Festival of One Act Plays 6 marks return of Bruce Kane’s plays to the stage

The Festival of One Act Plays 6 will feature seven Bruce Kane comedies and a total of 22 actors. The festival, titled Once Upon A Relationship, will run on Nov. 6 and 7. (Ted McLaughlin photo)

Emily Stewart, Echo Correspondent

Following the fourth Festival of One Act Plays’ success, One Act Players (OAP) Community Theatre’s next one-act play once again showcases the works of a beloved playwright.

OAP Community Theatre will present Festival of One Act Plays 6 (FOAP 6), featuring Once Upon A Relationship on Nov. 6 and 7 at St. David’s United Church. This year’s festival will feature seven new short comedies by Bruce Kane.

“It’s a great opportunity to come out and support our theatre and be entertained and get a real big slice of theatre from a lot of different advantages,” said director Ted McLaughlin. “If you didn't like one play, you're going to love the next one."

Kane’s work is always popular with audiences and OAP Community Theatre alike because of the relatability and humour in the plays’ subject matter, whether the comedy is meant to teach a lesson or just make people laugh.

"It's any type of situation you can imagine, and they all sit around relationships, relationships that have gone wrong, relationships that are outside of the norm. It's a really great mix of theatre,” said McLaughlin.

The first play on the dock will be Ring Tone, directed by McLaughlin, which will showcase an interaction between actress Karen and Len, a person in a park who just wants a peaceful and quiet moment. Ring Tone was presented at the 10-Minute Play Competition part of the annual Grand River Arts Festival in Glenhurst, Brantford, Ont.

"We didn't win any awards, but it was a great experience for the actors and for me to be involved in that,” McLaughlin said.

Kane’s Mirror Mirror (dir. Joanna Sweete), Not Who…What (dir. Virginia Moffat), 5 Tables (dir. Aaron Gorlick), Cindy and Julie (dir. Heather Farlow), The Understudy (dir. Karen Trick), and The Wrap Party (dir. Jeff Sweete) will also be part of the sixth edition of the Festival of One Act Plays.

OAP Community Theatre also presented Kane’s work at FOAP 4 in 2024, where eight of his plays were featured.

“This is a sequel to that. We had a lot of fun doing him then, and they're a lot of fun for the audience,” said McLaughlin.

There are 22 actors performing, with about half of them newcomers.

“Even if they're not brand new to the stage, a lot of them are brand new to our group. They may have done something somewhere else, so it's a lot of new faces, and it's a lot of familiar faces too,” McLaughlin said.

The festival will run on Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 7 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $20 each and can either be purchased at Carman’s Foto Source at the Springbank Plaza in Woodstock or online via www.oapcommunitytheatre.com.