EODL One-Act Festival

Since 2002, the Ottawa Little Theatre (OLT) has regularly entered a production into the EODL (Eastern Ontario Drama League) One-Act Play Festival. This is in addition to the OLT entering one of the main-stage productions into the EODL Spring Festival of full-length plays.

The OLT’s participation in the EODL Festivals revives an association that began in 1933 when the Dominion Drama Festival (a national gathering of community theatres) first took place at the Little Theatre. It was held in Ottawa for the next five years after which it was hosted by a different Canadian community theatre each year including the OLT.

The OLT’s play entry into the EODL One-Act Festival is generally chosen from among the winners of the OLT National One-Act Playwriting Competition founded in 1937. The OLT often organizes workshopped readings of the winning plays in April under the guidance of a professional dramaturge. The playwrights (from coast-to coast in Canada) are invited to participate in the rehearsals.

The directors of the plays for the Workshop are chosen by the Chair of the Playwriting Competition from interested members of the OLT Directors List, usually on a first-come, first-served basis. If no director from the list is available, then the offer may widen to Associate or Assistant Directors or other volunteers interested in gaining directorial experience.

The director is given the option of holding open auditions or choosing his/her cast by invitation. (Actors can express their interest to playwriting@ottawalittletheatre.com and names will be passed to the directors for consideration.)

The semi-staged readings of the winning plays of the National Playwriting Competition are performed for the public in the OLT’s Janigan Studio around the third or fourth weekend in April.

If the Chair selects one of the winning plays from the Playwriting Competition Workshop for entry into the EODL then the director of that play (if he or she is on the Directors List) will likely be given first right of refusal to mount a full production. The director has the option of retaining some or all of the workshop cast, or of auditioning or inviting new actors.

The Chair, in collaboration with the OLT Season Planning Committee, might consider other one-act plays for entry into the EODL Festival instead of, or as well as, a selection from the National Playwriting Competition. These could be scripts submitted by playwrights to the OLT (which are considered along with full-length plays for the mainstage season) or from projects proposed by the OLT volunteer body.