MACT Logo. Upper portion is comedy/drama masks with comedy mask in yellow and drama mask in blue. Lower portion has the acronym "MACT" and below it the description MN Association of Community Theatres.MACT

MACT

Minnesota Association of Community Theatres

We are Minnesota’s Community Theatres

MACT*Fest is this week

MACT*Fest 2025 logo

MACT*Fest 2025 will be held at the Depot Theatre in Duluth, this week, Friday through Sunday. This festival will feature nine shows spread over four performance sessions. Five of the nine shows are original scripts written for this festival. There are also 12 workshops available over the four workshops sessions. And don’t forget the afterglow social on Saturday night and the awards brunch on Sunday morning.

MACT*Fest is fairly unique in that you get to experience the shows in a way you don’t normally have the opportunity to. First off, each show’s set must fit in a 10 foot by 10 foot box near the back of the stage. The theatre then has 10 minutes to setup their set in front of the audience. They then have 60 minutes in which to perform their show. After their performance, they have 10 minutes to move their set back into the 10 x 10 square. The 10 minutes to setup, 60 minutes to perform and 10 minutes to strike are timed and any theatre that exceeds those times is excluded from being able to advance. After each performance, three adjudicators will give comments about the show. This is a great opportunity to learn by hearing what the adjudicators liked about each show and what other choices the theatre might want to consider.

The festival kicks off in Friday, March 7 at 8:30 am with your choice of three workshops. At 10:00 am there will be another three workshops.

The first performance session is Friday at 1:30 pm. It will feature County Seat Theatre (Cloquet) presenting “The Game of Life“, followed by Mindless Mirth Productions (St Paul) with “Little Claus and Big Claus“.

Friday evening there will be another performance session staring at 7:00 pm. Absolute Theatre (Rochester) will start the session off with “Forever Plaid“. Following that, “The Lost Souls of Ireland” will be presented by Lamplighter Community Theatre (Staples).

Saturday morning will start off at 8:30 am with another workshop session with your choice of three topics. At 10:00 am will be the final workshop session with three more topics to choose from.

Saturday afternoon’s performance session will start at 1:00 pm. This session will feature three shows, “Done to Death” presented by Applause Community Theatre (St Paul), “26 Pebbles” presented by Northern Starz Center for the Performing Arts (Ramsey) and “Get Over It” presented by Calumet Players (Pipestone).

The final performance session will be at 7:30 pm on Saturday evening. Ole Olson Onstage (Stillwater) will lead-off the session with “Trapp’s Last Crepe“. The final performance of the festival will be “Finishing School” presented by FungusAmongus Players (Dassel-Cokato).

After the last performance and adjudication there will be an afterglow social at Incline Station (ticket required).

On Sunday morning is the Awards Brunch. Here MACT will be presenting several “Fliehr Awards”, a lifetime achievement award recognizing distinguished service to Minnesota Theatre.  This state level award is named after Kay and Richard Fliehr who were lifelong community theatre promoters and organizers across the country. Theatre in the Round, the Guthrie, MACT, ACTA, AACT and many other theatres and organizations benefited from the Fliehrs’ knowledge, devotion, energy and excitement in the art and craft of theatre.

Then comes the time all of the presenting theatres are waiting for, the presentation of the festival awards. The awards presented are all selected by the adjudicators. These awards vary from festival to festival, but there will likely be acting and directing awards for several participants. There may be awards for other things like ensemble work, lighting, sound, sets, costumes or other categories that the adjudicators decide on. Following those awards a second alternate will be awarded, followed by the first alternate and finally the two “Best of Fest” shows.

The two shows from MACT*Fest that are selected as the “Best of Fest” will have the opportunity to present their shows at the Region V festival. Two alternate shows are also selected in case either of the “Best of Fest” shows is unable to attend the regional festival. This cycle the regional festival will be held April 4-6 in Newton, Iowa. In addition to Minnesota, Region V includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas. At least one show from the regional festival will advance to the national AACTFest. The national festival will feature 12 shows. It will be held in Des Moines, Iowa this festival cycle, June 25-28 at the historic Hoyt Sherman Place Theatre.

Tickets for individual workshop sessions will be available at the Depot Theatre for $15. Individual performance session tickets will also be available at the door for $25. Due to the caterer requiring a final count by March 1, tickets for the Awards Brunch are no longer available.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to see several theatres presenting shows in this unusual format. Grab your friends and head on over to the Depot Theatre in Duluth this weekend.