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Arts & Entertainment

Manatee Players Return Home With Collection of Awards

Local theater troupe takes third place overall at AACTFest, a national community theater competition held last week in Rochester, N.Y.

The Manatee Players made their third trip to AACTFest, the prestigious national community theater competition, this past week in Rochester, N.Y.

And for the third time, the Bradenton theater company returned home with an impressive array of awards under their belts, including third place overall for their production of "Sunday in the Park with George."

“This competition is a lot to ask from a group of volunteers,” said director Rick Kerby. "I am very proud of their performance and conduct at this year’s festival. They really did Bradenton proud.”

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The Manatee Players were representing the southeastern region of the United States and competing with 12 other theater companies, including a Germany-based branch of the U.S. Armed Services, at the Geva Theatre.

Their abridged version of the first act from Stephen Sondheim’s 1984 musical received awards in the following categories:

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  • Third place overall
  • Best Costume Design: David Walker
  • Best Actress: Diane Dawson
  • Special Award for Best Set Design: Mark Lalosh
  • Special Award for Best Technical Preparedness

The Manatee Players are the only community theater group in the U.S. to qualify for AACTFest in all three attempts, Kerby said, and the recognition they received for this year’s production adds to their growing track record for success.

On its first visit in 2005, the troupe took home first place for its production of “Metamorphoses.” In 2007, they returned to the competition with “Sweeney Todd” and won a number of awards and recognition but did not overall.

Dr. Anthony Pizzo, the Manatee Players’ president elect, also praised the commitment displayed by the individuals who have devoted their time and energy to the production of “Sunday in the Park with George” for the past year.

After months of preparations and rehearsal, they performed a two-week run of the musical for the first time in October on their hometown stage at the historic .

Following a positive reception locally, the acting troupe took the show on the road, winning a state theatre competition in Lakeland. From there, they were off to a regional competition in Atlanta, and their success there led them to Rochester.

“The Geva Theatre is the fourth venue we staged the production in,” said Pizzo, “which is very interesting for a community show. The willingness of the volunteers to do so much traveling shows how deeply the cast is invested in the show. It has been a really great asset to the production to have such consistency.”

Pizzo said that only one actor from the original cast was unable to travel to Rochester for the national competition. In his place, Lalosh, who designed the award-winning set, stepped in.

In Pizzo’s opinion, the troupe’s performance in Rochester was its best yet. He attributed that to exceptional acoustics at the Geva, in combination with a flawless performance by the Manatee Players’ pianists, Rick Bogner and Becky Heintz.

“The venue was clearly designed to be a performance center, so the acoustics and sound were fantastic," Pizzo said. "Our piano players put on a phenomenally good performance, which, to me, was another major asset to the production."

Three independent adjudicators judged each performance and shared their opinions with the cast and crew after each production. Following “Sunday in the Park with George,” Pizzo said the response was promising.

“They gave very strong praise of the music and acting performances across the board, as well as the quality of production, Rick Kerby’s direction, and the work of the technical crew,” said Pizzo prior to the announcement of the final results on Saturday evening.

The adjudicators’ only complaint, according to Pizzo, was related to the production’s projection. The stage was not deep enough to accommodate the intricate projectionist set designed by Lalosh, and thus the set had to be modified for the show.

Pizzo said that he was impressed not only by the Manatee Players’ technical crew, but also by the support staff at Geva, which he said was instrumental in assisting the visiting crew with the equipment and other technical aspects of the show.

Each company competing at AACTFest only had 80 minutes to rehearse, assemble the set and do the lights and sound prior to taking the stage. According to Pizzo, the helpful support staff at the Geva Theatre contributed greatly to the technical success of the show.

“It speaks a lot to say that the special award we received for technical preparedness came from the host theatre itself,” said Kerby.

Although they didn't finish first this year, Kerby said that he and his crew are pleased with their accomplishment in the country's most prestigious community theatre competition.

“Looking around the room, there were a lot of really talented companies who got zero awards,” Kerby said. “With the exceptional caliber of the companies that we competed against, I am proud to say that I believe we represented Bradenton very well.”

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