2019 SETC Convention

Join us at Austin-East Magnet High School to enjoy award-winning performances by community theatre groups from across the Southeast. Two groups will advance to represent our region at AACTFest 2019.

A free SETC shuttle is available to take convention attendees to and from the Knoxville Convention Center and Austin-East Magnet High School. See the attached file for the full shuttle schedule.

NOON – 1:35PM
Scott and Hem
Tennessee – The Backstage Series of the Cookeville Performing Arts Center
Written by Mark St. Germain
Directed by Samantha Raper
In 1937, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, famous authors and frenemies, meet in Hollywood, the City of Dreams, to confront their own. “Scott and Hem” is a drama about the cost of love, friendship, and the price of being a writer.

1:35–3:10PM
Tea for Three
Mississippi – The Center Players Community Theatre
Written by Eric H. Weinberger and Elaine Bromka
Co-directed by Kathryn Dawkins, Betty Jo Mahaffey and Wendie Sheppard
What is it like for a woman when her husband becomes president of the United States, and she is suddenly thrust into the spotlight? This witty, sly and deeply moving script explores the hopes, fears and loves of Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon and Betty Ford. Each of the three portraits becomes intimate, by degrees, as the women wrestle with what Pat Nixon called “the hardest unpaid job in the world.”

3:10–4:45PM
Never Swim Alone
South Carolina – Guerrilla Shakespeare Theatre Company
Written by Daniel MacIvor
Directed by Robert Fuson
This one-act follows two boyhood friends in a 13-round contest of “manliness” to win the affection of the Referee. This avant-garde show is lightning-paced and will have you on the edge of your seat. With captivating choreography and style, this is not typical theatre.

Join us at Austin-East Magnet High School to enjoy award-winning performances by community theatre groups from across the Southeast. Two groups will advance to represent our region at AACTFest 2019.

A free SETC shuttle is available to take convention attendees to and from the Knoxville Convention Center and Austin-East Magnet High School. See the attached file for the full shuttle schedule.

10:15–11:50AM
Of Mice and Men
Alabama – The Actor’s Charitable Theatre
Written by John Steinbeck
Directed by Benji Stockton
Two drifters, George and his friend Lennie, with delusions of living off the “fat of the land,” have just arrived at a ranch to work for enough money to buy their own place. Lennie is a man-child, a little boy in the body of a dangerously powerful man. It’s Lennie’s obsessions with things soft and cuddly that have made George cautious about with whom the gentle giant, with his brute strength, associates. His promise to allow Lennie to “tend to the rabbits” on their future land keeps Lennie calm, amidst distractions, as the overgrown child needs constant reassurance.

11:50AM – 1:25PM
Forever Plaid
Kentucky – Paramount Players
Written by Stuart Ross
Directed by Melanie Cornelison-Jannotta
The Plaids, a singing group, were killed on their way to their first big concert. They get the chance to come back to Earth to present the perfect concert.

1:25–3:00PM
I and You
Mississippi – Fondren Theatre Workshop
Written by Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Juniper Wallace
Anthony arrives unexpectedly at homebound classmate Caroline’s door bearing a beat-up copy of Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” and an assignment from their English teacher. This seemingly mundane poetry project unlocks something much deeper. I and You is an ode to youth, life, love, and the strange beauty of human connectedness.

Join us at Austin-East Magnet High School to enjoy award-winning performances by community theatre groups from across the Southeast. Two groups will advance to represent our region at AACTFest 2019.

A free SETC shuttle is available to take convention attendees to and from the Knoxville Convention Center and Austin-East Magnet High School. See the attached file for the full shuttle schedule.

4:00–5:35PM
Mud
Florida – Actors’ Warehouse, Inc.
Written by Maria Irene Fornés
Directed by Carlos Francisco Asse
Mae lives in bleak poverty but studies arithmetic to better herself. Lloyd spends his time caring for farm animals and scorns book learning. Mae searches for a diagnosis of Lloyd’s illness, and brings Henry home to help her. The love/hate triangle creates a toxic environment, and Mae determines to escape the ill luck of her life.

5:35–7:10PM
Morte for 2
Kentucky – Theatre Workshop of Owensboro
Written by Rebecca Wright
Directed by Todd Reynolds
Morte for 2 features a pair of one acts written by TWO’s Rebecca Wright. C’est la Vie features two sisters dealing with cancer. The women are quite different, but they find common ground in their struggles. Last Rites is a comedy about an Irish family, one of whom is deceased . . . but still seated on the sofa, Guinness in hand!

7:10–8:45PM
John Lennon & Me
Georgia – Lafayette Society for the Performing Arts
Written by Cherie Bennett
Directed by Amy McDow
Star, a passionate Beatles fan, is battling cystic fibrosis in a long-term children’s hospital. She confronts her fate with imagination and a hopeful spirit. John Lennon & Me deals with the emotions surrounding new friendships, first kisses, and the tough realities of disease.

Join us at Austin-East Magnet High School to enjoy award-winning performances by community theatre groups from across the Southeast. Two groups will advance to represent our region at AACTFest 2019.

A free SETC shuttle is available to take convention attendees to and from the Knoxville Convention Center and Austin-East Magnet High School. See the attached file for the full shuttle schedule.

10:00–11:35AM
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Georgia – Dalton Little Theatre
Written by Sheinkin/Finn
Directed by Melissa Adams
With an engaging, tuneful score by William Finn and a sweet, funny book by Rachel Sheinkin, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee causes audiences to fall in love, both with the show itself and its “perspicacious,” “jocular,” and “effervescent” spellers.

11:35AM – 1:10PM
Romeo and Juliet
South Carolina – Mill Town Players
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Christopher Rose
Shakespeare’s famous tragedy about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reunite their feuding families. MTP’s unique production is inspired by the Hatfield-McCoy feud of the late 1800s in rural Kentucky and West Virginia. Featuring Shakespeare’s language, stage combat, bluegrass music and Appalachian dialects, this is Romeo and Juliet like you’ve never experienced it before!

1:10–2:45PM
The Diviners
Alabama – Wetumpka Depot Players
Written by Jim Leonard
Directed by Kim Mason
A marvelously theatrical story of a disturbed young man and his friendship with a disenchanted preacher in southern Indiana in the early 1930s. The Diviners is in turns humorous, beautiful and tragic; and surprisingly speaks of many present-day concerns with gentle wisdom.

Awards sponsored by Dramatists Play Service and SETC.