Many thanks to all the performers, playwrights, crews and audience who contributed to the success of this year’s One Act Play Festival. It was an exciting week of outstanding entertainment. The ECHO Players volunteers who work hard to make this annual event happen at worth their weight in gold!
This year, we were honored to have adjudicators Eliza Gardiner and Ward Norcutt join us. Each evening the Festival featured two different one act plays. Following each play, the adjudicators shared some public remarks about the performance with the cast and audience, then had a more detailed private critique with the cast and crew of each play, followed by refreshments. The Festival concluded on Sunday afternoon with the Award Ceremony where awards were announced.
This is an exciting competition for playwrights, performers and audiences alike. We look forward to seeing you all again next year!
Festival Chair
Charlie Whelton
2025 Vancouver Island One Act Play Festival Award Winners
Adjudicators: Eliza Gardiner, Ward Norcutt
Best Play - ‘Poetry in Motion’, Nanaimo Theatre Group
Best Director – Dennis Hawkins-Bogle for ‘Laundry and Bourbon’ Rivercity Players Society
Best Original Script – ‘Poetry in Motion’ written by Mary Littlejohn
Best Actor in a Female Lead Role – Judy Hipkin for ‘Yesterday’ ECHO Players
Best Actor in a Male Lead Role – Jake Rysz for ‘The First to Stand’
Best Actor in a Female Supporting Role – Kelly Senko for ‘Laundry and Bourbon’ Rivercity Players Society
Best Actor in a Male Supporting Role – Ted Girard for ‘After Effects’ Yellow Point Drama Group
Best Youth Performer – Thistle Carswell for ‘Poptart!’ ECHO Youth Theatre
Best Ensemble – NDSS Performing Arts ‘They Glowed Green’
Additional awards, chosen for this Festival, by the adjudicators:
Artistic Design - ‘They Glowed Green’ NDSS Performing Arts
Achievement in Comedy – ‘Going Avocado’ ECHO Players
WARD NORCUTT
Adjudicator
Ward Norcutt is a writer of prose, poetry, and stage plays. He also works professionally in set design, lighting design, acting and directing.
Before becoming a teacher of Dramatic Arts and English, he worked in various theatre and television productions like Danger Bay Productions, Citadel Theatre, Arts Club, and SCTV.
He taught high school from 1992 to 2018, directing, producing, designing and building over one hundred shows. He has been directly involved with over twenty musicals and one act/full length plays.
ELIZA GARDINER
Adjudicator
Eliza Gardiner teaches in the Theatre Department at Vancouver Island University. In 2024, she received the VIU President’s Award for Excellence in Education: Access and Inclusion. She is past Chair of the Theatre Department, and Manager of VIU’s Malaspina Theatre.
She is a proponent for the transformative power of arts-based education, and has facilitated theatre projects in prisons, seniors’ residences and schools. She is a past children’s theatre director with her company Red Room Studio, Artistic Producer of Western Edge Theatre, and General Manager of Nanaimo’s professional theatre company, TheatreOne.
Eliza’s original creative works include the folk rock musical Concessions of a Wannabe Rock Star and the Vancouver Island Symphony commissioned play for young audiences, Making it Reel.