Spotlight to shine on provincial One Act Festival

By Steffanie Costigan - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on May 25, 2023.

Submitted photo by Brian LeFeve Mayson Merkl, Jocelyn Steinborn, Cole Fetting, and Jaclynn Elfring perform in the production of "Alternative Accommodation" for the region festival earlier this spring at the Taber Legion.

Following local theatre group Playgoer’s successful centennial celebration last month, the show goes on with Playgoers partnering with the Alberta Drama Festival Association (ADFA) in hosting this year’s One Act Festival.

The one act festival performances will take place at the Yates Memorial Theatre on Friday at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday matinee performances will be at 2 and 7:30 p.m.

Chinook regional rep of ADFA Rita Peterson recently shared the details about zones across Alberta, where the competing theatre groups come from and the history of the beginnings of the one act festival.

“The province of Alberta is divided into 10 zones. This was all organized in 1969 to promote amateur theatre across the province. And so it’s been going ever since. These 10 zones each try annually to do a regional one act festival,” said Peterson.

Peterson said the 10 zones host their own regional festivals. The winners from each of those regions continue onto the provincial festival, which is hosted by the Playgoers region this year. The time qualifications for each play run are within 10 minutes to 60 minutes at maximum and cannot be less than 10 minutes.

The winning regional play was “Alternative Accommodations” from Taber and will be competing in this year’s provincial festival. Peterson talked about the opportunities the festival gives to members of the community and the varying positions and skills needed to produce plays.

“It’s really important for any community, I think, and it gives people the opportunity to hone their skills, whether it be onstage technical stuff. Whatever the backstage, people directing, producing, it involves so many people on so many levels, and it just gives them something to work for.”

The festival has had 10 theatre groups competing in the past. Due to the ongoing wildfire in the north and the distance this resulted in only seven theatre groups performing in this year’s festival.

Kate Connolly, a member of Playgoers, shared the opportunities the event holds for community members and Albertans to showcase their talents.

“The arts are a vital part of every community. And this is a wonderful way to showcase the talented community theater actors, directors, and creative teams from all over Alberta, from every region in Alberta, or almost every region in Alberta,” said Connolly.

Tickets are $10 per session or $20 per person for all sessions. Out of the seven plays competing, four of the plays are new works and original scripts that have never been published. Peterson expressed how things are looking up since post-pandemic.

“We all feel that community theatre is really important for any community. We’ve seen some struggles, especially the last few years, where we haven’t been able to do as much, but we’re getting back in the saddle, and things are looking up. And so, it just is so important for people.”