Pine Tree Players suffered from an embarrassment of riches when the amateur theatre troupe put out a call for actors for its third-annual production of one-act plays.
PTP member Elizabeth Green, who is directing three of the six plays on offer March 6-8 as part of The (not) So Sweet Hereafter: An Evening Of Six Plays at the Canmore Miners’ Union Hall, said initially 22 people came out.
And with a promise that everyone who auditioned would be given a part, Green and her fellow directors – Gerry McAuley, Candise McMullin and Pam Milthorp – were sent scrambling to find plays to add to the roster.
It’s an enviable problem, as normally Green said it can be difficult to find enough actors to fill all of the available roles in a traditional three-act play.
The advantage of one-act plays, however, is that it is an ideal introduction for those new to acting.
“It brings the people out of the wood work who want to put their toe on the stage, but can’t tackle a huge three-act play,” Green said. “They came out and we promised we would cast everybody. We had plays lined up, but we had more people than plays, so we were looking for plays to fit people rather than people to fit plays.”
In the end, five people had to back out leaving the four directors with 17 actors ranging in age from 14 to 60-something.
Green is directing Another One of Louella’s Killer Ideas by Terryl Paiste; The Daughters of Edward D. Boit by Don Nigro and So Tell me About this Guy by Dolores Whiskeyman.
Milthorp is directing The Death of Me; while McAuley is directing Crossing the Bar by Don Nigro and McMullin has taken on Tarantino Variation by Seth Kramer.
Green said trying to keep track of three of the six plays and seven of the 17 actors is proving to be a challenge, but it’s also fun and rewarding for her and the actors.
“It’s been a bit of a challenge to keep three plays on the go with rehearsals,” she said. “I’ve got seven actors and two of my actors in one play are also in another of my plays. They’ve worked hard, had fun.”
Once The (not) So Sweet Hereafter wraps up in Canmore, five of the six plays will be performed at the Alberta Drama Festival Association’s one-act play festival in Okotoks March 21-22.
PTP is offering A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Anita Szabo, in spring. Green said it’s a challenging play that is a good example of a three-act play newcomers wouldn’t necessarily be interested in auditioning for.
“People who wouldn’t come out for the play of that seriousness or magnitude would come out for one–act plays,” Green said.
The (not) So Sweet Hereafter: An Evening Of Six Plays will take place at the Canmore Miners’ Union Hall Friday to Sunday, March 6-8 at 7 p.m. each night.
The plays range in length from 10 minutes to 40 minutes. The evening is split into two halves with each being just over an hour long.
Tickets are $15 cash at the door.
