transparency

We commit to open communication and access to information, including governing documents.

This instills trust and ensures accountability.

Service

We serve our learning community by bringing our knowledge, experience, and leadership to

students and teachers through professional training that builds confidence and fosters growth.

You are all amazing, and I hope your season is a magical one—no matter what role you play this year. Thank you for the time, talent, and heart you bring to TTAO and to the students and directors we serve.

Artfully yours,

R. Scott Allen, Ed.D.

TTAO President

P.S. Please don’t forget to check for conflicts when conducting festivals and clinics.

P.S.S. If you haven’t volunteered for a SISO clinic, please consider that today!

If you missed past Fireside Chats, you can find them on our website, Adjudicator Resources page.

The window for renewing for the 2027 season will open in May of 2026.

TTAO Adjudicators and Contest Managers,

UIL Theatre season is here and away we go!

A few reminders as we move through the contest season.

Contest Managers:

February 1 was the deadline for setting up zone and district contests in the Online Entry System/Speechwire.

February 1- was the deadline for executing judging contracts.

Contest Managers- Please take some time to review the Handbook. We removed the PDF link temporarily, but the online version is available.

• Review set rules, and contest procedures.
• Review the process for time warnings and train your timekeepers, please. We have many resources on our website to assist you.

Speechwire- Review the Online Entry System Instructions on how to look up Company Information, Title, Entering results and more! Please follow the step-by-step instructions.

Before Contest-

Judges’ scripts- Please do not accept digital or photocopies of scripts without written permission from publisher/playwright. Several publishers offer pdf versions, but schools should have an email, or some indication in their license. This does not apply to plays in the public domain.

After Awards/Contest-

VERY IMPORTANT- After announcing awards, please POST RESULTS in Speechwire. As soon as you post results, they will become PUBLICLY AVAILABLE. After the awards ceremony.

Please return scripts to the schools at the end of the contest or have a plan to submit

the advancing scripts to the next level. That is a local decision.

Adjudicators-

Clinics/Festivals- If you are serving as a clinician and you are also a TTAO judge, please complete the Clinic Conflict Form. It is no longer the responsibility of the host site. The purpose of this form is to avoid conflicts which could cause you to lose your judging assignment. Directors are also submitting forms.

Clinic Conflict Form LINK

Review the TTAO Code of Ethics and the Adjudicator section of the UIL One Act Play

Handbook. Remember- “There is nothing in the judging standards which calls upon you to evaluate the playwright or full-length play. If the League’s Play Appraisal Committee has approved the cutting, it has already been evaluated by a panel of your peers. The school may have additional restrictions from the publisher or playwright. You may see a complete one-act play, a selected scenes from, or an excerpt from a full-length play. Ask privately if you feel that the director has done something that violates the playwright’s intent.”

Lastly, "An ounce of prevention…” Communicate with your Contest Manager about start time, location, any changes…nobody wants any last-minute surprises.

OAP State Meet Dates- Make plans to attend!

Site: Austin ISD Performing Arts Center

1A - 3A May 11 - 13, 2026

4A - 6A May 18 - 20, 2026

Questions? Reach out to your friends at the UIL Theatre Office.

SIOS is an initiative which encourages TTAO Members to provide one free OAP clinic per year. Educational service can be any K-12 school program which struggles to gain funding for an OAP Clinic. Special consideration for Title 1 schools or schools with new directors is encouraged. TTAO members looking for a school to serve can find information on slide 12 in the presentation below or by going Here.

Learn more about SIOS here:

SIOS Presentation and Free Clinic Sign-Up

A huge Thank You to our 2025 TTAO PWP (Partnering with Purpose) Presenters! TTAO-PWP (Partnering with Purpose) served over 100 theatre educators with free professional development in East Houston, Ft. Worth, and Amarillo in Fall 2025.

What is TTAO PWP: PWP is to provide schools in need with theatre workshops.

This initiative offers the opportunity for Educational Service Centers and districts to partner with TTAO Membership in providing Professional Development Workshops for theatre educators.

Learn more about TTAO-PWP here:

PWP Presentation

We hope you will join us in forging forward in one of the many ways TTAO Members make a difference in Texas Educational Theatre.

Broken Windows are Ghetto

by Norma Jo Thomas

Broken windows are ghetto; ghettos are just broken windows – a crack dismissed, a pane

in disrepair a quiet signal that no one is watching, an implication that no one will care.

It doesn’t start with the intent to ruin, destroy, wreak havoc or do harm.

It starts with permission, silent consent, a shrug here, raised eyebrow there, no sound

from a muted alarm.

Born of eggshell excuses, polite pardons, and promises to amend

Comes a swelling a social stigma, slanted toward systemic sin.

Values are like windows in lots of ways.

They shape the perception of a passing glaze.

Windows draw the line between what’s inside and what’s out.

Values separate who we say we are from what we say we are not about.

Every window broken becomes confirmation of neglect.

Values left unenforced become signatures on a blank check.

A cracked window bends the light into imperfect prisms and pressure pulsates from the top.

A compromised value bends the truth into white lies that don’t care who tells them because

white lies never stop.

A broken window says the people inside are bent, fractured, absent of light, society’s

maladjusted.

Unchecked violations of values verify that fanners of the flags, pledgers of the pledge inducted,

in truth, should not be trusted.

Just like one window to the world being broken by a bewildered blackbird, a baseball, or

rambunctious kid with a rock,

soon becomes by two multiplied minus maintenance divided by cosmic shock,

and with the math mathing mathematically mathematizing good people exponentially locked

in broken dreams, breeding generational curses of a declassified underclass,

stamped by a stigma, conditioned by their conditions, characterized by cracks in the glass...

Education, Diversity, Integrity, Transparency, & Service, a mosaic of values patterned with

purpose and resolve,

once broken and algebraically abused, the functions and values once calculated on the right angle

of history are destined to devolve

back toward a future of purposeless palling and falling back in time and significance like ghastly

forgotten ghettos,

lest we bearers of the torch, presenters of the arms, repair the broken windows,

values protected, propagated, and defended to a fault, in closets, behind closed doors, out and

proud,

because ghettos are begat by broken windows when broken windows are allowed.

I just wanted to take a brief moment to thank you so much for your generous scholarship support for this semester and give you an update on how it went for me at the University of Oklahoma. Because of your scholarship, I had an amazing semester at OU and was honored to earn a spot on the Dean’s List.

Along with my coursework, I had the opportunity to work with ESPN on College GameDay as a brand ambassador, serve as an OU influencer and member of the Boom Squad. I also served as an actor in a short film that won a campus contest, and I acted in several student- led shows! I have gained valuable experience both inside and outside the classroom.

Wishing you a happy New Year! I’m incredibly grateful for your support and can’t wait to see what next semester brings.

With Gratitude, Landen Guarnere