One Act Play competition at High School, Higher Secondary School and College level (Konkani, Marathi & English)(OAPCAHSHSSACLKME)

Overview

About OAPCAHSHSSACLKME

The One Act Play Competition at High School, Higher Secondary School and College level is Kala Academy Goa's yearly theatre contest for educational institutions. It is not a scholarship. A school or college enters a play, its own students act in it, and the money involved is prize money for the best productions, performers, directors, technicians and playwrights.

Under the 2025-26 rules and regulations, any government-recognised high school, higher secondary school or college in Goa may enter up to three plays, one each in Konkani, Marathi and English. High schools compete against each other; higher secondary schools and colleges share the second level. Kala Academy fixes the programme, appoints the judges and stages the plays at its own complex or another venue it picks.

myScheme credits the listing to Goa's Art, Culture and Museums Department, and that department's Directorate of Art and Culture website shows Kala Academy as a "Related Organization", in the same menu as the Tiatr Academy of Goa, a separate body with school schemes of its own (the FAQ below separates them).

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The myScheme record carries no open or close date. Kala Academy announces each round through press notes, and in both of the last two rounds a later note extended the entry deadline and results came out in December. For 2025-26 it published its whole competition calendar in advance: the schedule note of 8 July 2025 placed the One Act Play Competition in November 2025, between the Konkani drama competition in October and the Marathi 'A' group from December.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Entry is by institution, and the conditions sit on both the institution and the cast, per the Kala Academy rules:

• The institution must be a government-recognised high school, higher secondary school or college in Goa, and the principal or headmaster signs and seals the entry.
• The actors must be bona fide students of the institution that enters the play. The principal certifies this on the cast sheet handed in on performance day.
• The number of plays is capped at three per institution, one in each language.
• Each person may take part in only one play per language category, whether as an actor, a director or a technician.
• Casting may not put female artists in male roles or male artists in female roles unless the script itself requires it.

The student-only condition covers the people on stage. The same rules let an institution seek guidance or direction from any theatre personality, so a school can bring in an outside director while its own students perform.

myScheme's summary opens the competition to every educational institution in Goa. The 2025-26 rules add the government-recognition condition, and on any point where the two differ, the rules and the entry form an institution signs are the binding text.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

myScheme publishes no exclusion list for this competition. The rules shut out, by their own terms, a drama club, village troupe or individual producer (only educational institutions enter), an institution outside Goa or without government recognition, any performer who is not a bona fide student of the entering institution, and late or incomplete entries.

Three offences carry a ban on future seasons as well:

• Listing fake names or nicknames for the cast bars the institution for the next two years and withholds that year's prizes and certificates.
• Withdrawing an entered play without Kala Academy's permission bars the institution for the next three years.
• Students found deliberately obstructing any show in the competition get their school or college barred for the next two years in succession.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

There is nothing to renew. Each season is a fresh entry with a fresh fee, and no rule gives a past winner a reserved place in the next year's programme. The only thing that travels from one season to the next is a debarment under the Exclusions above.

What you get

Award & benefits

The money is prize money, fixed per language section in the annexure to the 2025-26 rules. Higher secondary and college plays compete for larger amounts: the first prize for best performance is Rs 10,000 at that level against Rs 7,000 at high school level.

The myScheme record for this competition lists two prize blocks without their headings. The annexure names them: they are Best Director and Best Playwright.

Several prizes are conditional. The two consolation prizes are given only when there are more than 10 entries. A playwright prize needs the judges' recommendation, a play written specially for the competition, and a writer who is a native of Goa or has lived in Goa for the last fifteen years. No prize is split between two entries.

Apart from prizes, the only money an institution is entitled to is the hire of one vehicle, paid per kilometre at the rate Kala Academy's own rules fix. myScheme describes this as transport at government rates; rule 24 of the 2025-26 rules ties the rate to Kala Academy's rules instead and bars any other payment except prizes, so a school's spending on sets, costumes or rehearsals stays its own.

The rest of the benefit comes in kind. Kala Academy provides lights, a sound system and a stage with front and back drops free of charge, subject to availability; at an outside venue the institution works with whatever that auditorium has. The 2025-26 high school English result, for one, gives its place as Ravindra Bhavan, Sakhali. Published results also hand out merit certificates for acting, setting, lighting, music, make-up and costume beyond the cash winners, as in the 2024-25 college-level result.

• Amount of Prizes At High School Level
• Best Performance: 1st Prize: Rs. 7,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• 2nd Prize: Rs. 5,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• 3rd Prize: Rs. 3,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• Consolation Prize (2): Rs. 2,000/- each (Marathi, Konkani, English - Subject to more than ten entries received)
• Best Individuals: 1st Prize (Male & Female): Rs. 1,000/- each (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• 2nd Prize (Male & Female): Rs. 500/- each (Marathi, Konkani, English)
• Best Direction: 1st Prize: Rs. 1,500/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• 2nd Prize: Rs. 1,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• 3rd Prize: Rs. 500/- (Marathi, Konkani, English)
• Other Categories: Best Stage Setting: Rs. 1,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• Best Costumes: Rs. 1,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• Best Background Music: Rs. 1,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• Best Lighting: Rs. 1,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• Best Make-Up: Rs. 1,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English)
• Best Playwright: 1st Prize: Rs. 2,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• 2nd Prize: Rs. 1,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English)
• Amount of Prizes At Higher Secondary/College Level
• Best Performance: 1st Prize: Rs. 10,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• 2nd Prize: Rs. 7,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• 3rd Prize: Rs. 5,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• Consolation Prize (2): Rs. 3,000/- each (Marathi, Konkani, English - Subject to more than ten entries received)
• Best Individuals: 1st Prize (Male & Female): Rs. 2,000/- each (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• 2nd Prize (Male & Female): Rs. 1,000/- each (Marathi, Konkani, English)
• Best Direction: 1st Prize: Rs. 3,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• 2nd Prize: Rs. 2,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• 3rd Prize: Rs. 1,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English)
• Other Categories: Best Stage Setting: Rs. 2,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• Best Costumes: Rs. 2,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• Best Background Music: Rs. 2,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• Best Lighting: Rs. 2,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• Best Make-Up: Rs. 2,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English)
• Best Playwright: 1st Prize: Rs. 3,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• 2nd Prize: Rs. 2,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English);
• 3rd Prize: Rs. 1,000/- (Marathi, Konkani, English)
• _A free auditorium with necessary infrastructure is provided as per Kala Academy rules._

What to prepare

Documents required

Paperwork comes in two rounds, and the principal or headmaster signs both, per the 2025-26 entry forms.

At the entry stage, the prescribed entry form carries the institution's name and address with its taluka, a phone number and email, the teacher in charge, the title and playwright of each play by language, the original work and its author where a play is translated or adapted, the institution's name as per its bank account, and the entry fee receipt number.

On performance day, at least an hour before curtain, the institution hands in four copies of a cast and crew sheet: every actor's full name against the role, plus the director, light designer, set designer, background music, costume and make-up credits, the running time, and the principal's certificate that the performers are bona fide students. A copy of the script is also submitted that day and is not returned.

Two things never appear on a form but remain the institution's job: getting the playwright's permission to stage the play and paying the playwright's remuneration, and getting a printed or handwritten script approved by the government where that is required.

Step by step

How to apply

Applying is an offline, in-person process run on Kala Academy's press notes. In the 2024-25 round, the invitation for entries made the entry form available free at the reception counter of the Kala Academy office at the Old Secretariat (Adil Shah Palace), Panaji, and set a last date of 21 October 2024 by 4 pm.

The steps, as the 2024-25 notes and the 2025-26 booklet set them out:

1. Collect the entry form at the counter, or take it from the press note and rules booklet when Kala Academy posts one on its website.
2. Fill in one form covering every play the institution is entering, with the principal's signature and the official seal.
3. Pay the entry fee in cash at the accounts section, which the 2024-25 notice said would take it between 10 am and 1 pm or 2 pm and 4 pm.
4. Hand in the form, with the fee receipt number filled in, before the deadline.

The rules add that the Rs 100 per play is not refunded even if the entry is rejected, and that a play's title can still be changed within five days of the last date for entries. After that the programme is fixed.

Tracking an Entry, the Programme and the Result

myScheme lists the application mode as offline and marks the scheme as outside DBT, so the fee receipt number written on the entry form is the only reference an institution holds. Kala Academy finalises the programme and informs each participating institution, and it also posts the schedule on its website, as it did with the 2025-26 high school programme on 20 November 2025.

Results appear as press notes on the same site, and the prizes are handed over later, at a separate function. In 2024-25 the college-level result note said the date of the prize distribution would be declared at a later stage. For 2025-26, Kala Academy called the prize distribution function for 29 May 2026 at the Black Box in Campal, Panaji, shared with its Marathi drama and State Art Exhibition winners, and then postponed it on 27 May 2026.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection happens twice: once when entries are accepted, and once on stage.

Kala Academy reserves the right to accept or reject any entry, and under the 2025-26 rules a language section is not held at all unless five schools and five higher secondary schools or colleges take part in it. An institution's play can therefore be accepted and still go unstaged if too few others enter the same language.

On stage, a panel of judges appointed by Kala Academy decides every prize, and no protest against its result is entertained. The 2025-26 high school English result, for example, names a three-member panel. A few rules take a play or a person out of contention before the judges weigh quality:

• A play must run for at least thirty minutes and no more than one hour, and one that exceeds the time limit is not considered for a prize.
• Overrunning the stage set-up or clearing time can make the institution ineligible for the performance prize.
• An artist or technician changed on the cast list after it is handed in is not considered for an individual prize.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Beyond eligibility and judging, the rules bind the entering institution to how the day itself runs:

• Each play gets at most thirty minutes to set up and ten minutes to clear the stage once it ends.
• No more than ten helpers besides the cast may be on stage.
• The institution plays in the slot Kala Academy assigns, and requests to move it are not entertained.
• Kala Academy may change the rules at any stage of the competition, and its decision on any doubt about them is final.

Get help

Contact

For this competition, the entry form is addressed to the Member Secretary, Kala Academy Goa, Panaji, and the myScheme FAQ names the Member Secretary or the Chairman of Kala Academy for grievances. Fees go to the Academy's accounts section.

The Kala Academy page of the Goa government's telephone directory, posted in December 2024, lists Kala Academy Goa at Campal, Panaji, on 0832-2420450 to 52, with the email kalaacademygoa@yahoo.co.in. The 2024-25 press notes sent entries to the Academy's office at the Old Secretariat instead, so check the current season's press note for the counter that is accepting forms.

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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References

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