MACT

These training sessions and workshops are being coordinated by Jon Skaalen, a long time access advocate, MACT member and officer who was formerly with VSA Minnesota. For more information on any of the items below, contact Jon at 612-819-0949 or mactfactor@icloud.com.

MACT is planning several days of workshops on three Saturdays in June and one in August

• The format for the June workshop days will be similar, but with different combinations of workshops available on each day.
  • There will be one or two workshop options in the morning,
  • a lunch break and
  • one or two workshop options in the afternoon.

Cost to attend:

• $40 for both workshops on the same day ($35 for MACT members)
• $25 for a single workshop ($20 for MACT members)

NOTE: Click on a workshop name to view the workshop description.

August 3 at Brooklyn Park Library

 8500 W Broadway Ave, Brooklyn Park, MN 55445

• 1:30 Check-in open
• 2:00 What is the Penguin Project
• 4:30 Dinner (on your own) with other attendees
• 7:00 Optionally attend Penguin Project performance of Guys and Dolls ($5 discount for workshop attendees)

NOTE: the August 3 Penguin Project Workshop is NOT part of the MRAC Grant.

The AD Training and workshops below were funded by a grant from the Metro Region Arts Council.

Audio Describer Training

This is a rare opportunity for an affordable two-day training to learn how to make shows more enjoyable and accessible for people with vision loss!

Audio description is a service that describes the visual aspects of events for people who are blind or of low vision. It’s a skill you can learn to serve your theatre — or use to earn money describing plays, films, parades, art and museum exhibits, parades, even eclipses. Learn the basics and get a chance to try describing scenes yourself. The main focus is on live performance, but all kinds of audio description will be included. Current audio description standards are included, along with resources to audio description networking around the country, possible continuing mentoring, and future opportunity for certification.

Skills needed: a good voice, quick mind to access apt adjectives and verbs, conciseness, ability to prioritize what’s important to say in a few words, time to preview a play, review a script and make notes, desire to share your love of theatre and the arts with people who can’t see.

Choose either set of dates:

Presenter: Celia Hughes, director of Art Spark Texas, has described hundreds of shows and trained dozens of new describers in Texas, at national Kennedy Center conferences, and previously in Minnesota. She is also on a committee developing audio description certification.

Cost: $80 (MACT members $70)

#1: Thursday/Friday, May 16-17,

9:00-5:00 both days in Minneapolis at Theatre in the Round Players, 245 Cedar Ave.

#2: Saturday/Sunday, May 18-19

9:00-5:00 both days in Minneapolis at the Minnesota Fringe office, 79 13th Ave. NE

June 29 at Rondo Library in St Paul

461 Dale St N, St Paul, MN 55103

• 9:30 Check-in open
• 10:00 20 Tips to be More Accessibility Friendly led by Jon Skaalen
• 12:00 Lunch (on your own)
• 1:30 A Conversation with the Guthrie’s Managing Director, Trisha Kirk

June 22 at Phoenix Theatre in Minneapolis

2605 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN 55408

• 9:30 Check-in open
• 10:00 Choose one:
  • Devise your Own Short Play led by Dan Reiva
  • Using the Public Domain to Search for Future Shows led by Steven LaVigne
• 12:00 Lunch (on your own)
• 1:30 Choose One:
  • Is There Life After College Theatre? led by Mike Ricci
  • Storytelling and Community Theatre led by Amy Salloway

Saturday, June 15 at Wellstone Center in St Paul

179 Robie St E, St Paul, MN 55107

• 9:30 Check-in open
• 10:00 Choose one:
  • History, Theory & Practice of Improv led by Steve Schroer
  • Season Planning with the Marketing Mix led by Michael Speck
• 12:00 – 1:30 Lunch on your own
• 1:30 Choose one:
  • Making the Most of a Bare Stage led by Steve Schroer
  • Working with a Fight Director led by Michael Speck

Saturday, June 1: Captioning Options

This is an opportunity to learn what various local theatres and cultural groups are doing to provide Open Captioning to serve attendees who are Deaf or hard of hearing. Who’s doing it now, and what methods may work and be affordable for your organization? For instance:

• Guthrie, Ordway and Hennepin Theatre Trust use c2 inc. and LED display monitors for captioning scripts.
• Minnesota Opera uses subtitles for English translations of its operas.
• Mixed Blood Theatre’s version of scripted captioning can make EVERY performance accessible through cueing the actors’ lines.
• Stages Theatre, Full Circle and others have similar captioning efforts.
• Independent captioners use a free software to provide captioned performances at History Theatre, Park Square and Theater Latte Da.
• Remote captioning used at Crooners connects via app to patrons’ smartphones.
• CART Providers (i.e. court reporters) use special software to provide captions for any live event, conference, Q&A discussion.

How is YOUR theatre serving members who can’t hear all the words? Captioning can be an option. Come and see how.

10:00-12:00 at Artistry, Bloomington Center for the Arts Black Box Theatre, 1800 W Old Shakopee Rd, Bloomington

Presenters: Six providers of captioning in the Twin Cities

Cost: $25 (MACT members $20)

The above Workshops were funded by a grant from the Metro Region Arts Council.

Workshop Descriptions:

Season Planning with the Marketing Mix

• Presented by: Michael Speck
• The Marketing Mix, or the “Four P’s,” is a useful framework for examining your offerings and refining your season. Product, Price, Placement, and Promotion do not need to be thoughtlessly recycled year after year — conscious choices on how to position particular shows as part of a season can help you expand your audiences, control your costs, and/or impress your donors.
• Michael Speck is Operations Director, Chatfield Center for the Arts; and Adjunct Instructor, Viterbo University.

Making the Most of a Bare Stage

• Presented by: Steve Schroer
• An elaborate set design isn’t the best choice for every show. Sometimes a stripped-down approach can be more effective, and it’s almost always cheaper. This workshop will consider a variety of topics, both artistic and technical, related to producing a show on a bare or nearly bare stage. 
• Steve Schroer has written, directed, and produced dozens of plays, often with minimal or non-existent sets.

Working with a Fight Director

• Presented by: Michael Speck
• This is NOT a how-to in stage combat. Instead, we’ll look at how fight directors (prefer to) work; questions a fight director will have for directors/producers, AND questions they can answer for you; collaborative opportunities with other designers; and how to find a fight director to work with.
• Michael Speck is Operations Director, Chatfield Center for the Arts; and Adjunct Instructor, Viterbo University.

Devise Your Own Short Play

• Presented by: Dan Reiva
• In this workshop, we’ll create a short show together and develop techniques you can use in your future artistic work.  Play production typically relies on a script, but we can also create a short play by tapping our imaginations with theatre games and exercises. The workshop will help you start with found sources — quotes, historical facts, visual images, etc. — and develop a performance using theatre games, automatic writing, improvisation, interacting with each performer’s personal space and evolving characters. 
• The instructor, Dan Reiva, has taught high school theatre and community groups, created four Fringe shows, developed video productions, and worked with many artists with disabilities.

Using the Public Domain to Search for Future Shows

• Presented by: Steven LaVigne
• Since the catalogs of Samuel French, Tams-Witmark, and Rodgers & Hammerstein Theatricals were purchased by Concord Theatricals, theatres are finding it harder to afford royalties for their shows. For instance, Classics Lost ’N’ Found Theater Company has been doing public domain scripts since 2017. Its recent production of Charley’s Aunt was written in 1893, but if it had paid Concord Theatricals for licensing and materials, it would have cost $130 per performance. Explore with Steven what is available and where to locate free or low-cost scripts for your theatre. Bring your ideas, too.
• Instructor Steven LaVigne is a writer and director who has worked most recently with Classics Lost ’N’ Found Theater in South Minneapolis. For a sample of his articles, go to MACT’s website at https://mn-act.net/index.php/mact-mart/articles/.

Is There Life After College Theatre

• Presented by: Mike Ricci
• Not all theatre students go into a dramatic arts profession to make a living. Many use theatre as a way to continue enjoying performing and feeling part of making art come alive onstage. Voila! Community Theatre! Hear from a veteran college theatre professor and community theatre director share many ways you can pursue the aspects of theatre you love — acting, marketing, community outreach, tech, production. Learn how to remain connected to theatre while pursuing a career in another field that pays the bills. Breakouts will gauge how you see yourself in a post-college world, and how you would like to engage in the theatre community. Gain strategies for successfully navigating this venture, and options on how to amplify your strengths to make you more valuable to a theatre company.  
• Instructor Mike Ricci will speak from personal experience in directing and teaching at Hibbing and North Hennepin community colleges, as well as building life-long relationships with many of the people he’s worked with — theatre people of all ages.

Storytelling and Community Theatre

• Presented by: Amy Salloway
• This storytelling workshop is perfect for beginning story artists testing out the waters for the first time, or seasoned performers looking for a quick brush-up or kick in the pants to get started on a new project…. It’s also great for folks hoping to use storytelling techniques to deepen and elevate other skill sets like stage acting and improv. The class will use discussion, writing time and on-your-feet exercises to focus on the essential building blocks that make up a story: identifying conflict and a dramatic arc; bringing scenes to life with action, emotion and sensory detail; and using vocal variety and physicality to give your story resonance. While this workshop packs a lot into two hours, it also aims to be encouraging and non-intimidating! Bring a notebook or laptop, and a recording device if you have one.
• Instructor Amy Salloway is an actor, writer and storyteller.

20 Tips to be More Accessibility Friendly

• Presented by: Jon Skaalen
• Arts organizations can engage in many positive, proactive ways to be welcoming and accessible to all people — in particular to patrons with disabilities. This session will lay out a number of practices you can undertake to make your board, building, programs, website and communications as accessible as possible — and win you some new friends and supporters.
• Instructor Jon Skaalen worked 20 years for VSA Minnesota, the state organization on disability, and continues on boards of the MN Access Alliance, MN Assn. of Community Theatres, ArtReach St. Croix and Ole Olson Onstage.

A Conversation with the Guthrie

• Presented by: Trisha Kirk
• Trish will address:
  • Challenges across the field including the Guthrie’s recent deficit announcement and the background and impact of it.
  • June marks 18 years since the Guthrie’s move from its original home next to the Walker Art Center.  What’s changed at the Guthrie since its move to the new building and since reopening from the shutdown — and what hasn’t?
  • Serving and supporting Minnesotans: what are the Guthrie’s commitments to who it hires and the communities it serves?
  • Your questions and ideas!  She’s take as many questions as time allows, and would also welcome any thoughts or ideas people want to share about the Guthrie’s role in the local arts ecosystem.
• Instructor Trisha Kirk is the Guthrie Theatre Managing Director. Though Trisha has been in her current role for just six months, she’s been with the Guthrie for over 35 years in a variety of roles.

What is the Penguin Project, and Could It Be Part of Your Season?

• Presented by: Northern Starz Theatre
• This nationally recognized program casts young people with disabilities and peer mentor performers without disabilities in musicals. See how Northern Starz has done it and how it could work for your community.