The Depot Theater Company and AKT

When I first took the job at Boot Hill and we formed the Boot Hill Repertory Company (which later became the Depot Theater Company) it seemed like a good thing to get involved with the state theater organization, the Association of Kansas Theatre.

Although the timing hardly ever worked out for me to go, the Association had yearly conventions and the three-day affairs were filled with performances, adjudications, workshops, exhibits, and parties. The times I was able to attend, I was impressed with the number of community theaters entered and impressed with their work.

For years, people suggested we should take a group from Dodge City to “show them all up,” but I resisted. It’s difficult enough to get a cast together for a 10-week rehearsal/performance schedule, but to add another weekend trip presents even more challenges. If the show you enter is not one you’ve just done, then you have to completely rehearse the show again, find all the props, figure out a set you can travel with, and make all those travel arrangements.

But the real reason I never pushed too hard to take an entry to the festival was that I really don’t think the arts are meant to be a competition. There are many arguments that the festival is really a chance for community actors to see and learn from the work of others, to experience a wider range of scripts, to meet people and just have fun talking theater. Yes, but at the end of the festival, one group is selected to go to regionals and most of the festivals announce things like Best Actor and Best Costumes. Plus, every performance is “judged” by someone with a lot of theater experience and they may or may not be sympathetic to your actors and how far they’ve come, no matter how far they have yet to go.

Still, over the years, it became more appealing to take a group to the festival if and when the right people were available.

One year, theater regulars Jim Johnson and Kyle Hager were available and the two of them had done a magnificent job with the first act of a play called “Only Kidding!” The story pits an aging Jewish comic against the young writer who’s sent to help improve his act. Both Jim and Kyle developed great characters, the script was full of wonderful comedy, and there was an interesting dramatic structure. The set could be accomplished with a minimal number of pieces of furniture and we already had all the props.

The guys set about re-learning their lines — a task that proved to be harder than you’d think — and we re-staged the act and brushed up the timing. We even had our set up routine – which took more rehearsal than the play itself – timed down to the second. We were ready.

Then, on the day we were to get on the road with our little caravan of cars and the moving van with the furniture, a western Kansas blizzard swooped in. The festival was in Hays – not too far from us – but the snow was falling pretty fast. We stewed for a couple of hours, trying to decide whether to risk it or not. Then, with advice from Jim, our resident weatherman, we reluctantly called the festival manager and said we couldn’t make it. They were surprised – all the other theaters had already made it to Hays and were settling in for a long snowbound weekend. As it turns out, the snow was mostly between here and Hays and the Interstate was clear.

After that year, we got really busy with the Depot construction project and never organized another attempt at taking an entry to the AKT festival. Besides, we didn’t want to trigger another March blizzard.

AKT has fallen on hard times and all but disbanded in recent years. They haven’t had a state festival since 2001 and there are just not enough members willing to do the huge amount of work required to organize a festival. Not only that, but the number of active community theaters has fallen considerably in the past decade. So I’m really looking forward to the festival this weekend in Salina. For one thing, I’m no longer in the theater business, so it will be fun to just sit back and watch. For another, it will be good to see those people again and see what they’ve been up to. You know what they say...the show must go on.

Tune in next week for a full report on the festival – winners, losers, and which studio had the best party...