Well...we didn't win and I'm actually very glad. It was enough of a headache planning a trip to Utah, and I did not want to do that again for Tacoma.
If you read the below post, you will see that the organization of this festival was a piece of crap. Once we got there...well nothing had changed, still shitty. Other than the hotel being a rather nice place to stay, the festival was a joke. Some of our paperwork was lost - of course they got our check, but some of the paperwork that was with it was missing. The adjudicators provided nothing meaningful and made such comments as "well, I wasn't bored." Awesome. I am glad we were able to perform, but sad that our little not-for-profit theatre had to spend so much money to attend this poorly organized event. The awards "ceremony" at the Applebees didn't start till after 11pm and, again, was poorly planned. They didn't notify the restaraunt that awards were being given out and that everyone should be in the same area. So when we showed up, it was chaos. Then, they handed out the 2 awards and it was done. Fortunately, the right people won 1st and 2nd place. The 1st place show was from Littleton, CO and they were amazing! It would have been nice if the organizers recognized people for acting, set design, costumes etc, like other regional festivals had done, but clearly making a few more awards was beyond them. Lots of folks worked their butts off, not to mention took time off of work and spent lots of time and money getting to the festival, and they couldn't even print out a certificate that said Good Job! We plan to send a letter to AACT explaining to them was a disappointment the festival was. They obviously can't do anything now except for maybe take more care when planning the festival next time. Which would be good enough for me.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Idiots who think they can plan things.
As you know, I will be going to a regional theatre festival on Thursday. This is a big deal to our little community theater and I'm sure it's a big deal to the others attending as well. However, it seems as though they found the most incompetent person to actually plan the festival. So, what should be an honored event to attend, is a thrown together piece of crap. Let's see, where to start...
First, the regional festival dates weren't officially set until end of March - only about 8 weeks until the festival will take place. (other regional festivals have been completely planned for months) It's not cheap to travel to a different state with 7 people, costumes and a set. We won the state festival in June 2008, but because we didn't know IF there was going to be a regional at all, we couldn't fundraise during that time. And there wasn't adequate time between when we were told the dates of the festival and the actual event to plan anything successful. Luckily, we received some donations, but they won't even cover half of the expenses.
Second, information about the festival itself was impossible to find out. I had to send several emails to the nitwit organizer asking questions that should have been easily answered - where will the festival be taking place, who is participating, when will there be a schedule, where should we stay, what are the technical specifications of the theatre...and so on. More often than not, the organizer wouldn't respond at all. I had to send several follow up emails just to get a response to 1 of my questions. One of the most important things was obtaining official registration forms for the event. We got these a mere 3 weeks before the trip.
Next, I had to bring up issues with the organizer that she most certainly should have been aware of before the planning process begun. AACT has very specific rules for the festivals, but it seems that the idiot organizing the event didn't bother reading them. I had to bring up the fact that we needed to send in copies of the script and permission from the playwright to produce the play. She responded essentially saying, oh yeah, you should send those to me at X address. HELLO! This is something that you need to make sure you have well in advance! GRR!
There's a whole laundry list of grievances I have with the organization of this festival. It is costing the theater a significant sum of money to attend this haphazardly organized festival. Oh and did I mention that the awards ceremony is at 11pm at the Applebee's? Ugh.
First, the regional festival dates weren't officially set until end of March - only about 8 weeks until the festival will take place. (other regional festivals have been completely planned for months) It's not cheap to travel to a different state with 7 people, costumes and a set. We won the state festival in June 2008, but because we didn't know IF there was going to be a regional at all, we couldn't fundraise during that time. And there wasn't adequate time between when we were told the dates of the festival and the actual event to plan anything successful. Luckily, we received some donations, but they won't even cover half of the expenses.
Second, information about the festival itself was impossible to find out. I had to send several emails to the nitwit organizer asking questions that should have been easily answered - where will the festival be taking place, who is participating, when will there be a schedule, where should we stay, what are the technical specifications of the theatre...and so on. More often than not, the organizer wouldn't respond at all. I had to send several follow up emails just to get a response to 1 of my questions. One of the most important things was obtaining official registration forms for the event. We got these a mere 3 weeks before the trip.
Next, I had to bring up issues with the organizer that she most certainly should have been aware of before the planning process begun. AACT has very specific rules for the festivals, but it seems that the idiot organizing the event didn't bother reading them. I had to bring up the fact that we needed to send in copies of the script and permission from the playwright to produce the play. She responded essentially saying, oh yeah, you should send those to me at X address. HELLO! This is something that you need to make sure you have well in advance! GRR!
There's a whole laundry list of grievances I have with the organization of this festival. It is costing the theater a significant sum of money to attend this haphazardly organized festival. Oh and did I mention that the awards ceremony is at 11pm at the Applebee's? Ugh.
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