LAUREN SOVISKY
staff writer

The Erie Playhouse will be heading to regional competition later this spring after “The Glorious Ones” won honors at the most recent Pennsylvania Association of Community Theatres (PACT) Theatre Festival.
Playhouse representatives ventured to Williamsport the weekend of March 18, and came back to Erie with 10 awards from the festival, the same competition at which the Erie Playhouse earned the honor of one of the 10 best community theaters in the nation.
These awards include Outstanding Production and recognition for Outstanding Achievement in Acting (the Rev. Shawn Clerkin, Jean Malthaner, Kate Amatuzzo), Outstanding Ensemble, Outstanding Achievement in Directing (Almi Clerkin), Outstanding Achievement in Costumes (Ryan Ingram and Crystal Corritore), Outstanding Achievement in Set Design (Christine Daugherty) and Outstanding Achievement in Choreography (Malthaner.)
The Erie Playhouse competed against other theaters, including the Altoona Community Theatre from Altoona, The Barnstormers from Ridley Park, the Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre from Wilkes-Barre, Barley Sheaf Players from Lionville and the Community Theatre League of Williamsport.
This is the first time that the Erie Playhouse has participated in the American Association of Community Theatre festival in more than three decades. The last time it entered was with Martin Sherman’s play “BENT” in 1986.
Shawn Clerkin, a Gannon University associate professor of theatre and director of Gannon’s theatre program, said the Playhouse personnel had plenty of experience with one another, and that proved to be helpful.
“Each of us in the company has been friends for a very long time, so coming together as a cast of comedians from the Italian Renaissance is not so much of a challenge,” Clerkin said.
The Erie Playhouse will advance to the regional competition on April 6 in Wilmington, Del.
There, they will be judged against theaters from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York.
This performance will determine whether The Playhouse will receive a bid to the national festival in Rochester, Minn., in June.
“The Glorious Ones” returns to the Erie Playhouse this weekend for a special reprise performance in honor of the PACT awards.
The performance will be at 7:30 p.m. Sunday evening and tickets can be purchased online at erieplayhouse.org.

LAUREN SOVISKY
[email protected]