The 12 community theaters performing at Geva Theatre Center this week are a colorful grab bag of contrasts. They vary sharply in their mission, budget and even their preferred language.

You’d expect that kind of diversity at AACTFest11, a major biannual festival. Its troupes survived rigorous competitions in America or Belgium to qualify for their victory laps in Rochester. On the whole, they defy easy assumptions about who can create a winning production.

Few of these companies hail from big cities with a ready pool of theatergoers and seasoned actors. They tend to flourish in small- or medium-sized towns, though many are close to larger cities.

Two companies stand out as illuminating contrasts. One is the Center Stage Theatre of Midland, a Michigan community of 42,000 with a first-rate arts center. It will send 31 actors and crew members here to stageUrinetown — a challenging and provocative musical — and will pay up to $20,000 to house, feed and transport them.

The other is the Arlekin Players Theatre, a Russian-language troupe from the Boston suburb of Newton, Mass. It will bring four actors to stage Anton Chekhov’s intimate drama, The Bear, on a shoestring budget.

 
Author: Stuart Low
Published by: “Democrat and Chronicle”
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