MACT

Minnesota Association of Community Theatres
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August 6, 2023

News

One of the most difficult things about putting out a weekly newsletter is generating content, beyond the events listing.  You can help.  Write a short article about your theater, a memorable show you did or an interesting theater related experience you had and send it to me.  Share your writing talents with other theapians.

In this week’s newsletter I am spotlighting The Barn Theatre in Willmar.

The Willmar Community Theatre Inc. operates as a non-profit community theater, locally known as “The Barn Theatre.”  The Barn Theatre is a dynamic live performing arts theater providing cultural and artistic entertainment for the public, which includes a wide range of productions.  A regional theatre, growing from its original roots to draw people locally and beyond a 60-mile radius.  The Barn Theatre offers volunteers of all ages an opportunity to participate in every aspect of theatre, using their talents to enrich their lives and those of the community.  Plays, recitals, orchestral opportunities, musicals, dramas and more are regularly offered to the community.

The Mission of The Barn Theatre is to provide affordable, quality performing arts to west-central Minnesota.  The Barn promotes community involvement, affords opportunities for personal growth for its volunteers, displays and develops artistic talent, and provides community leadership for the fine arts.

Until 1984, The Barn Theatre operated out of a barn.  Thus its name.  In 1986 they were offered the old JC Penney store in downtown Willmar.  After a few years of work and several hundreds of thousands of dollars in renovations, the new theatre opened in 1988.

Since then, it has seen almost continuous renovations.  New seating, new entrances, new lobby, a gallery space and more.  And expansion as additional space was purchased.  Programs were expanded, too, including the “Hayloft Children’s Theatre” in 1991.  The remodeling and updating continues.  Last year saw the reupholstering and repair of the theatre seats.

During the pandemic shutdowns, The Barn’s volunteers took advantage and conducted some much-needed cleaning and organization. The sound and light room has had a makeover. A major re-organization of the basement costume rooms provide for a much easier find of the perfect costume.  Prop storage is in one room with shelves specifically built for the ever-growing collection. These spaces are utilized to the max.  

The Barn theatre has been a member of MACT, off and on, since 1989 and has hosted two MACT*Fests, in 1991 and 2007.

Finally, the latest edition of the Q2Q comic strip is below. Thank you, Steve Younkins, for allowing us to use them!  We encourage you to visit the Q2Q comics website for all his comics and/or to purchase his books and other merchandise and/or to make a donation.  Click here or on the comic strip for the Q2Q comics website (q2qcomics.com).
 
We would like to feature stories about MACT member theaters in this newsletter.  If you have a story about your theatre – it’s history, a special project or milestone, anything of general interest – please send it to NewsletterMACT@gmail.com.

Please pass this newsletter along to anyone that you think might be interested.   If you did not receive this newsletter directly, you can subscribe to this free weekly newsletter on the newsletters page of our website.

Please keep Tickets to the City in mind when you are looking for an on-line ticketing service.  They have been MACT’s on-line ticketing service for many years.  The system works great and is easy to use.  Support is superior!  And every ticket you sell through them provides you with MORE than the value of the ticket sold and also helps support MACT.
 

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Events

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