MACT

MACT*Fest is the Minnesota Association of Community Theatre’s (MACT) biennial, adjudicated festival of 60-minute plays.  It is the entry point for Minnesota community theatres hoping to advance to the regional and national festivals.  It is held in February or March of odd numbered years at locations around the state.

MACT*Fest 2025 is MACT’s 27th state festival, having held its first one in 1973.  For the first several festival cycles, only one show from each state was allowed to advance to the regional festival. Now, if you have at least 4 shows in a state festival, that state can send two shows to represent them at the Regional festival. The Region V AACTFest, for this cycle will be in Newton Iowa, April 4-6.  Region V is made up of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri.  At lest one show from the regional festival will advance to the national festival, AACTFest, to be held in Des Moines, Iowa, June 25-28. I say “at least one” because the region with the largest number of theatres in their state festivals, gets to send a second show on to the national festival. This happened in Region V in 2017. In that cycle, the two shows that advanced from the Region V Festival to AACTFest were both from Minnesota. I don’t know if it has ever happened before that one state had two shows in AACTFest.

MACT*Fest 2025 has nine shows in it.  The number of shows varies from festival to festival.  Two years ago, in Glenwood, the festival had only 4 shows.    The 2003 festival in Crookston had 18 shows in it.  That festival was to large to manage, so shortly thereafter we started limiting the shows to 12.

These festivals are unique in several ways. 

• They offer the opportunity to see many shows in a short period of time. 
• The rules say the sets must fit into a 10 foot by 10 foot box and the audience gets to watch the theatres’ put their sets together on stage.  Companies have fit some amazing sets in those little boxes. 
• One of the other unique features, and one of the highlights of festivals, IMHO,  is the adjudications.  After each performance, three adjudicators will give their opinions about the show we all just saw.  This is a great learning opportunity for performing companies and audience members alike. 
• And speaking of learning opportunities, lets not forget the workshops offered at festivals..
• And of course, there are plenty of opportunities to catch up with old friends and make some new ones.

More shows from Minnesota have advanced to the national AACTFests, I believe, than from any other state in our region.  Some have also been invited to participate in international festivals.  Shows that have advanced to AACTFests included:

• “Sweet” by County Seat Theater Company of Cloquet in 2019,
• “On The Road to Verona” by MN SkyVault Theatre Company of Rochester and “The Voice of the Prairie” by FungusAmongus Players of Dassel-Cokato in 2017, which was a very rare case of two shows from one state being presented at the same AACTFest,
• “The Romancers” by FungusAmongus Players of Dassel-Cokato in 2015,
• “Leading Ladies” by Dakota Fine Arts Consortium of Lakeville in 2013,
• “Wiley and the Hairy Man” by County Seat Theater Company of Cloquet in 2011,
• “A New Brain” by Chameleon Theatre Circle of Lakeville in 2003,
• “Assassins” by Chameleon Theatre Circle of Lakeville in 1999,
• “Jeffrey” by Theatre in the Round Players of Minneapolis in 1997,
• “The Love Course” by Lakeshore Players of White Bear Lake in 1995,
• “The Shawl” by Citystock Theatre Company of Minneapolis in 1989,
• “The Public Eye” by Minnetonka Community Theatre on Minnetonka in 1981,
• and “The Unknown Soldier” by Theatre in the Round Players of Minneapolis at the very first MACT*Fest in 1973.