Annual EMACT Drama Festival
Annual DASH Gala
NERF Festival 2009
At the New England Regional Festival held on March 14 & 15 in the Rogers Center for the Arts at Merrimack College the production of “How I Learned to Drive” presented by the Arlington Friends of the Drama was selected by the adjudicators as the Best Production. It will go on to represent Region 1 at the AACT National Festival in Tacoma, WA in June 2009. Congratulations to director Celia Couture and the cast and crew!
Click her to view photos from this exciting weekend!
The adjudicators, Tim Jebsen, Paul Nelson, and Benny Sato Ambush gave the following honors during an awards ceremony at the end of the festival.
Best Production
How I Learned To Drive, Arlington Friends of the Drama
Best Director
Michael McGarty, The Mistress CycleBest Actor
Craig Champa (Gabe), Dinner with FriendsBest Actress
Christina Wolfskehl (Lil Bit), How I Learned To DriveBest Stage Manager *
Kelly J. O’Leary, How I Learned To DriveBest Supporting Actor
Konrad Rogowski (Carl), Morning’s at SevenBest Supporting Actress
Karen Balaska (Myrtle), Morning’s at SevenBest Ensemble
The Cast of The Mistress Cycle, Harvard Community Theatre
June Henshaw Outstanding Set Design Award
Douglas Cooper, How I Learned to Drive AND The Mistress CycleOutstanding Lighting Design
Michael McGarty, The Mistress CycleOutstanding Sound Design
Bob Pascucci, How I Learned To DriveOutstanding Costume Design
Kate Hoch, The Mistress CycleOutstanding Make-up and Hair Design
The Cast of The Mistress Cycle, Harvard Community Theatre
Congratulations to all the winners and to everyone who participated to make the festival a great success.
* Note: The Best Stage Manager Award is determined by the Festival Stage Managers who worked with all the groups at the festival.
The Next Step
The 2009 New England Regional Festival is the second step in the journey of a community theater group toward the National Festival (the first being a state festival). The national festival, organized by the American Association of Community Theatres (AACT), will be held this year 23-27 June 2009 in Tacoma, Washington. Tacoma Little Theatre (TLT), Tacoma Musical Playhouse (TMP), and the Washington State Community Theatre Association (WSCTA) have joined in partnership to bring over 600 enthusiasts, advocates and performers from around the country to Tacoma in June of 2009 to celebrate the power of community created theatre. Tacoma was selected by the AACT Board and Festival Commission to host AACT’s 2009 biennial festival: AACTFest ’09. The festival process that culminates in the national theatre festival sponsored by AACT is held in odd-numbered years. AACTFest presents a forum for community theatres from the ten regions of AACT to enter productions for adjudication and advancement from the state level, to the regional level and finally, to the national level.
Adjudicator Biographies
Each two-show session is followed by a panel adjudication. Our three adjudicators are:
Paul Nelson
Paul lives in Olean, New York and is employed by the Olean General Hospital as a Mental Health Counselor in their Emergency Department. He obtained his BFA in Theatre and BS in Education from SUNY Geneseo. He has directed, acted, designed and teched shows on the college, community and high school level.
Paul has been adjudicating in New York State for over 12 years and in 2007 attended the AACT National Adjudicator's training seminar at the National Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is a lifelong member of Alpha Psi Omega and has been recognized theatrically as a recipient of the Robert E. Sinclair Award for Performance, the Cothurnus Award for Outstanding theatrical work and the Daryl L. Hanson Award for Musical Theatre. Paul has also been recognized by the Theatre Association of New York State (TANYS) and the Eastern States Theatre Association (ESTA) for his work as an actor and director. Paul's performance of a one man show entitled One Person won the ESTA Festival in 2002. He was recently honored by the TANYS with the Mary Eva Duthie Award for outstanding contributions to non-professional theatre across New York State.
Paul has served as President for the Theatre Association of New York State and as a board member for Eastern State Theatre Association.
Tim Jebsen
Tim Jebsen is the Executive Director of Midland Community Theatre in Midland, TX. Midland Community Theatre produces 14 shows per year in three performance spaces, including musicals, comedies, dramas, mysteries, melodrama and children's theatre. Midland Community Theatre has a professional staff of 22, hundreds of volunteers and a $1.3 million operating budget. Recently, Tim has directed the following productions in Midland - Les Miserables, Narnia, The Full Monty, The Producers (community theatre premier), Beauty and the Beast, Cats, Seussical, Take Me Out, Dinner with Friends, Ragtime, Proof, Art, and My Way. Prior to working in Midland, Tim was the Managing Artistic Director at the Salina (KS) Community Theatre (1995-1997) and the Resident Artistic Director at the Mansfield (OH) Playhouse (1993-1995). Tim started his career as the Managing Artistic Director at the Weathervane Playhouse (1992-1994), a professional summer stock theatre in Ohio. Tim received his Master's Degree in Directing and Criticism from Bowling Green State University, and his BA from Wittenberg University in mathematics and theatre. Tim and his wife Lisa have a six-year-old son Zach. In his spare time, Tim enjoys golf, fantasy baseball and football, and playing in a Rock Band.
Benny Sato Ambush
Benny Sato Ambush is the distinguished Producing Director-In-Residence at Emerson Stage, the producing/presenting arm of the Department of Performing Arts, Emerson College, Boston, MA. He is a professional stage director, producer, Artistic Director, educator, consultant and published commentator with national and international experience.
Prior artistic leadership experience includes: Producing Director - Oakland (CA) Ensemble Theatre, Associate Artistic Director - San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, Acting Artistic Director - Providence, RI’s Rites and Reason Theatre Company, and Producing Artistic Director - Richmond, VA‘s TheatreVirginia.
He has directed at many regional theaters across the U.S. - among them Oregon Shakespeare Festival - Portland, Arizona Theatre Company, South Coast Rep, Old Globe Theatre, Ford's Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, and Geva Theatre. He toured the former Soviet Union and Kenya via the United States Information Agency and adjudicated theater productions on U.S. Army, Air Force, and NATO military bases in Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Turkey.
He has taught and directed at numerous colleges and universities throughout the U.S. - among them, NYU Graduate Acting Program, North Carolina School of the Arts, Brown University, and Colorado College. He is the former Director of the Institute for Teledramtic Arts and Technology at California State University, Monterey Bay.
He has served on numerous regional and national boards - including Theatre Communications Group (TCG) - and is active nationally in the advocacy of cultural equity, non-traditional casting, and pluralism in the American theater.
