ESTA - Region II festival

This past weekend, I was the AACT (American Association of Community Theatre) rep for the Region II festival held outside Baltimore, Maryland. What's the AACT rep? I am the independent person sent in to be present for all tech meetings and all performances, work with the host and the adjudicators and make sure that everyone follows the rules set forth by the AACT guidelines. Last month, I was an adjudicator for the Region I festival in Boston. It's much easier to be the adjudicator - you just show up for the performances, make some public comments and vote on the winner. When you're the AACT rep, you have to be there for every technical rehearsal - each company has a 20 minute meeting to review the space and all of the rules and regulations, then an 80 minute "rehearsal" to work on scenery placement, lighting and sound cues and run anything they want.

My weekend started with flying to Baltimore on Thursday - I left around 8:30 a.m. and landed in Baltimore at 4:45 p.m. Since my work was starting on Friday morning, I decided that if I landed on time I would head into Washington to see the new Nationals baseball park. We landed on time and I drove down and saw them play the Phillies. After the game, I drove across the Bay Bridge to Grasonville, MD and was in my hotel by 11 p.m. The tech day started at 7:30 a.m. with meetings and rehearsals by six of the companies. There was a piano concert in the performance space on Friday night, so we were done by 4:30 p.m. and then had to be out of the building until 9:30 p.m. After dinner, I was back for a seventh meeting and rehearsal and then done at 11:30 p.m. Then, I was back on Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m. for the eighth (and final) meeting and rehearsals. The first performance block was at 10 a.m. (2 shows), then a 1:30 p.m. performance block (4 shows) and finally an 8 p.m. performance block (2 shows). I met with the adjudicators after the final performance to determine the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place shows as well as some acting and technical awards. The afterglow party was held at a nightclub on the waterfront, and everyone at the event had a great time.

Congratuations to M&M Productions from NY and their original production of GORNISHT that will advance to the national AACTFest in Tacoma, Washington in June 2009.