We are leaving campus at 12:30 pm on Friday, December 3rd. Plan to get food to go.
Remember to turn in your COVID travel forms before we depart on Friday.
We are so excited to welcome you all to Heath High School for Acatex. I just have a little bit of information to share with you before you come.
Here is a map of the area - the address is 801 Laurence Dr, Rockwall, TX 75032. When using navigation, this will take you to the front doors of the school. You’ll want to park in the back student parking lot off Heath Hawk Dr. After you park, you can enter through the PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Lobby and not the student entrance for registration. If you arrive before 4:00, it’s VERY IMPORTANT that you come in this entrance for school safety protocols. Groups can be in the PAC until sound checks start and then we will disperse to the fine arts holding rooms.
Lunch on Saturday -
The cafeteria will be open for you to sit and eat your lunch on Saturday. No food will be provided on campus, so we would recommend having food picked up or delivered and eating here if you are trying to come to all offered sessions. Some options are Chick-Fil-A, Which Wich, Jason’s Deli, Cici’s, and lots of others. Just past the high school on Laurence is also a shopping center with a Tom Thumb and a great Tex Mex restaurant called, Manny’s.
If you are staying in a hotel close to the Harbor, there are many restaurants like Chili’s, Applebees, Panera Bread, Mod Pizza, Panda Express, tons of fast food, etc. right off Ridge Rd. A word of caution: Rockwall gets VERY busy on Friday evenings for dinner. Parking is also very difficult at the Harbor almost always. Ordering online and having something delivered is probably the easiest, but lots of options wherever you are located! Please let us know if you need any help figuring out food for your kids. We’re here to help!
Registration
We will do a “rolling registration” on Friday 12/3, starting at 1:30 pm. School will still be going on at our host campus, so we will have you enter through the Rockwall-Heath Performing Arts Center Doors, receive your badges, and hang in the lobby / auditorium until the rooms are ready for you to put down your things in your holding rooms. All rooms should be ready by 4:00 pm. If you are not competing, you can register prior to the show, but please arrive by 6:30.
The AcaTex Host Letter will give you the address of the venue, map, entrance location, and nearby food!
Friday Soundchecks -
Soundchecks on Friday will be for your 4 minute Prelims performance. You will get to soundcheck your entire set on Saturday if you make Finals. Soundchecks will be in 15 minute increments and you will have 10 minutes on stage, with 2:30 minutes on either side to exchange mics with the next group. Soundchecks will begin at 2:00 pm in the RHHS Performing Arts Center.
Holding Areas (Friday) -
With so many groups competing on Friday, we will have large holding areas for several groups to gather and put their stuff. We will not have a separate classroom for each group (as they are on the opposite side of the campus), and there will be MANY of us, so we encourage everyone to get ready at their hotels / homes if at all possible. If that’s not possible, we will make it work, but it will be crowded.
You are also encouraged to come already dressed and just touch up hair and make-up at the site. Soundchecks are closed to the public. The holding rooms are really big - band hall, choir room, orchestra room, black box, etc., so you won’t be crowded in the rooms, but the bathrooms for changing may be hectic. We also encourage you to bring your own mirrors for make-up, etc. We hope you will enjoy getting to know some other groups while you wait to soundcheck and perform!
Performance Flow -
We will have an “on deck” room for you to move to (2 groups ahead), so you can “pow-wow” and sing through your song if you want. Since it’s only a short performance on Friday, we will have you wait in the wings during the previous group’s performance. We will have a stage manager to help facilitate backstage.
Performance Order for Friday will be drawn IN ADVANCE and will be communicated by Social Media live post. Make sure you like and follow our Facebook and Instagram for that announcement!
Competition Rubric: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SXGbKUIB2w
Headshots -
When you are finished singing Friday night, we will have a photographer ready to take your HEADSHOTS! The photography is an included service and your group can choose to purchase the headshot package for $300 if you would like. We hope this helps you get your website and social media updated after a long break. We will also offer a group picture inside the package (to be taken at our pre-party on Saturday). More details on that later.
Contest Schedule -
FRIDAY NIGHT -
6:30 DOORS OPEN
7:00 SHOW
9:30 FINALISTS ANNOUNCED (6)
9:45 DRAW FOR ORDER ON SATURDAY
Our judges for prelims will be “Under the Sun”! They are a professional a cappella ensemble who won Varsity Vocals “The Open” 2020. (Isaac Youree, Creative Director of AcaTex, will Emcee and the rest of the group will judge).
SATURDAY NIGHT -
6:00 PHOTO PARTY / WILDCARD SELECTION
6:30 WILDCARD SOUNDCHECK
7:00 DOORS OPEN
7:30 SHOW
9:30 “UNDER THE SUN” PERFORMANCE (Judge Deliberations)
10:00 WINNERS ANNOUNCED
Awards -
1st Place - One Free Set Video (Professionally Edited)
2nd Place - One Free Song Video (or $500 off Full Set)
3rd Place - Free Arrangement from Isaiah Carter
Wildcard Drawing and Group Photos-
This is super exciting! If you don’t make finals on Friday night, you may still have a chance! We will have a “pre-party” at the venue starting at 6:00 pm on Saturday before the show. Come hang with all your new friends, enjoy some chips, salsa, refreshments, and get your group photo taken!
Our photographer will be on hand to take group shots however you would like them. You can wear your set clothes, go casual, or wear school shirts. We will include one group shot in your headshot package if you purchase one. We will use these images for promotional materials for next year too!
At 6:25 - we will DRAW A GROUP NAME out of a hat and a Wildcard group will go immediately into soundcheck! The finalist groups can then go backstage and get ready! (Groups can choose to opt out of the wildcard drawing if desired).
Contest Rubric -
AcaTex is so fortunate to have a fantastic director, Matt Woodward, from MacArthur HS, that has put together our unique rubric for this competition. The same rubric will be used for both nights of the competition. You can view it here.
Matt has also secured our judges for the finals round and will be training them on the rubric his committee has created.
Remember that on Friday night, the judges will only have a short time to write comments. Saturday performers will get more detailed notes about their performances just by nature of the time constraints.
Lighting -
Heath High School will have a basic wash on stage (which is best from midstage and forward), and will offer 3 cyc colors - red, green, or blue - or a mix of those colors. We will also have LED uplights that can be any secondary color. There is a Google form below for you to fill out information and preferences about your set. On it, you may give us both colors, one color, or just let our lighting people have full autonomy. We will do our best to make your group and videos look amazing!
Sound -
We will have a professional sound engineer running both shows and soundchecks. He will create scenes for each song, save the settings during soundchecks, and recall them during the show. In order to do this, we need a list of your singers, soloists, VP, and bass for each song BY NOV. 29th.
We have a board with effects that allows us to octavize the bass mic. This is optional and you can opt out on the Google form.
Video -
All performances will be professionally video recorded and you will have the option to purchase edited videos of your set! You can order your professional videos on site and we will contact you after the weekend to set up payment and a completion date. All videos will be edited by a cappella industry professionals. Each song is $500, and a full set is $1500. This is a wonderful way to get your program noticed by EVERYONE!
You are welcome to view the YouTube videos from Walk the Line and Green Tones below. These live videos from past performances are examples of the difference professional audio and video make!
Walk the Line
Green Tones
ALL GROUPS:
PLEASE FILL OUT THIS FORM
Saturday Workshops -
We have an awesome day of education coming your way!
8:30 Opening Session - Auditorium (30 Minutes)
9:00 - 12:00 Choice of workshops and masterclasses
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch on your own
The cafeteria will be open for lunch on Saturday. There is not much close by that will be fast enough to leave and come back. I would recommend having food picked up or delivered and eating here. Some options are Chick-Fil-A, Which Wich, Jason’s Deli, Cici’s, and lots of others. (see host letter for more details)
1:00 - 3:00 Choice of workshops and masterclasses
4:00 Dinner Break / Get Ready for Finals
6:00 Be back for the Photo Party/ Wildcard Announcement!
7:00 Doors Open
7:30 Show
What are Workshops?
Our clinicians will be teaching everything from Improv to Live Sound, VP and Bass Techniques to Arranging, Branding and Movement to Culture in the Classroom. You’ll get to learn from industry professionals, Texas teachers, former collegiate music directors, and lots of great singers and performers! More details about specific workshop topics, times, and instructors are coming soon!
What are Masterclasses?
Our clinicians will offer OPEN masterclasses to all our Finalists. They will help them with their sets, and get them ready to perform. And YOU get to watch the magic! We know it can be nerve-wracking to have people watch your masterclass, but some of the BEST education comes from watching a group work through the less-than-perfect parts of their performances. Masterclasses will take place in the morning so Finalists are ready for their Soundchecks in the afternoon.
Saturday Soundchecks for Finalists -
You will get a 25 minute soundcheck. These will happen on stage after lunch. This is the time for finalists to work out all the staging and sound system details with our sound engineer. SOUNDCHECKS ARE CLOSED to the public, judges, and other competing groups.
Tickets for Friday and Saturday's performances are now available for purchase!
Go to www.acatex.org and click Buy Your Tickets.
Here is the direct link to our ticketing site.
Thank you!
