Aug 19, 2010
BATAVIA -- The Theatre Association of New York State is scheduled to stage its annual festival at Genesee Community College in November for the third consecutive year.
Dates for the upcoming festival are Nov. 19 to 21. The theme for this year's Festival is "Our Thanks to Broadway."
"The theme was chosen since Festival is the weekend before Thanksgiving, and if it wasn't for Broadway, we wouldn't have the shows which we do and love," Robert Sharman, the 2010 Festival Chairman wrote in "Callboard," the TANYS newsletter.
The festival features workshops and a number of staged productions that are open to the public. An awards presentation, in which dozens of honors are presented for the year's production's, has traditionally been part of a second-night banquet.
The shows have not yet been selected for this year's festival, but are traditionally announced several weeks ahead of the festival.
Sharman said workshops are being planned for both Friday and Saturday of Festival weekend. The 2009 Festival featured Saturday workshops for the first time, and the workshops "were well attended and more were requested," Sharman said.
Festival organizers are also compiling photographs of companies' shows for a PowerPoint presentation to be featured during the festival banquet.
Last year, TANYS marked 50 years of an annual theater festival in New York State. More than 310 people attended last year's programs.
