American Association of Community Theatre State & Regional Competition features entries from SCERA, UVU as well as Colorado and Wyoming (Orem, Utah) -- Utah, Colorado and Wyoming community theaters will come together May 7-9 to present six plays at the American Association of Community Theater’s state and regional festival, and the public is welcome to see generous slices of fine drama and comedy using a $15 all-festival pass or $6 individual day tickets.
All events except two Saturday workshops will be at Mountain View High School at 645 South State in Orem. Workshops will be at the SCERA Center for the Arts.
Tickets are available at the SCERA, 745 S. State St., Orem, by calling (801) 225-ARTS, online at
www.scera.org or at Mountain View High School auditorium prior to each block of performances.
SCERA and Utah Valley University are co-hosting the festival as part of their desire to promote and support community theater under the umbrella of a national organization. It also helps provide engaging theater from other states to local audiences.
“This is the first time in a long time, if ever, we have had an AACT festival in Utah,” says Melissa Larson of the UVU theater department. “We are looking for performance venues for our students and companies,” she says. “Working through AACT lets our students have a chance to be recognized on state, regional—and every four years—on national levels.”
Included in the competition are Anton Chekov’s “Flies in the Snuff Box” from Utah Valley University, and Arnold Lobel’s “A Year With Frog and Toad” from SCERA. They represent Utah in the state competition Thursday night. Others are the Cheyenne Little Theater’s “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” by Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts, and “Mary, My Sweet” from Painted Past Productions, both in Wyoming. Representing Colorado are Bill Kovacsik's “The Organist’s Daughter” from Coal Creek, and Lee Blessing’s “Eleemosynary” from the Littleton Main Street Players.
Contest participants must get publishers’ permission to cut their productions to an hour. They are also given 10 minutes to set up and 10 minutes to strike their sets. All productions must begin in a 10-foot box. Audiences see an edited piece, but as Larson says, “Skilled personnel edit it to reveal the best of the works. Our department chair, Terry Petrie, attended a national festival in Texas, and he said it was really mind-blowing to see something so fabulous unfold on the stage there. We’re looking forward to doing that here and giving audiences a weekend of amazing theatre.”
The festival will begin May 7 at 7 p.m. with “Flies in the Snuff Box” followed by “A Year With Frog and Toad” competing in Utah’s state competition. May 8 is round one of regional competition beginning also at 7 p.m. and will be “The Organist’s Daughter” and “Mary, My Sweet.” May 9 round two events begin at 2:30 p.m. and will feature the winning Utah piece as well as “Eleemosynary” and “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.”
All-festival or day ticket holders, as well as the general public, drama teachers, theatre companies, directors and others are welcome to attend two free Saturday morning workshops at 9:30 and 10 a.m. Bill Muchow, president of AACT, will come from Texas to talk about the AACT and Ron Ziegler, also from AACT, will tell participants how to pick and cut scripts to prepare them for festivals. The lectures will be in the XanGo Grand Theater at the SCERA Center for the Arts.
“We are excited to be hosts for this event with UVU,” says Adam J. Robertson, SCERA’s President and CEO. “It deepens our relationship with our community’s university and allows us to expand our mission while offering a new and exciting event to local audiences. It’s really a win-win for everybody.”
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