News and Updates

Daily log of changes to state-qualifier list

Houstonfest Scholarships

Gail Cope Scholarships at State

Scholarships for winning research papers at State

Changes taking effect in 2012

New venue for 2012 - Clements HS

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Concession stand at Houstonfest

Plays will be performed at Houstonfest

Important Dates

Feb. 10, 2012:  State online registration due by 11:59 p.m. in order to qualify for regular price of $10 per student.  Online registrations submitted after this point incur the late registration fee of $12 per student.

Feb. 16, 2012:  State payment check must be postmarked

Feb. 25, 2012:  Texas State German Contest, University of Texas at Austin

Mar. 2, 2012:  Houstonfest Scholarship applications due

Mar. 9, 2012:  Gail Cope Scholarship applications due

Jan. 14, 2013:  Houstonfest e-mail registration due by 11:59 p.m. in order to qualify for regular price of $10 per student

Jan. 21, 2013:  Last day to submit late registration ($12 per student) and last day to postmark payment check

Jan. 29, 2013:  Proof sheet of entrants sent to teachers for final verification and changes

Jan. 31, 2013, 8:00 p.m.:  Deadline to submit changes (adds, drops, substitutions).  After this point, no more additions or substitutions will be allowed in individual events.  Substitution of students in group events may continue in emergency situations.

Feb. 2, 2013:  Houstonfest

Changes to Rules and Procedures Effective for 2012

The state steering committee met on August 6, 2011, and approved the following changes:

• Mary El-Beheri has been named Director Emerita of Sprachfest and of the Texas State German Contest, and Jennifer Christianson has been named Acting Director of those two contests.  As the teachers who founded the regional and state contests retire, the state steering committee is working to formalize the legal organization of the contest system and to create procedures to make future transitions of leadership at the regional and state levels easier.  In future, each of the three regions will have three positions on the state steering committee.  Long-time members of the committee are grandfathered in and will remain on the committee as long as they would like to, even if that means that some regions will have more than three representatives on the committee for a while.  The three committee members from the Houston region are Rustin Buck, Laura Braun, and Denise Tanner.

• This is not a change but rather a confirmation of continuity:  State will continue to be at the University of Texas at Austin at least through 2012.

• The sweepstakes system has been completely revised.  All events are now divided into 5 categories (previously 7) with top values of 30, 20, 14, 12, and 10 points respectively.  Within each tier, there are different point values for each place from 1st down to 10th, whereas in the past, 1st and 2nd received the same number of points, 3rd and 4th the same, etc.  Thus, there is now a much greater difference between the number of points earned for 1st place and the number of points earned for 10th place within each tier.  The events in the top tier (Folk Dance, Varsity Pass auf!, and Play) earn 30 points for 1st place, far more than in the past and far more than the next tier of events.  The committee hopes that this will encourage more schools to enter these challenging but rewarding events.

• The price structure and registration deadlines for Houstonfest and, to a lesser extent, for State have changed.  See the Registration page for an explanation.

• Three new art events have been added:  Crafts, Original Models, and Photography.  These events have been in place at Winterfest for years and will now be added at Houstonfest, Sprachfest, and State.

• In any event in which the entrants are supposed to bring copies of something from which the judges can read along (e.g., a script, sheet music, or a poetry/prose selection), there will be a uniform penalty of 10 points for failure to provide the copies.  Also, failure to label art entries with the name(s) of the contestant(s) and the school will incur a penalty of 10 points, and failure to provide receipts when required will also incur a penalty of 10 points.  The online rules and the critique sheets for all these events have been updated accordingly.

• Changes have been made to some critique sheets:  Duet Acting (making explicit that no costumes are allowed and reiterating that the pieces selected for this event should be works of dramatic literature by recognized German-language authors, a notch above the type of material commonly used for skits), Extemporaneous Speaking (employing more detailed wording to describe the judging criteria), Folk Dance (establishing a maximum limit of 5 dances, so that the limits are now 4 dances/10 minutes minimum and 5 dances/15 minutes maximum), Skit (clarifying that there must be at least 3 speaking performers in the cast and reiterating that costumes and props are allowed but not required).

• In the Puppet Show competition, the provision of a puppet stage at the various contests has been a perennial problem.  From now on, no elaborate stage, per se, will be provided at the regional or State contests, nor may groups bring their own stages.  A very simple set-up such as a cloth draped over a table or a row of chairs will be provided for everyone to use, and performers will sit or crouch behind this simple "stage."  At State, if the event is scheduled in one of the rooms with a media island at the front of the room, the cloth will be draped over that.  Entering schools do NOT have to provide this cloth or anything to drape it over; those things will be provided by the contest staff.  A backdrop may be brought (no larger than 10' x 10') and hung on the wall behind the performance area with painter's tape (groups should bring their own painter's tape -- not duct tape or any other kind of tape).  At Houstonfest, I anticipate using one of those standard-type rectangular folding tables (about 8' long) with a cloth draped over it.  I would recommend that groups practice crouching or sitting on the floor behind such a table when rehearsing.