Woburn Rookie Drama Festival

The Woburn Rookie Drama Festival (usually just called Rookie) is a festival of short plays held annually every spring at Woburn Collegiate Institute in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The most notable part of the festival is that it all of the plays are directed, acted, crewed, and sometimes written entirely by students with no teacher assistance. Furthermore, students do all of the organization and emceeing required to put on the festival each year. At over 40 years old, it is among the longest running high school clubs in the city.The first Woburn Rookie Drama Festival took place in the spring of 1963 and was overseen by then drama teacher John Wilcox.

tructure

Any student who wants to direct a play is automatically accepted. A month before the festival, there is an open audition where actors perform short scenes that are ether improved or done with only a short time to prepare. Directors request the actors they want, and the organizers assign actors to plays (often the most popular actors are assigned to several plays in smaller roles) The festival itself lasts for 1-3 evenings with 2-4 plays per night. There are usually short scenes between plays.Every year the festival has a theme chosen by the organizers. Sometimes the plays themselves are sometimes related to the theme, but normally the theme only applies to the short scenes between plays while the next cast is setting up. These scenes are usually directed or starring the MCs.