A local theatrical organisation will be hoping to be creating some dramatic scenes during 2020, beginning with a festival of short plays.

Next week sees the opening of the One Act Play Festival, organised by the Manx Amateur Dramatic Federation, which takes place over five nights at the Erin Arts Centre, in Port Erin.

Ten different short, one act plays will be performed by five different local amateur dramatic theatre groups over the course of the festival.

Southern drama group The Rushen Players will be performing in what could be considered their home theatre, when they open the festival on Wednesday, March 4 with their version of the play ’The Sandlewood Mouse’, written by Stephan Moran.

They will be joined by the Service Players, who will perform ’The Terrorist’ by Graham Jones and the cast from the Hog The Limelight group, with their version of the black comedy ’Money For Paint’, written by Michael Da Silva.

The Broadway Theatre group appear on Thursday evening, with the Jimmy Chinn play ’Interior Designs’, and the only youth group to enter this year, Broadway Youth Theatre Group, will also take part, performing ’And Then there Were Three’, on Friday evening.

Actors from the Service Players will also be on stage on Thursday evening, when they will perform local writer Lisa Creighton’s play ’Lost the Plot’, and again on Saturday, when they will round the festival off with the play ’Melody’.

Hog The Limelight also appear twice more, with their version of the play ’Exit’, on Thursday evening, followed by a chance to see an affectionate retelling of the Laurel and Hardy story by local actors Dave Shaw and Wayne Kelsall on Friday.

The Rushen Players bring their festival to a close with ’Frogs’, a touching play about love and dementia, which will be performed on Saturday evening.

The One Act Play Festival returns to the Erin Arts Centre after a number of years, and organiser, Michael Lees, president of the Manx Amateur Dramatic Federation, says they are looking forward to appearing there.

’We haven’t been back there for a while and are very much looking forward to holding the festival there again,’ said Michael.

’We do like to move around as much as possible, just to vary it for the actors and the audiences each year more than anything.

’Last year we were at the King’s College Theatre, and we’ve also been to several other venues, such as the Peel Centenary Centre once before as well.

’But the Erin Arts Centre is a great place to perform and they have a very dedicated following of people who like to support the events there.

’It is a nice small and intimate venue with great facilities and all the teams love to perform there.

The festival will be adjudicated by Sue Doherty, a professional theatre adjudicator who, amongst holding many educational and theatrical roles, was a creative co-ordinator for the Liverpool City of Culture project during 2008.

’She is a very experienced adjudicator, and is much younger than the adjudicators we have had before,’ said Michael.

’I think that will definitely appeal to some of the younger actors, and we are excited about what the range of knowledge and experienceshe will bring to the festival.

’She has worked with the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre, the Everyman Theatre and the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, and we are very excited to have her here.’

Later on this year, the Manx Amateur Dramatic Federation are celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Easter Festival of Plays, an annual week-long festival of full length plays, performed by UK drama groups, which takes place at the Gaiety Theatre.

Among the many special events that the group are holding, Michael said that they have invited practitioners from the Royal Shakespeare Company to the Isle of Man to hold a series of workshops for young actors.

The workshops will take place on Monday and Tuesday, July 20 and 21, and will be held available for anyone to attend.

’They will go to schools and work with children who are interested in finding out more about the art and craft of stage acting from some of the top professionals,’ said Michael.

’They will be working on things like acting, directing, stage fighting and voice.

’The instructors will be very fluid with what they do and will be governed by the students they will be working with. The sphere of what they are able to do is enormous.

Anyone interested with the RSC workshops can email [email protected] for more information.

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers