The SHIFT 1-Act Festival starts tomorrow (Thursday) at Port Moody's Inlet Theatre, with 10 short plays being presented over three days.
The fifth annaul event opens withThe Allure, written and directed by Chad Kamer, and ends on Saturday night with Christopher Durang's Funeral Parlor, directed by Riverside secondary drama teacher Nicole Roberge, a founding board member of the SHIFT society, a Port Moody-based company that aims to produce exciting and challenging live performance.
Roberge, who has directed two previous plays for the festival including her one-woman play last year calledCome Cuddle Me, said she discovered her 10-minute piece "in a book of plays I've had forever but never read it because who wants to do a play about a funeral parlor?" she asked. "Well, I was wrong."
The play was one of eight productions that was presented last Thursday and Friday to sold-out audiences at The Cultch's Vancity Culture Lab - the first time SHIFT has branched out to Vancouver.
"We really want to collaborate as a part of Vancouver's independent, thriving theatre scene," Roberge said, "because we believe there's room for all of us. We just need to be innovative and determined."
The Port Moody line-up is as follows:
June 21:The Allure (directed by Chad Kamer);See Bob Run (Shanda Walters);Improv in 1-Act; and The Act (Julia Siedlanowska);
June 22:Doctor Pennyweather's Office (Carolyn Nakagawa);An Inheritance (Jennica Grienke); andNate and Troy: the Next Big Things (Nathan Kelly and Troy Cherkowski);
and June 23:Caught in the Act (Cherkowski);A Rope of Sand (a presentation of workingclasstheatre/IN THE FLESH); and Funeral Parlor (Nicole Roberge).
Asked why people would want to see one-act plays, Roberge responded, "It's theatre for the modern attention span."
"One-act plays are a little like short stories: they are a rich and immensely fascinating art form but we almost never see them unless grouped together in an anthology," added Nick Sartore, SHIFT's artistic managing director, in a press release.
The closing night will include a pre-show reception with Saint Street Grill appys; the post-show dessert is from Rubens Chocolate, with wine from Peller Estates. Tickets for SHIFT5 are $18/$15. Call 778-300-1852 or visit www.shiftarts.ca.
