From Lunchbox Theatre’s Do Not Disturb

The annual Calgary Region One-Act Play Festival returns to the Pumphouse Theatre again this year, with seven new shows ranging in length from 10 minutes to one hour. “Every piece this year is either an original script or an original staging of a short story,” says festival co-ordinator Kathryn Waters.

Registration for the 2008 festival opened last November. Plays were selected on a first-come, first-served basis. “As it's a non-curated festival, we have no say over a particular festival agenda," says Waters. "The whole thing comes together very organically."

For a play to be eligible, however, it must be one act in length and the company must be able to set it up and take it down in under 10 minutes. "One of the best things about this festival is the age range of people who are using it as an opportunity to get their work out there,” says Waters, noting that this year’s participants range in age from university students to senior citizens.

The offerings in the festival are primarily dramas and dramatic comedies. Stef Kuypers, a Belgian student who is studying theatre in Calgary, takes on the challenge of adapting Nikolai Gogol’s Diary of a Madman for his entry into the festival. The 19th-century tale follows a man’s descent into madness. "It's about a person who is stuck in life, who’s stuck in a job and feels there's no future ahead for him. He is so upset about getting out of his situation that he starts to think he is more than he is, eventually believing he is the king of Spain,” Kuypers says.

Kuypers uses four actors to represent the main character and the different “voices” in his head. “The text itself is a beautiful piece of work, so I leave it virtually untouched,” says Kuypers.

For something of a much different flavour, there’s STAT(us): Love in 20-Second Sound Bites. The one-woman show is written and performed by Melanie Jones, who frequently gives dating advice on CityTV as the Dating Dame. Jones says the character of Dating Girl in STAT(us) is based on her CityTV persona. While in her own relationship, Dating Girl also discusses relationships on a broader scale on-air. “We’re in this insane moment in history where relationships are consumer products — you can literally go to the online mall and select dial-a-date from a dropdown menu. Dating has an accelerated factor. The notion of building relationships and getting to know someone over a long period of time is gone,” Jones says.

“We’re speeding through these things and then are stunned the divorce rate is so high,” she adds, wryly. “A Cosmo quiz is not going to tell you who your dream guy is.”

STAT(us) premièred in February as part of Downstage’s birds and stone series. Jones hopes to eventually develop her 30-minute show into a full-length production.

Following the performances each evening, the festival adjudicator will deliver a public evaluation of each play. This year’s adjudicator is Sage Theatre’s artistic director, Kelly Reay. On the final evening of the festival, Reay will present five awards, including one for outstanding production. That show will represent Calgary in the provincial competition in Fort McMurray at the end of May.

The 2008 Calgary Region One-Act Play Festival runs until March 8 at the Pumphouse Theatre.

PLAY O’ THE IRISH

Calgary’s Liffey Players have a mandate to produce “plays by and about the Irish.” Following their successful production of Dracula last fall, Liffey Players’ upcoming production is by a rising star of Irish theatre, Conor McPherson.

The play, Shining City (nominated for a Tony Award for best play in 2006), tells the story of John, a guilt-ridden man haunted by the ghost of his dead wife. “The play is sort of a ghost story, but it’s more about people who just don’t know quite where they fit in and are searching for who they are,” says director Jonathan Chapman.

Set in present-day Dublin, John turns to a therapist for help. The therapist is actually a former priest who is struggling with many issues in his own life, including a crumbling relationship and a new baby. “The play as a whole is from the point of view of the therapist,” says Chapman. “Both his story and John’s have a lot of the same issues at stake. Both are dealing with infidelity, loss, starting a new life and being unsure what their lives should be.

“The Irish is the bones of the play,” adds Chapman. “It has that moody, murky flavour that I think has come down through the tradition. The play is also darkly funny, which I think is a product of the Irish mentality of having gone through many dark times.”

Shining City runs March 13 to 22 at the Pumphouse Theatre.