MACT

My take on AACTFest 2025, by Larry Pint

Carol and I traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, on Tuesday, June 24 for AACTFest 2025. Not a bad trip. Only about three and a half hours. Nice weather for a drive. When we were getting near to Des Moines, we put the hotel’s Grand Ave address into the car’s navigation system. Unfortunately, it took us to Grand Ave East instead of Grand Ave West. Turn around, head back the other way on Grand Ave. When we got to the hotel, they were very busy. The only way to park at the hotel was using their valet parking. I went and checked in while Carol waited in the car. I was back before the valets got to her. We unloaded our luggage and got a valet ticket for our car. We ran into people we knew in the lobby. We also picked up our registration packages. By the time we got to our room our luggage was there. We went back down to the lobby and had dinner in the bar. Talked with more people we knew. Jim Walker, Kristie Quinn and Nancy Eppert were with us, but they hadn’t eaten yet. We all went across the street for them to eat (and we had dessert). After that we went to the welcome party. Expensive drinks and little food.

Wednesday, I got up early and went to move the car. We weren’t going to pay $38 per day to park in the hotel ramp. After driving around for a while I finally pulled into a ramp and parked. Made it back to the hotel just in time to get to the morning workshop. Of the four options, I choose “Advanced Administration – Challenging Thinking”. It was pretty good for theatres. Not much I could use for MACT.

Wednesday afternoon we attended the first two performances. Normally there is a handout, like a program insert, for that sessions’ shows. For some reason, neither Carol nor I got one. First up was “Tone Clusters”. This was a couple that were being interviewed on a TV program about their son. The interviewer was off stage and all we heard was his voice. The interview was about their 22 year old son, who had been arrested for killing a 14 year old girl. The parents denied, over and over, that their son did, or even could have, done it. As the interview went on, more and more fact about the case came out. A strange show. Not my type of theatre. I’m not used to getting up early, s I had a hard time staying awake. Next up was “Avanash”. This was about a young dancer, tying to escape India by winning a dance contest. When she gets to America, she find the same discrimination as she faced in India. Beautiful music and dancing. The adjudications for both shows were, in my opinion, not very good. The adjudicators gave very little information that would be of help to the performers or the production companies.

Wednesday night found us back at the beautiful Hoyt Sherman Place Theatre for two more performances. Starting the evening off was “Love, Loss and What I Wore” from our “neighbors” in Verona, WI. An interesting production about the relationship between women and their cloths. That was followed by Minnesota’s Absolute Theatre and their production of “Forever Plaid”. The vocals and choreography were right on, as usual, and they added more lighting and haze to the mix. It looked like they didn’t have quite enough time to get the lighting cues all right, but what they did still added to the show. Again, the adjudicators did a poor job of giving feedback that would be useful to the troupes.

The night was capped off by another boring social with expensive drinks and little to munch on.

Thursday morning I was back up early, again, and moving the car, again. Moved it from a $16 per day lot to a $10 per day lot. (Yes, I am cheap!) I then attended “Unlock the Magic of Projections: Bring Your Stage to Life!”. As the title implies it was about using projections in you shows. The presenter discussed types of equipment, how to use the equipment and when to use projections. It was an interesting workshop. Next I attended “So You Wrote a Play. What’s Next?”. This workshop covered what to do after you’ve written a play. Many online resources we covered as well as the importance of actually registering your play with the copyright office. I was hoping to learn ways that MACT could help Minnesota playwrights, but didn’t get much information on that.

Thursday afternoon brought us back to the theatre for two more shows. “Time Stands Still” led the session off. An unmarried couple living in New York are trying to find happiness. She’s a photojournalists and he’s a foreign Correspondent. Their relationship is based on telling the tough stories. But then their own relation takes a tough turn. I got up too early again this morning. Having trouble staying awake again. The second show was “Happy Hour at the Pink Palace”. People show up at a cocktail party, but don’t why they are there or how they got there. Now they are trapped in a pink purgatorial game of guilt and redemption. What can I say about the adjudication? More of the same mostly useless banter.

There was no performance session on Thursday night.

Friday morning I was back up in time for the workshops, which were even earlier than normal. This morning I attended “Social Media in the Age of AI and Influencers”. This was actually quite good, somewhat to my surprise. One of the takeaways I got from this is that AI is here to stay and can be of a big help to you. If you’re fighting AI, you better get on the bandwagon or be left behind. You need to start using AI as a tool to help you with marketing. Not to replace you (or others), but to make your work easier and more effective. None of the workshops in the second session sounded interesting to me, so I wondered around the exhibit hall. Spent some time talking to On The Stage. I get some of the article I use in our newsletter from their website (with permission), so I wanted to thank them personally. I also talked to two companies from Minnesota that were exhibiting there, Norcostco and Plays for New Audiences (part of Children’s Theatre Company). I also spent quite a bit of time with Jerry from Heartland Scenic. (You may remember him from a few of our festivals that he attended.) The keynote speaker was late Friday morning, too. I had attended her workshop and wasn’t impressed, but attended the keynote address for lack of anything better to do. It was as disappointing as I anticipated it would be.

Then we had to rush back at the Hoyt Sherman Place theatre for the Friday afternoon performance. I have seen “Silent Sky” in several other festivals. It is about a woman doing astronomy, and making breakthroughs, at a time when it was a man’s world. “Tuesdays with Morrie” was the second show in this session. A two man show with two strong actors. One of the original three adjudicators was replaced by the alternate adjudicator for the rest of the festival. Unfortunately, that did not improve the adjudications much.

Friday night we had to be back at the theatre early for the awards ceremony. Four people from Minnesota (Rachel Bohnsack, Julianna Skluzacek, Dave Metcalf and Larry Pint) received awards, as did Jim Walker from South Dakota whom many of you know.

Friday night’s performances started off with “Men on Boats” which was from The Des Moines Playhouse, the other entry from Region V. In 1869 a group of explorers set off to map the Green and Colorado Rivers. This is the story of that fateful voyage. The twist in this show is that the characters are all men, but they are played by women (as per the author’s instructions). That trip was followed by a trip of another kind. “Natural Shocks” bursts to life when we meet a woman waiting out an imminent tornado in her basement. The fast-talking heroine, overflows with quirks, stories, and a final secret. (And she kept her composure, and character, as a bat flew around the stage and theatre.) I think my opinion of the adjudications should be clear by now. This session was just more of the same.

It’s now Saturday morning. (Already!) Last day of the festival. I kicked off the day with “In Perfect Harmony: The Synergy Between Marketing and Development”.

Then we are back to the theatre for the final performance block. “Constellations” is one of those plays were they keep repeating sections with different endings. I, personally, don’t like this kind of show. The interesting part about this play was the set. A large round platform suspended slightly off the floor by a rounded bottom. It tipped the platform down based on where the characters were standing. I still haven’t figured out what that had to do with the show. They also had LED rope lights around the back and sides of the platform. They lit them in different colors and combinations. Again, I haven’t figured out what that had to do with the show. The next show was an interesting demonstration of human relationship dynamics. “The Way of All Fish” portrayed a ping-pong power game between the two actresses.

At 8:00 pm Saturday night was the awards ceremony. I’ve already reported (in last week’s newsletter) that strange results so I won’t go into them here. After another worthless social, we bid ado to another day.

Sunday morning was a, thankfully, uneventful drive back home.

To summarize the workshops: I thought the workshops had the worst variety and quality of any AACTFest I have attended. (This was my 6th.) They used to have “tracks” of recommended workshops for administrators, actors, directors, tech crews and maybe others. This time there was no such direction.

To summarize the adjudicators and adjudications: again the worst I have seen at an AACTFest. They talked about the author. They talked about the script. They even talked about the setups. They said very little about the productions, which is what everyone wanted to hear. Despite having replaced one adjudicator after the first day of the festival. Everyone seemed to be in shock over the “Best Show” selection. I know AACT can do better than this.

To summarize the performances: While I didn’t like some of the material presented, most theatres did a very good job of presenting the work. It is live theatre with limited time for everything so sometimes things don’t work out as planned and rehearsed.

To summarize the socials: I remember when the socials were worth attending. There were at least limited free drinks. There was food, which always disappeared too fast. Now they are gatherings that the sponsors pay big bucks for that feature expensive drinks, limited seating, and cheap – if any -munchies.

In conclusion: If the next AACTFest were not in Minnesota (May Civic Center in Rochester), I doubt I would attend. Even with it being close, it is debatable. (Possibly depending on if Minnesota has a show in it.)

Minnesota was well represented at the festival. Of course there was Absolute Theatre’s “Forever Plaid” cast and crew, which we can all be very proud of. Northern Starz Center for the Performing Arts also made Minnesota proud with their show in YouthFest, “Dark Road”. Several of the people associated with their show stayed for AACTFest, too. Others from Minnesota included Tom and Elisabeth Nelson, Dave and Linda Metcalf, Ron and Becky Hungerford, Jim Vogel and Jenifer Wagner, Bob Schwoch, Sylvia Newell, Jon Skaalen, Dave Poechel and friend and Joel Soukkala. (My apologies if I missed anyone in Minnesota’s large contingent.) Carol and I would also like to thank Tom and Elisabeth Nelson for acting as our chauffeurs for the festival, allowing us to ride with them between the hotel and the theatre every day.