Pigs, zombies, Seuss meets Shakespeare, Law & Order meets fairy tales… you never know what you might get at a one-act theatre festival.
The one thing you can count on at the Saskatchewan Drama Association’s Region 2 Drama Festival is that it is going to be good.
This is the 40th anniversary of the provincial festivals and in that time Moose Jaw has a well-earned reputation for its productions.
“Moose Jaw has had a festival every year for those 40 years. So it’s pretty special,” said Tanya Johnson from Cornerstone Christian School, who is the host co-ordinator along with Charmaine Collinge from Lindale School.
“You never know quite what you’re going to get, but within our region, the quality is pretty outstanding.”
This year’s three-day festival will feature 10 plays and is co-hosted by Cornerstone and Lindale. It will be held in the Peacock Auditorium from March 14-16.
The plays don’t have to explicitly be one act, but they typically are and must be less than 60 minutes in length.
“There’s a good mix of comedy and drama,” Johnson said. “That’s the fun thing about one acts, there’s so much choice for directors to choose from when selecting plays.
“One thing that’s always interesting is that Lindale tends to write their own. So it’s a brand-new production that you get to see every year.”
A wide variety of schools from high schools to elementary and K-12 will be taking part this year.
“We’re excited to welcome Milestone School as well as Caronport elementary and it’s the first time those schools have come over to Region 2,” Johnson said. “We have a few more plays than normal… from a variety of different schools, so that’s always fun.”
The plays are adjudicated on both the acting and the play itself, but there is also a backstage adjudicator that evaluates that aspect of the production as well. The play judged to be the best in the competition will advance to the provincial festival in May at the Riddell Centre at the University of Regina.
“Moose Jaw is a very competitive region. It’s hard to get out of Moose Jaw,” Johnson said. “Our plays tend to do very well when they hit the provincial festival. We have such a rich history of theatre in Moose Jaw. It makes for really high-quality theatre and it’s always exciting to see what these young performers bring to their productions.”
The festival begins at 6:15 p.m. on the Thursday night with four plays: Lindale’s “Face Your Fears,” Cornerstone’s “Boxes,” Milestone’s “The Seussification Of A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Vanier’s “Nora’s Lot.”
Plays begin at 6:15 p.m. again Friday. Caronport Elementary’s “12 Angry Pigs,” Cornerstone’s “Walkin’ Home,” Riverview’s “10 Ways To Survive The Zombie Apocalypse” and Peacock’s “Cut” will all take the stage.
Doors open at 12:45 p.m. Saturday and feature two plays: Vanier’s “HINT” and Peacock’s “Law & Order: Fairy Tale Unit.”
Johnson said Cornerstone’s two productions held auditions in early January, but took breaks during exams and again during the February break.
“It’s a quick process after Christmas break to the festival,” she said.
However, for the winning play, there is a lot of time to work on refining the play while they prepare for provincials.
“There’s a big space there where they have the opportunity to either keep rehearsing or incorporate some of the things they learned at the regional festival to improve their production, but then there is still a long wait before they get to showcase it at provincials,” Johnson said.
Festival passes are available for $25 or $10 each day.
