National AACT Festival

I have just returned from 11 days in New York state - 3 days of fun with my Dad visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame and playing golf (including on Father's Day) and then 8 days of work in Rochester NY.

In Rochester, I started the week as the Facilitator of the Community Theatre Management Conference. There were 30 people from community theatres across the country - staff, volunteers, board members. We discussed budgets, marketing, volunteers, season selection, royalties - anything related to running a theatre. It was three days of discussion and sharing, and I believe that everyone came away from the event with a new idea (or twelve) for their theatre to implement. It was very exciting to meet these new theatre friends, and I look forward to hearing more from them about their experiences.

On Wednesday afternoon, the shows started and we saw twelve one-hour productions from the ten AACT regions. Texas was represented by "Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead" - a drama based on the Peanuts characters except now they are teenagers and they have very modern issues and concerns. It was definitely not a family show, but I had enjoyed it at state and they did a great job at nationals - it won the competition. Other shows included "Parrallel Lives", "Sunday in the Park with George", "The Bear", "Hauptmann", "The Gin Game", "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee", "Wiley and the Hairy Man", "The Zoo Story", "Second Samuel", "Check Please" and "Urinetown". "Urinetown" won second place and "Sunday in the Park with George" came in third.