Staff. Cast. Join us in sending our best wishes to the cast and crew as they travel to Charlotte.

Transcription

1 Wisconsin Group Selected or National AACTFest! On April 27, 2007 the production was selected that would represent Region III (Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois) at the national AACTFest in Charlotte, North Carolina. The show selected was Wisconsin s representative, the La Crosse Community Theatre and their production o The Women o Lockerbie. In addition to being selected to move on to the National Festival, Dillon McArdle was honored or Outstanding Lighting and Set Design, Allen and Karen Ebert or Outstanding Direction, and Molly Mae Homann was named to the All Star Cast. In the play, a mother rom New Jersey roams the hills o Lockerbie, Scotland, looking or the remains o her son who was lost in the crash o Pan Am light 103 which was destroyed by a terrorist bomb. She meets the women o Lockerbie, who are ighting the U.S. government to obtain the clothing o the victims ound in the plane s wreckage. The women are determined to convert an act o hatred into an act o love, by washing the clothes o the dead and returning them to the victims amilies. The Women o Lockerbie will be among 12 plays competing at the national estival. It s the second time a La Crosse Community Theatre production has advanced to the national estival. The irst time being in 1997, when they took their production o Cotton Patch Gospel to the national estival in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Women o Lockerbie Join us in sending our best wishes to the cast and crew as they travel to Charlotte. Sta Directors...Allen & Karen Ebert Stage Manager... Je Copsey Costume & Make-Up Designer... Cheri Sailors Scenic & Lighting Designer... Dillon McArdle Sound Designer... Viterbo University Props... Jessie Kunz Cast Madeline...Mollly Mae Homann Bill... John Richards Olive... Toni Tengblad Woman 1...Sharon Markee Woman 2... Julie Gardner Hattie... Janet Reuteler George... Sean McDevitt WACT News June Page 1

2 National AACTFest 2007 AACTFest is the national theatre estival o the American Association o Community Theatre (AACT). The 2007 national estival is being held in Charlotte, North Carolina, June 18-24, 2007, it is the inal estival in an almost two year long estival cycle. Leading up to the national estival there have been more than orty state estivals, and eleven regional estivals. Advancing companies have been selected to proceed at the state and regional levels and will now perorm and be adjudicated at the national estival. The ive day estival consists o perormances, workshops, parties, and meetings where community theatre people have the opportunity to see some o the best community theatre in the nation, learn rom top notch theatre experts, and make contacts with other theatre enthusiasts rom all over the country. AACTFest began as the Festival o American Community Theatres (FACT) in It was originally designed as a mechanism or the United States to select a representative to the World Theatre Congress held in Monaco every our years. It has evolved into a much larger estival held every two years across the United States. The principal purpose is to provide a means to airm, support, and nurture community theatre companies as they strive toward excellence. The entire estival cycle ollows a ormat prescribed by AACT through the AACTFest Handbook. Each producing company is allowed to present any perormance o a theatrical nature. Companies have ten minutes to set their WACT News is published quarterly by the Wisconsin Association o Community Theatre or its members and is annually distributed to an expanded list o known community theatre organizations and interested individuals. Publication dates are March, June, September (expanded list) and December. Volume 5, Number Wisconsin Association o Community Theatre All Rights Reserved stage, sixty minutes to perorm, and ten minutes to strike back to a bare stage. Following each perormance the adjudicators publicly critique the perormance they have just witnessed. State and regional estivals have chosen the ollowing productions to perorm at AACTFest 2007 in Charlotte, North Carolina: The Wellesley Players (Wellesley, MA) Graceland The Port Tobacco Players, Inc. (La Plata, MD) Never Swim Alone La Crosse Community Theatre (La Crosse, WI) The Women o Lockerbie Manatee Players (Bradenton, FL) Sweeney Todd Cookeville Drama Center (Cookeville, TN) Escanaba in Da Moonlight Aberdeen Community Theatre (Aberdeen, SD) Honk! Theatre North (Tulsa, OK) Who Will Sing For Lena Denton Community Theatre (Denton, TX) Crowns Cheyenne Little Theatre (Cheyenne, WY) A Walk in the Woods Army Community Theatre (Fort Shater, HI) I We Are Women Spokane Civic Theatre (Spokane, WA) Assassins SHAPE Entertainment Centre (Army Overseas) Wings Festivals are wonderul opportunities to meet new people, see new productions, and learn innumerable things to take back to your own community theatre. It s not too late to register or the estival at June 18-24, 2007 National AACTFest 2007 Charlotte, North Carolina Upcoming Events February 22-24, 2008 WACT O-Year Conerence Barron, Wisconsin WACT News June Page 2

3 Region III AACTFest 2007 On April 27-29, 2007 the spotlight was on Schaumburg, Illinois as the site o the 2007 Region III AACTFest. Packed into the three days were six shows, eighteen adjudications, ive workshops, two parties, an awards brunch and a whole lot o un. The estival began Friday night with Palatine, Illinois production o Voices Through the Storm. The play is about separation, loss and patriotism during the irst Persian Gul War during Inspired by the communications o those who actually lived it, news stories, photographs, and magazine articles it chronicles the personal experiences and opinions o those involved. Indiana s South Bend Civic Theatre was up next with The Gin Game. This bittersweet comedy uses a card game as a metaphor or lie. Two discontented nursing home residents begin to reveal intimate details o their lives over what starts out as a riendly game o gin rummy. Following the perormances was un and rivolity Useul Websites The World s Largest Entertainment Memorabilia Store Authentic movie props, costumes and memorabilia A source or costumes with an emphasis on tuxedos, both current and period WACT News June Page 3 at the Meineke recreation center with ood, drink and an improv perormance. Saturday morning the activities continued with workshops ranging rom Fight Choreography to Computers or Lighting and Sound. Ater a break or lunch the perormances continued. Leading o the aternoon was Wisconsin s own La Crosse Community Theatre and their production o The Women o Lockerbie. In the play, a mother rom New Jersey roams the hills o Lockerbie, Scotland, looking or the remains o her son who was lost in the crash o Pan Am light 103. She meets the women o Lockerbie, who are ighting the U.S. government to obtain the clothing o the victims ound in the plane s wreckage. The women, determined to convert an act o hatred into an act o love, want to wash the clothes o the dead and return them to the victims amilies. Next up on the schedule was No Exit as perormed by the Rosedale Community Players rom Detroit, Michigan. Illustrating Jean-Paul Sartre s philosophy o Existentialism, you meet three people destined to spend all o eternity together. As you share their pain and their laughter you ask yoursel i they are each other s punishment. And who would be in your hell? Ater Dinner the audience was treated to a production o Inventing Van Gogh rom Westerville, Ohio s Curtain Players. A haunting and hallucinatory drama about the making o art, Inventing Van Gogh is the story o the inal van Gogh sel-portrait, painted just beore the artist s death, which has never been seen, until now. Patrick Stone, a contemporary painter, is hired to orge this inal masterpiece and inds himsel squaring o, across the years, with Van Gogh himsel. Closing out the estival s perormance schedule was Saugatuck, Michigan s Red Barn Community Players and their production o Revival at Possum Kingdom Community Church. The story is about two down on their luck conidence men and the people they meet in Possum Kingdom, Texas on a hot July day in They meet Ella Faye Tanner who sets them on a journey which will change them orever in ways they may never realize. The audience once again adjourned to the Meineke Recreation center or ood drinking, and dancing. One highlight

4 being an impromptu production number to YMCA that can only be described as Footloose meets the Village People. Sunday morning at brunch the adjudicators decisions were announced. Selected to proceed to the National Festival was La Crosse s The Women o Lockerbie. First runner up was The Gin Game put on by South Bend Civic Theatre and second runner up was Theatre Nebula s Voices Through the Storm. Also announced were a number o outstanding achievement awards. Stage Manager s Award Revival at Possum Kingdom Community Church Outstanding Sound Design Jack Oonk Revival at Possum Kingdom Community Church Outstanding Lighting Design J. Spencer Greene -- Voices Through the Storm Outstanding Lighting Design Dillon McArdle -- The Women o Lockerbie Outstanding Costume Design Karen Mchugh -- No Exit Outstanding Costume Design Megan Evans -- Inventing Van Gogh Outstanding Set Design Dillon McArdle -- The Women o Lockerbie Outstanding Direction Allen and Karen Ebert -- The Women o Lockerbie All Star Cast Melanie Stanton -- Voices Through the Storm Jonathan Legat -- Voices Through the Storm Molly Mae Homann -- The Women o Lockerbie Mary Ann Moran -- The Gin Game Jim Coppens -- The Gin Game In Community Theatre There Are No Strangers, Only Friends You Haven t Met Yet! Renew Now and Beat the Rush All WACT memberships will expire on July 31, Send in your renewal now using the orm on the back page and save the organization the time and expense o sending you a renewal notice. Feel ree to use this opportunity to tell us how you d like to help out. The current committees are shown on page 5. I you have an idea or something and aren t sure where it its into the current structure just ask and we ll igure it out. Wisconsin AACTFest 2009 (Already)? AACTFest 2009 already? It may seem like the distant uture. However, putting on a successul estival requires time and eort on the part o the hosting group. We would strongly encourage groups to consider hosting the 2009 state estival. Hosting a estival is a antastic opportunity to support community theatre. It also gives your group a chance to show o what it can do and be a good undraiser in the process. It would be ideal to have a host in place prior to the 2008 Conerence in Barron. In this way an announcement can be made o the time and place a ull year in advance. Announcing early provides companies thinking o entering the opportunity to budget and plan to be a participant. Anyone interested in hosting Wisconsin AACTFest 2009 (or any uture conerence) should contact Frank Peot, 1747 Pennsylvania Avenue, Sun Prairie, WI, (FPeot@wactweb.org), or any other member o the WACT Board o Directors WACT News June Page 4

5 WACT(.org) Is Back wact. org Future WACT News The problems that have kept us rom using the wact.org domain name have at last been resolved. So you can now get to the WACT website by using the wact.org address. The wactweb.org address will continue to work but will reroute you to the wact.org address. What would you like to see in uture issues o WACT News? We re always looking or new ideas so just drop us a note at newsletter@wactweb.org. Or i you have an article you d like write that s even better. Articles that are already written are OK too. President WACT s Vice President Treasurer Secretary O-Year Conerence AACTFest Finance Membership History Bylaws/Operati ons Publicity Web Site Newsletter Awards Nominating Anyone and everyone is asked and encouraged to help out on a committee. Just drop us a note at ino@wactweb.org. WACT News June Page 5

6 Wisconsin Association o Community Theatre Board o Directors President -- Bob Kaka 2418 North 111 th Street #2 Wauwatosa, WI BKaka@wactweb.org Vice President -- Frank Peot 1747 Pennsylvania Avenue Sun Prairie, WI FPeot@wactweb.org Secretary -- Lynn Ruhl 3528 South Toldt Circle Milwaukee, WI LRuhl@wactweb.org Treasurer -- Dee Baldock 6394 Grandview Road Verona, WI DBaldock@wactweb.org Member at Large -- Allen Ebert th Street South La Crosse, WI AEbert@wactweb.org Member at Large -- Carla Gallun 223 East Maple Avenue Beaver Dam, WI CGallun@wactweb.org Member at Large -- Mark Holten 100 Berkley Road Apt 9 Verona, WI MHolten@wactweb.org Member at Large -- Jeannie Pitsch 1605 Heide Lane Marshield, WI (715) JPitsch@wactweb.org Member at Large Donna Thompson 708 North Maple Avenue Marshield, WI DThompson@wactweb.org Member at Large Darrell Wagner 3537 East River Drive Green Bay, WI (920) Theatre Deinitions As we all know, theatre has a language all its own. We use terms not always ound in the standard dictionary. So we oer an addendum to Webster s commonplace list o deinitions. Blocking -- the art o moving actors on the stage in such a manner as not to collide with the walls, the urniture or each other. Similar to playing chess, except that the pawns want to argue with you. Blocking Rehearsal -- a rehearsal taking place early in the production where actors rantically write down movements which will be nowhere in evidence by opening night. Stage Manager -- person responsible or overseeing the crew, supervising the set changes, baby-sitting the actors and putting the director in a hammerlock to keep him rom killing the actor who just decided to turn his walk-on part into a major role by doing magic tricks while he serves the tea. Makeup Kit -- (1) among experienced community theater actors, a battered tackle box loaded with at least 10 shades o greasepaint in various stages o desiccation, tubes o lipstick and blush, assorted pencils, bobby pins, braids o crepe hair, liquid latex, old programs, jewelry, break-a-leg greeting cards rom past shows, brushes and a handul o hal-melted cough drops; (2) or irst-time male actors, a helpless look and anything they can borrow. Forebrain -- the part o an actor's brain which contains lines, blocking and characterization; activated by hot lights. Hindbrain -- the part o an actors brain that keeps up a running subtext in the background while the orebrain is trying to act; the hindbrain supplies a constant stream o unwanted inormation, such as who is sitting in the second row tonight, a notation to seriously maim the crew member who thought it would be unny to put Tabasco sauce in the ake Bloody Mary, or the act that you need to do laundry on Sunday. Quality Theatre -- any show with which you were directly involved. Set -- an obstacle course which, throughout the rehearsal period, deies the laws o physics by growing smaller week by week while continuing to occupy the same amount o space. Assistant Director -- individual willing to undertake special projects that nobody else would take on a bet, such as working one-on-one with the braindead actor whom the rest o the cast has threatened to take out a contract on. Dark Spot -- an area o the stage which the lighting designer has inexplicably missed lighting, and which has a magnetic attraction or actors. A dark spot is never evident beore opening night. WACT News March Page 6

7 Set Piece -- any large piece o urniture which actors will resolutely use as a saety shield between themselves and the audience, in an apparent attempt to both anchor themselves to the loor, thereby avoiding loating o into space, and to keep the audience rom seeing that they actually have legs. Stage Right, Stage Let -- two simple directions actors pretend not to understand in order to drive directors crazy. ("No, your OTHER stage right!") Prop -- a hand-carried object small enough to be lost by an actor 30 seconds beore it is needed on stage. Monologue -- that shining moment when all eyes are ocused on a single actor who is desperately aware that i he orgets a line, no one can save him. Bit Part -- an opportunity or the actor with the smallest role to count everybody else's lines and mention repeatedly that he or she has the smallest part in the show. Hands -- appendages at the end o the arms used or manipulating one's environment, except on a stage, where they grow six times their normal size and either dangle uselessly, idget nervously, or try to hide in your pockets Strike -- the time immediately ollowing the last perormance while all cast and crew members are required to stay and dismantle or to just stand around and watch while everyone else does the work. Actors (deined by a set designer) -- people who stand between the audience and the set designer's art, blocking the view. That's also the origin o the word "blocking," by the way. Eternity -- the time that passes between a dropped cue and the next line. Upcoming WACT Member Productions May 18-June 10, 2007 Gypsy Racine Theatre Guild May 25-June 2, 2007 Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Sheboygan Theatre Company June 8-24, 2007 Whose Wives Are They Anyway? Waukesha Civic Theatre June 15-24, 2007 Disney's Cinderella Kids La Crosse Community Theatre June 22-30, 2007 Annie, Get Your Gun Verona Area Community Theater July 4, 2007 Pistol Packin' Sal (FREE event!) Sheboygan Theatre Company Is your show not listed here??? All organizations who are WACT members can have their show listed on the WACT website and in WACT News. Just send your schedule to ino@wactweb.org WACT News March Page 7

8 WACT Membership Form Return orm to: WACT c/o LCCT PO Box 1852 La Crosse, WI Name Contact Name (Organizational Members) Address Mailing Address City Telephone Web Site (Organizational Members) State Zip Code Individual $15.00 Organizational $50.00 Additional Donation to WACT (Donations to WACT are tax deductible) TOTAL Please make checks payable to WACT -- All memberships run rom August 1 to July 31 Wisconsin Association o Community Theatre PO Box 1852 La Crosse, WI 54602