Committee Spotlight: March Madness

The March Madness Committee organizes March Madness, an exciting annual competition where teams receive a script with minimal stage directions and just one week to bring their interpretation to life on stage in front of a live audience. Now in its twelfth year, this event relies on the committee to ensure everything runs smoothly. If you’ve never seen a March Madness performance, you can check out a recorded event from 2023 on our YouTube channel. Recently we had the chance to catch up with Matt Walsh, chair of the March Madness Committee, to ask him a few questions about the event.

Can you share a bit about your involvement with the theatre over the years?
I’ve directed one mainstage show (Zastrozzi in 2023) and two Studio Series plays (a one-act in 2017 and a piece for the New Works Festival in 2024) and produced for several shows. I was also TD for Suburban Motel (2019), and Pippin (2025), as well as several March Madnesses. Over the years, I’ve also spent time in various board and officer roles.

What inspired you to join the March Madness Committee?
I signed on with Colleen Daley, the creator of March Madness, to help with the tech in 2014, and I’ve been on the committee ever since. March Madness is a great entry point to KWLT’s unique culture, and I want it to continue to thrive for years to come.

What’s your favorite part of being on the March Madness Committee?
The show itself! Watching all the different ways teams manage to interpret the script is always entertaining. No two shows are ever the same, and there are always ideas I would never have thought of..

What accomplishment of the committee are you most proud of?
We survived the pandemic more or less intact while keeping the tradition alive every year. The event relies a lot on collaboration and the ability to keep running it through the pandemic really showed how much the community loves it.

What’s your biggest goal for the committee moving forward?
It would be great to experiment a bit—explore ways to tweak the parameters while keeping it both fun and recognizable as something that is clearly March Madness.

What kind of person would be a great fit for this committee?
A lot of the work involves correspondence and keeping track of details, so we’re looking for people who are organized and have a good mind for that kind of thing.

How would having more members help the committee?
With more active members, we could spread the work more, making the lead-up to the event much less stressful for everyone involved. Since the script is given to teams a week before the performances, and performances all happen on a single day, an enormous amount of work is needed for that week.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?
March Madness is a big part of our theatre community. It’s a great entry point into theatre, and a low commitment way to get involved. It’s also a way to play with genres: we’ve seen shows that were rom-coms, high-tech thrillers, musicals… If you’d like to help us keep this tradition alive or have any questions, reach out to us at march.madness@kwlt.org. Or if you want to take part in the event itself, see the call for teams here or come out to auditions!