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Arts & Entertainment

It's All Play for "Taste of MACT" One-Act Festival at Lakeville Area Arts Center

The Minnesota Association of Community Theaters brings a preview of its play festival to Lakeville for two weekends starting February 18th. We spoke with the festival's team about this year's shows and the state of community theater in Minnesota.

Don’t let the name fool you. “Community theater” may be smaller in scale and budget than professional theater, but it garners the same energy, dedication and passion from its participants. This month several south metro community theaters will get the chance to warm-up with preview performances at the before moving on to the state one-act play festival in Fergus Falls, MN.

“Taste of MACT” features three of the nine one-acts to be performed at “MACT Fest 2011” next month. The Lakeville shows include “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls,” by Christopher Durang, “The Bay at Nice,” by David Hare and “This Property is Condemned” by Tennessee Williams.

The Minnesota Association of Community Theaters is a statewide, volunteer-run organization that promotes excellence in community theater by offering guidance for development, communications and outreach. The organization promotes community theaters’ plays on its website, helps them secure spaces or items to rent and acts as a conduit for actors, directors and technicians looking for theater work. 

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MACT Executive Director Christine Brandt, who recently moved to Minnesota from Arizona, says despite the current economic climate, community theater continues to thrive here.

“In this state I’d say community theaters are running strong. We’re pretty committed here, and people are hardy,” Brandt said. “The Twin Cities are rich with theater, but it’s everywhere. We like our community theater, and we want to produce it. Minnesota is a very arts and theater-oriented state, and that’s wonderful,” Brandt said.

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MACT’s biggest ongoing endeavor is producing “MACT Fest,” which is a biennial competition held on odd calendar years. On even-numbered years MACT holds a one-day event called “Fast Fest”, which she said is more campy and fun.

So just what is community theater?

“It’s basically theater that serves the community,” Brandt said. It builds relationships in the community by its very function. It’s unpaid theater, but it’s a place where people who want to move on to bigger and better things can take their first steps onto the stage,” 

Dayna Railton, an actor and director participating in the “Taste of MACT” Lakeville preview, said it’s the first time the three plays plays will be performed for a live audience.

“You’ve got to get some performances under your belt before you hit the ‘MACT Fest’ competition,” Railton said.  “The plays have to be well-seasoned. You don’t want to hit the main festival with your first performance. That one should be your best effort."

This year Railton is directing “The Bay at Nice.” She’s also acting in “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls,” which is being produced by her own company, The Play’s the Thing Productions. She said awards at “MACT Fest” are given for best ensemble, directing, acting, set design and sound design. The plays are judged using several adjudication criteria:

• Is the acting believable and technically skillful with effective timing?
• Are the characters well interpreted?
• Does the company display ensemble work?
• Is the material appropriate for the company?
• Is the concept appropriate for the material and realized by the company?
• Has the structure of the production been controlled?

The two plays with the most awards at each state festival move on to regionals. Regional winners then move on to the national competition. One of Minnesota’s participating organizations, The Dakota Fine Arts Consortium, has made it to regionals twice.

Tom Barnard is Director of the Lakeville Area Arts Center. He said he’s excited to have three theaters performing together for the “Taste of MACT” event. 

“Each of these theaters has performed with us before, but not all at the same time,” Barnard said. “Community theater is perfect for our venue, because it gives people a chance not just to experience theater, but to be on stage themselves, many of them for the first time. We have three community theaters and three childrens’ theaters in the area. We’re really fortunate.” Bernard said.

For more information on the Lakeville Area Arts Center, visit the City of Lakeville’s website at: http://www.ci.lakeville.mn.us 

For more about MACT, visit: http://www.mact.net

Performances for “Taste of MACT” are Fridays and Saturdays Feb. 18-19 and 25-26 at 7:30 p.m., and Sundays Feb. 20 & 27 at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for seniors and students.

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