Locations & Dates #
Visit our Interactive Calendar, to hover your mouse over contests for location and details. Each local area sets its own schedules, so the State Office posts these on our website only when we have been notified.
Seasons #
Students may participate in multiple activities, and schools with middle level grades may participate in any of our activities, with only Speech having a distinct/separate contest series for middle level and high school. Speech and Theatre utilize a qualifying contest series, whereas Debate offers a single, monthly open structure, where students must earn qualifying records/scores at at least two contests, or apply for at-large consideration. Film is a “one-off” State-level event only. There are also other Speech contest opportunities in Wisconsin beyond WISDAA.
Contest Series Progression by Activity #
One-Act Theatre Contest Series #
One-acts must earn two “Advance” recommendations at the District level to move on to Sectional, and two “Advance” recommendations at Sectional to move on to State.
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District --> Sectional --> StateThespys Theatre Contest Series #
Students may participate in Thespys contests in addition to or instead of the one-act contest series. The open contest is simply offered as practice, but students may directly register for the State level without having done the open/practice Thespys.
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A(Open/Practice Thespys) --> B(State Thespys*)* Offered in partnership with Wisconsin Thespians and can qualify students to the International Thespian Festival in Bloomington, Indiana in June.
Middle Level Speech Contest Series #
Students must participate in a Middle Level 1 festival to be eligible to participate in a Middle Level 2 festival, but there is no minimum rating required. There is no State level for Middle Level contestants.
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A(Middle Level 1) --> B(Middle Level 2)High School Speech Contest Series #
Subdistrict contestants must two ratings of 13 or better to move on to the District level, where they must earn two ratings of 17 or better to move on to State.
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Subdistrict --> District --> StateDebate Contest Series #
Online, open Debate contests are held from late September/early October through March. Students must have participated at least once during the year to be eligible to participate at the State Debate Contest, held in conjunction with the State Speech Contest, at the Wisconsin State Speech & Debate Festival.
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A["Open Contest 1"] --> D["State Debate Contest"]
B["Open Contest 2"] --> D
C["Open Contest 3"] --> D
E["Open Contest 4"] --> D
F["Open Contest 5"] --> D
G["Open Contest 6"] --> D
H["Open Contest 7"] --> D
I["Open Contest 8"] --> DFilm Contest #
Due to the nature of film as new media in a prerecorded manner, our Film Festival is the only event where there are no qualifying contests ahead of the statewide level. However, the Theatre – Thespys contest in the autumn does include a short film category that could be considered practice for the spring Film Festival.
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A["State Film"]Registering #
The Theatre and Speech (middle + high school) seasons start with an Initial Registration process, powered by SpeechWire. Debate is handled through a different platform, Tabroom.com. Film is just the State-level contest, and is handled through SpeechWire.
Contest Contacts #
You may Contact Us to be connected to a local contest contact.
Hosting a Festival #
We have developed Help pages for hosting contests. WISDAA provides (pays for) contest management technology (SpeechWire; or for debate, Tabroom.com) for all official WISDAA contests.
Eligibility #
Students must meet requirements of Eligibility rules.
