List of Participating Performing Companies  | Awards  | AACTFest '09 Website

Tacoma Musical Playhouse (TMP) and the Washington State Community Theatre Association (WSCTA) 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.

There hadn’t been a national community theatre festival on the west coast since 1983, when the Alaska State Community Theatre Association hosted in Haines, AK. AACTFest ’09 involved hundreds of volunteers from around Washington State, and brought 12 performing companies from around the United States as well as the representative of the U.S. military abroad. [See list of Performing Companies Representing States/Regions]