Festival of One Act Plays Five takes the stage at St. David’s United Church

(Left to right): John Butterworth, Delaney Carvalho, Fenn Hafey, and Joanna Sweete star in Nickers. (Ted McLachlin Photo)

Emily Stewart, Echo Correspondent

"Variety, fun, laughs, you'll enjoy it.”

That’s what Ted McLauchlin, Executive Director of One Act Plays (OAP) Community Theatre, said about the upcoming Festival of One Act Plays.

OAP will present their fifth Festival of One Act Plays (FOAP) on Nov. 7 and 8 at St. David’s United Church. With four productions new to OAP Community Theatre, this edition of FOAP will be the first one at St. David’s United Church and under OAP Community Theatre, independently.

"It's a whole new environment for us,” McLachlin said. “As always with all OAP productions, it's a mix of a lot of brand-new people that have never been on stage before and of course, we have a whole bunch of familiar faces that if the audience has come to FOAPs before, will recognize for sure. We're really excited to see how these new people are going to take these roles and maybe come back again because they've had so much fun."

Two of the plays in the lineup, both by American playwright Rollin Jewitt, deal with the same characters and setting, but at two different stages of their relationship. John and Phyllis Part One: Blind Date is about the first time the titular couple meets on their blind date. Meanwhile, John and Phyllis Part Two: Help Me Get Over You! explores the end of their relationship.

"It all takes place in the same restaurant bar and audiences will really enjoy it,” McLachlin said.

A different production separate from the world of John and Phyllis will be in between parts one and two. Nickers by Robert Scott, whose work has been part of previous FOAP lineups, follows a robber attempting to steal a diamond, only to find out he’s not the only one.

"As the play progresses, he's not even in the top five,” McLachlin said. “It's kind of a mishmash of a bunch of thieves trying to steal the same diamond."

Clemson Bartholomew by David J. LeMaster is a parody newscast focusing on the death of the fictional character of the same name, who was an Oscar-winning actor, producer, director, writer, musical legend, stage star, baseball hall of famer and pop icon.

"What happens now is we go through all the nonsense that follows that in terms of how they analyze it, how they pay tribute to it, and occasionally will have commercials and occasionally will have other breaking news that will get shoved aside so we can find out all about Clemson and his life,” said McLachlin. "It's a really fast-moving, funny, funny play.”

There will be an evening performance on Nov. 7 starting at 7:30 p.m., with Nov. 8 having a 2 p.m. matinee performance and a 7:30 p.m. evening performance. Tickets are $20 each and can either be purchased in person at Carman’s Foto Source or online via https://www.oapcommunitytheatre.com/buy-tickets.html.