ACT performance headed to a national competition in Pennsylvania
For the first time, a theatrical company from Toledo will represent our area at the American Association of Community Theater’s annual festival, held this year on June 18 through 22 in Gettysburg, PA. Actors Collaborative Toledo (ACT) will present an abridged performance of its production of the play A Life as part of the event.
“It’s kind of surreal,” said director Jeffrey Albright. “We had never entered any kind of festival competition before, and we decided to do it to, perhaps, raise our profile. And the journey just keeps continuing.”
Streamlined
The path to the national competition began as ACT’s production of A Life, in April of 2018, took part in the Ohio Community Theatre Association festival in Columbus. After winning the Columbus competition the show moved on to the regional finals in Kokomo, Indiana— where the production won again.
Streamlined considerably for these festival appearances, the original production featured five characters in a full 90-minute performance. The first 35 minutes of the full length show has the lead character— played by John DuVall— speaking to the audience in a long monologue, which made a perfect segment for the festival circuit.
“When you go to these competitions, you don’t take the whole play. You can only take an excerpt. So we’ve taken the segment with just John. It’s basically John, the script and me working in tandem,” Albright explains.
“He’s grown into the role. It’s become much more nuanced, and just sort of quietly beautiful. It was, I thought, great before, but he just keeps getting to go back and revisit, and we make new discoveries, and sort of adjust the phrasing and the timing of the piece.”
Representing Northwest Ohio
The Gettysburg festival will last five days, featuring the performances of 12 companies from around the country. A Life will be eligible for national awards in production, acting and direction, but Albright said the greatest prize has already been won— representing the area’s artists on a national stage.
“We’re not just representing ACT, we’re representing Northwest Ohio, and the 419. Because we have a great art city, and we often beat ourselves up in this town, (with attitudes like) ‘Oh, it’s just Toledo.’ There are a lot of wonderful visual artists, and performing artists, and musical artists (here).”
