Curtain rises on one-act play festival

Derek Losoncy of the Foothills Theatre Company is not content for his troupe to just show up at this weekend’s regional competition in the Alberta One Act Play Festival. He said he’s looking for his group’s lone entry “Essay” to win the event.

“We’re shooting to make it three out of four here in regionals,” he said. “We’re hoping to move onto provincials one more year and bring that prize home.”

Okotoks’ Foothills Theatre Company has won two of the last three one-act play competitions for this area, but has never won the provincial tile. To get back to provincials, May 20 and 21 in Lethbridge, they will have to first win the regional competition which will be held March 18 and 19 at the Rotary Performing Arts Centre in Okotoks.

Standing in their way are 11 other one-act plays including five from the Dewdney Players in Okotoks, two from High River’s Windmill Theatre Players, one from Bragg Creek Performing Arts and three from a new participant, Strathmore Theatre Players Guild.

With many other quality entries Losoncy admitted it will be tough for his company to repeat as Foothills area champs. They won last year with the one-act “Michael and Karen” written by Okotoks’ playwright and actor Paul Rancourt.

Toronto playwright Hanna Moscovitch penned this year’s offering, “Essay”.

“It’s about a first-year university student named Pixie (Kelsey Ranshaw) who decides to write her end of term paper for her 18th and 19th century history of warfare class on Elizabeth Farnese,” said Losoncy who is directing the play. “She’s not necessarily somebody that academics would consider involved in warfare at that time.”

Farnese was queen consort of Spain who exuded great influence on her country’s foreign policy in the first half of the 18th century. In “Essay” Pixie’s decision to make the queen the subject of her paper puts her at odds with both a teaching assistant (Rancourt) and her history professor (Jeremy MacKenzie).

Losoncy said the play was right for competition due to the timely content.

“It’s got some really light moments and it touches on some issues that are poignant to the day,” he said.

Down in High River the Windmill Theatre Players have been hard at work preparing the one- acts “Friendly Skies” and “In the Beginning” for regionals.

Windmill’s Eric Baxter is doing double duty, directing the former play and acting in the latter.

“Skies” is the story of a married couple mired in a rut considering bringing another couple into the bedroom to spice things up while “In the Beginning” is a modernized telling of the story of Adam and Eve set in a bar.

While Baxter is proud to be involved in both works he admitted the comedy “Friendly Skies”, starring Don Gaede and Charlotte Bouck, may be more of a contender for regional one-act supremacy.

“It’s a bit adult in tone but it’s not totally crude,” he said. “We do drop an “F-bomb” once. The whole play is set basically on a bed. Our motto for it was ‘our bed is our stage’. It’s very funny so I’m expecting a lot from it.”

The writing of “Friendly Skies” was a first time collaboration between Calgarian Paul Taylor and Jason Williams, who moved with his family to Okotoks from the Stampede City last summer.

Williams explained at its heart the play is the story of a husband and a wife at a crossroads in their relationship.

“The sort of line for the show is, what does a middle aged couple do when they finally carve out some time for intimacy,” he said. “The answer in the play is they talk about getting involved with the neighbours of course.”

“Friendly Skies” makes it appearance at the Foothills festival at RPAC Friday night. “In the Beginning” and “Essay” both go Saturday evening. See the attached schedule for the complete list of shows. Tickets for one of the three play sessions are $15 each. A pass for the whole festival is $35. For more information e-mail Jane Platt at [email protected]