MACTHow to Keep an Organized Audition Book
For a musical theatre actor, the audition book can be your biggest asset or your Achilles’ heel.
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Advocacy Alert: August 2025
Your Voice Matters More Than Ever Critical Funding Decisions Ahead The stakes couldn’t be higher for arts and humanities federal funding.Here’s where we stand. The Numbers: The Senate Appropriations Committee approved $207 million for FY26 while the House Appropriations Committee approved $135 million (35 percent cut) for the NEA and NEH. Advocates are encouraged to
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Meet MACT Board Member Kolie Shaw
We welcome new MACT Board member, Kolie Shaw to the Board. She was elected at the June 7 annual meeting. Kolie Shaw is a Director, deviser, and performance artist in the Twin Cities who is passionate about new theater works, avant-garde performance art, and theater education. Kolie graduated from North Dakota State University with a
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Summer Stock Checklist
Next summer is just around the corner and now is the time to start planning for it.
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Threats to free artistic expression
Threats to free artistic expression has expanded to trying to regulate which books children may read, what subjects they can learn in schools and a variety of topics around LGBTQ+ people.
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Rename the Kennedy Center’s Opera House
President Trump and the Republican party continue their attack and the arts. House republicans first took aim at the Kennedy Center Opera House, with an amendment to a bill that would rename the opera house for Melania Trump. The Kennedy Center’s opera house could be renamed the ‘First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.’ The opera
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Seeking homes for MACT*Fest ’27 and Region V AACTFest ’27
MACT is in the process of soliciting hosts for MACT*Fest 2027 in February or early March of 2027 and the Region V AACTFest in early April of 2027.
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YouthFest 2025
AACT Youthfest was held June 22-24 at the Des Moines Playhouse. The shows presented at the festival were: Avinash, presented by Ebong TheatriX (Bethesda, MD – Region II), was celebrated for its high-energy movement and won Outstanding Dance Performance (Stay In Your Lane Dancers). Jiyon Banerjee and Suhana Tiwari also received Outstanding Acting Awards. Dark
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Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”
This bill includes a provision that has the potential to strengthen grassroots fundraising.
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AACTFest 2025 Review
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