Alabama Community Theatre Festival

ACTFest ’13 Accepting Entries!

The Alabama Conference of Theatre (ACT) will hold a Community Theatre Festival (ACTFest ’13) on October 26, 27 and 28, 2012 at the Wetumpka Depot Theatre, Wetumpka, AL. Productions will be adjudicated and awards given to acknowledge exceptional theatrical work in a variety of areas both on and off stage! Download an form here: ACTFest13EntryForm.

Here are a few details to keep in mind:

All guidelines and rules are set forth by the American Association of Community Theatre (AACT). Basically, your set must be be contained in a 10×10 area before and after performance. Your group has up to 10 minutes to set up their sets and props before performance, up to 1 hour to perform, and then up to 10 minutes to strike back to the designated area.
All plays submitted for the festival MUST have a valid performance license dated for the date of competition. Additionally, if you are performing a cutting from a full-length play, you must also have permission from the publisher to cut. There are NO EXCEPTIONS to these rules, and failure to produce either or both of these documents will result in your organization not being allowed to participate in the festival and/or disqualification.
If you would like more detailed criteria, check out the link: http://www.aact.org/aactfest/handbook.html.

The winners of the state festival can advance to regionals at the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC) in March, 2013 in Louisville, KY. A travel stipend will be awarded to the Alabama productions advancing to SETC. Winners from SETC advance to the national AACTFest 13 in Carmel, Indiana in June, 2013. SETC awards some travel stipends to the winning productions for the Carmel festival. During the last national festival, the Wetumpka Depot Players — advanced from our state festival to the regional SETC festival then on to the national stage–AACTFest 11–representing our great state of Alabama and the southeastern theatre region with pride!

If you would like an application form or wish more information, please contact either the Festival Chair or ACT Executive Director.

Festival Chair John Chain	ACT ED Sue Ellen Gerrells
jchain7831@charter.net	actexecdir@yahoo.com
(334) 590-1665	(205) 936-9162

There are lots of great reasons to enter a Festival!

Publicity and Excitement

Theaters that go to festivals typically get enthusiastic support from their community. Promote to your community that you are representing them in a state / regional level event. They love it!
It can be a terrific fund-raising and profile raising opportunity. (Wetumpka –with a lot of hard work–paid for all their festival tours and ended up with thousands of dollars leftover!)
Fire up the imagination and interest of your group – get everyone thinking in new directions.

Great Ideas and Contacts

See some of the best theater around. Get great ideas for next season.
Meet terrific people who are doing excellent theater.
Inspire yourself and your group that gets everyone reaching for the next level.
The great work that so many theatres are doing deserves the exposure and honors that Festivals provide.

Bring Home the Bacon and Reap Rewards

It brings prestige, publicity, excitement. The media loves to cover a winner!
Awards from Festivals can help with grants and donations.
Theaters that take honors at festivals get support from their communities and audiences.

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ACTFest ’12

The dust has settled; the lights have dimmed, and the reviews are in. Alabama winds up another successful Fall Festival! From workshops to the Silent Auction to the talent competition to productions, this event fostered a learning experience for all involved and created network opportunities for those who participated. Thanks to Kevin and Mary Ann Garrett, John and Susan Chain, Mike Gerrells, Terry Kelley, Bill Richardson, Karen Black, David Bailor, and all the community theatre participants who supported our festival in so many ways.

Four shows competed on October 15 at Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, AL from Wetumpka, Alabaster, Opelika, and Guntersville. Adjudicators April Marshall (North Carolina), Fulton Burns (Mobile, AL), Beth Harvey (Florida) chose the following to advance to Southeastern Theatre Conference in March, 2012: