Preview: One-Act Festival comes to Church Hill Theatre

THE most important event in the amateur theatre calendar comes to the Capital next week, when The Church Hill Theatre plays host to the Scottish final of the Scottish Community Drama Association One-Act Play Festival.

Killin Drama Club in Into The Mist by Helen Wyngard with Gordon Hibbert and Glenda Mardon Picture: Walter Hampson

Having presented the Edinburgh disrict round of the SCDA in February, the action returns to the Morningside Road venue after the eastern division round was held at Lochgelly Arts Centre, in Fife, last week.

Winners of that round were Leitheatre in Audience, by Michael Frayn, while Killin Drama Club’s production of Into The Mist, by Helen Wyngard, came second.

Both feature in the programme of plays at the Church Hill Theatre, from next Thursday with clubs from the Highland, north and western divisions of the SCDA performing under the watchful eye of adjudicator Russell Whiteley.

The Dingwall Players are up first when they appear in Picnic On The Battlefield, by Fernando Arrabal, at 7pm.

Leitheatre in Audience follow, and the evening will be brought to a close by Crossmichael Drama Club in 27 Wagons Full Of Cotton, by Tennessee Williams.

Friday’s finalists kick off with Lochcarron Amateur Drama Society in Cruise Missile, by Jean McConnell, followed by Killin Drama Club in Into The Mist, with Ad Hoc in Degas C`est Moi, by David Ives, bringing the curtain down.

Finally, on Saturday, it’s the turn of Greenock Players to present The Sociable Plover, by Tim Whitnall, while Studio Theatre Group bring A Bench At The Edge, by Luigi Jannuzzi, to the Capital.

The three-day event will be only the second time in the last 50 years that the final has been staged in Edinburgh.

The Scottish Final of the SCDA National One Act Festival, Church Hill Theatre, Morningside Road, 21-23 April, 7pm, £14 (£38 for 3-night season ticket), www.scdaedinburgh.org.uk