Conferences & Festivals

CONFERENCES

The Spring Conference has been restructured as a regional conference called On The Road, which is hosted in 3 locations in the even years, alternating with AACTFest which is held in the odd years.  We have broken the state into 3 regional locations: the West side of the state, the East side of the state and the Upper Peninsula/Northern Region.  You are encouraged to attend whichever conference fits your schedule as each region will host the same basic set of classes taught by the same instructors.  There is one class covering each of the following aspects of theatre: Acting, Directing, Technical and Administrative.

This past year (2020) the conferences were cancelled due to the COVID-19 crisis and they will come back stronger than ever in 2022.

FESTIVALS

AACTFest, as it is commonly known, is a nation-wide competition held every other year for all eligible community theatres.  There are 3 levels of the competition: State, Regional and National where 8-10 theatres compete at each level.  The top 1 or 2 from State advance to their Regional finals and then the top 1-2 theatres from each region advance to the National competition.

Theatres have 10 minutes to erect their set from a 10′ by 10′ storage area and then 60 minutes to perform their piece followed by another 10 minutes to strike the set back into their storage area.  Each performance is adjudicated (aka judged) by the same 3 people and they pick the top 1 or 2 shows to advance to the next level along with giving out additional awards for a variety of achievements.

For additional information about how the festival cycle works click here.

Michigan AACT Festival
March 17 – 19, 2023
Owosso, MI

Region III AACT Festival
April 27 – 30, 2023
Beaver Dam, WI

National AACT Festival
June 12 – 17, 2023
Louisville, KY
More info here at AACT.ORG site