NEW HOTEL INFORMATION!

THE BEST WESTERN TACOMA DOME HOTEL IS FULL! But we have a back-up hotel that is lovely, less than a mile from the Tacoma Dome Hotel.

La Quinta Inn & Suites
1425 E 27th St
Tacoma, WA 98421

Same rates as the Best Western Tacoma Dome and
there will be shuttle service to connect folks staying at the La Quinta with the festival. Reservation includes complimentary Breakfast. Pool and Jacuzzi available on site.

Ask for the “AACTFest Rate”
Reservations must be made by phone to get this rate: 1-253-383-0146

NEW MEDIA: The Podcasts

We are pleased to have been working with Neighborhood Stage Productions on a series on 2009 Edition of AACTFest Update. The AACTFest podcasts were introduced two years ago for the Charlotte AACTFest and included interviews with the individual companies who performed at the Blumenthal Center. The 2009 Edition will also feature interviews, and can be accessed under the Media Tab on our webpage www.aactfest09.org.

We'd also like to recognize Chris Laning and Neighborhood Stage Productions for going above and beyond in their service to the AACTfest Podcasts. When it was recently brought to our attention that accessibility podcasts was difficult for those with hearing challenges unless transcripts were provided, NSP stepped up to the plate and went beyond the terms we had agreed upon and offered to transcribe the podcasts at no extra charge. AACTFest '09 appreciates this forward looking view and their willingness to volunteer the time to provide these transcriptions. While not all of the transcriptions are posted yet, they will be very soon. Thanks Guys!

2009 Edition of AACTFest Update is sponsored by AACTFest ’09 Internet Media Sponsor: Pacific Northwest Theatre Associates, a Leading National Supplier of Presentation and Live Production Solutions; PNTA: engage, enlighten, and entertain! See them at www.pnta.com

"SNAPPING TOURS" Part Two: Down to the Dressing Rooms!

So now that we know where the "stuff" is going to enter the building, let's see where the cast and crew will go. Just beyond the Pantages Backstage "Red Door" you will find a silver freight elevator marked "Broadway Center Rehearsal Hall." Not only does it go up three stories to that rehearsal hall, it also descends down to the basement of the Pantages . . . to the very bowels of the 1918 building . . .

There, you enter the Pantages Dressing Rooms, which are located directly beneath the stage. There is a "common area" that is open with lots of comfy but mismatched furniture in it (a lot like the Green Room at your home theater
I bet!).

Onto and around it are a whole series of dressingrooms from the two large "chorus" dressing rooms (20 - 25 per), to the smaller rooms along "Pit Row" - so named because they are directly across the green hallway from the Orchestra Pit entrance (3 - 6 per depending). Important tip: "Look Down" . . . there are Red Arrows taped out on the floor that generally direct you towards one of the stage entrances. It is easy to get lost in the labrynthine bowels of an old vaudeville house!

There are three ways to get to the stage from down here . . . the elevator, of course, and a small stairway that deposits you directly into the wings downstage left. Or, you come up another set of stairs that deposits you stage right behind the stage in the Green Room. See the red arrows?




































In the Green Room (on the comfy furniture that matches) we find the highly professional, but friendly and fun-loving Broadway Center Technical Staff. They are waiting to meet YOU and help you present your production at its best on the Pantages stage.


In Part Three: Tracing the Steps of the Audience
on the next installment of "SNAPPING TOURS"!

"SNAPPING TOURS" Part One: Backstage at the Pantages Theatre

This will be the first of several snapshot tours of the places YOU may visit as part of AACTFest '09. First we'll start with the Pantages Theatre. Since some are already making their plans how they are going to get their productions here, we'll start with the backstage, and in future installments visit the Dressing Rooms, the Lobby and House as well as other venues at the Broadway Center and through out Tacoma that will be part of AACTFest '09.

Part One: Backstage at the Pantages Theater . . .

Most of you will approach The Broadway Center from the down hill side, but the up hill view gives you a better idea of the approach. South 9th Street runs up/down the hill, and Broadway crosses it running north to south along the hill that is downtown Tacoma. Most of the Broadway Center (The Jones Building containing offices and The Pantages; Theatre on the Square) fronts onto Broadway. The Jones Building/Pantages was built in 1918. Theatre on the Square was built in 1993 adjacent to the older building.


The Lobby entrance is through the doors that start to appear in the far left of this snap (we'll come back to that another time). You can see better here where the older building and the newer one meet. That's where we are heading! That's where participating companies will be loading their shows into the Pantages back stage. Just where you see the white truck is what we call "Rock Star Parking." It's where the Broadway Center pulls in trucks loading in shows like Rent, Movin' Out, Putnam County Spelling Bee and where limos carrying K.D. Lang, Martin Short, Queen Latifah, Lily Tomlin, David Sedaris and more have pulled in.
There it is! Just around the corner of the box office, where the old and new buildings meet is "The Red Door" which (if the snap where big enough so you could see) has printed "Pantages Theatre Stage Door" on it . . .







. . . and here's the other side of "The Red Door." The ramp is pulled up because the Genie lift was being used on stage for lighting maintenance this day, but there is a 20' ramp that comes down from the doors, as street level is 2' above stage level. To the left, out of picture is where scenery storage will be for AACTFest '09. At the Broadway Center we refer to it as "The Chute." The back 10' of the stage are actually part of the 1993 construction. The wall you see just left of center in the snap is the actual rear wall of the 1918 building and stage.


On stage at last! Here's some of the views you get of the Pantages Theatre's 1169 seats from the stage, including the Boxes located both House left and right (just one set shown here), the Orchestra Level, Balcony Level, and Mezzanine Level seats, the Front of House Audio position at the rear of the Orchestra Level, and the Lighting Booth (or "Bird House" as the crew calls it) at the rear of the Mezzanine Level. It is a long way up there! Though the Blumenthal Center's (AACTFest '07) Booth was seven stories above stage level, the "Bird House" at the Pantages is only five.







In Part Two: Down to the Dressing Rooms!
(No worries . . .the stairs aren't the only way), when "SNAPPING TOURS" continues!