MACT

Fast*Fest was held on August 16 & 17, 2024 at the Encore Performing Arts Center in beautiful Cloquet. This was our 10th biennial short play festival. And it was a record setter! The 15 presenting theatres broke the old record of 14, which was set at the first ever Fast*Fest in 2006. There were 77 full packages sold, another record for a Fast*Fest. And we made a record profit of almost $1,000. (All of our festivals are budgeted to break even, but most of them lose money. The few that do show a profit, it is usually a couple hundred dollars, at best.)

On Friday evening, August 16th, there was a welcome open house at the Encore Performing Arts Center. It was very well attended. MACT and County Seat Theater Company provided light snacks and the Arts Center sold wine and other refreshments. This gave the theatre companies time to look over the stage.

15 theatres presented shows split among 3 performances sessions.

Session 1 at 9:00 am Saturday morning included:

• “Sister Loretta“, written by Steven LaVigne and presented by Penny Pinchin’ Productions
• “The Spot“, written by Steven Dietz and presented by County Seat Theater Company
• “The Last Romeo“, written by Jon Skaalen and presented by Ole Olson Onstage
• “Macbeth, The Oppositional King“, written by Greg Bastien and presented by Classics Lost N Found Theatre Company
• “Jeanette Rankin: Champion of Persistence“, written by J. Emily Peabody and presented by Thorn Productions

Session 2 at 1:30 pm Saturday afternoon included:

• “Lunchtime!” written by Lawrence Ripp and presented by Mindless Mirth Productions
• “All’s Well That Ends” written by Noreen K. Brandt and presented by NKB Productions
• “Porch Talk” written by Jon Skaalen and presented by Rhubarb Jam
• “Anniversary Season” written by Jenny Lyn Bader and presented by Zenith City Players
• “Timber” written by Lindsey Brown and presented by Marshall Area Stage Company

Session 3 at 6:30 pm Saturday evening included:

• “The Door” written by Paul Elliott and presented by Seat of Your Pants Players
• “Heart Attack: My Journey to Hell and Back” written by John S. Armstrong and presented by Open Heart Theatre
• “Wedding Belle Blues” written by Noreen K. Brandt and presented by Pargeter Players
• “A Woman Over Forty” written by Lindsey Brown and presented by Applause Community Theatre
• “Death Knocks” written by Woody Allen and presented by FungusAmongus Players

Usually in a festival of this many non-juried shows there will be at least one that is “not so great”. But this festival had 15 shows that I think were all very good. The audiences seemed to agree. Many of these shows were written by local playwrights and had their premier performance at this festival. It is a great festival for new plays because they play in front of a very receptive audience of theatre enthusiasts and they receive supportive feedback.

New at this Fast*Fest was a meal provided by MACT as part of the full package registration. This was an attempt to make the full package a better value for attendees. We received lots of positive feedback on this new addition to the festival.

County Seat Theatre organized a raffle where prizes were awarded during each performance session, the grand prize being a full registration package for MACT*Fest 2025.

Our on-line ticketing provider, Tickets To The City, sponsored a “Kount your Kisses Kontest” to promote their ticketing service and their dime-a-time feature, where a MACT member theatre that uses their ticketing service gets an extra dime for every ticket sold through their service. And, as an added bonus, MACT also get a dime for every ticket sold. Plus, if you sign up for a free on-line demo, Tickets To The City will pay for your next year of MACT membership. The person who came closest to guessing the number of Hershey Kisses in the jar won $100, and the theatre they chose also received $100. Becky Hungerford had the closest guess and designated FungusAmongus Players as the theatre company.

MACT would like to thank the 15 theatre companies that presented shows, and their casts and crews, for making this a festival for the record books. Without the participation and support of these groups, our festivals would not be possible. We would also like to give a very big THANK YOU to our host theatre, County Seat Theater Company, for allowing us to use their wonderful facility and for the great support they provided. Joel and his large group of volunteers exceeded all expectations of a host. Finally, we would like to thank the festival co-chairs, Joel Soukkala and Larry Pint, and their festival committee; Carol Pint, Gary Davis, Gordy Handeland, Rachel Bohnsack, Julianna Skluzacek, Darren Beecher, Susan Olson and Bruce Kurtz for all their hard work in making this festival truly outstanding.

We are hoping that the great momentum from this festival will carry forward to MACT*Fest, which is coming up in just a few short months. Thanks, again, to all who made Fast*Fest possible. We hope to see you all (and more) at MACT*Fest 2025, March 5-9 at the Depot Theatre in scenic Duluth!