Festival of One-Acts in Bigfork

The EdgeWild Players of the Edge Center for the Arts in Bigfork have been participating in an educational experiment. Artistic Director Patricia Feld is ready to pass her directing baton to. the next generation of talented local directors. She and Producer Valerie Conner have spent the winter months working with four new directors, teaching them how to direct and produce a show. This Festival of One-Acts is the debut of the four new directors with their very diverse one-acts. The Festival of One-Acts will take place Friday and Saturday, April 19 and 20, at

6:30 p.m, and on Sunday, April 21, at 2:00 p.m, at the Edge Center for the Arts in Bigfork. Tickets are $10 for adults and free for children 12 and under. You can purchase tickets at the door or online at edgecenterarts.org.

It is exciting to have new names in the director chairs, leading performances at the Edge. Stephanie Kessler, Mary McReynolds, Pete Pellinen, and Kayla Scrivner are each directing a one-act play. Stephanie is directing Jerry Girls, an original comedy written by our local playwright Josh Cagle. Mary is directing Waiting for the End of The World, a satire featuring three of the horsemen of the Apocalypse. Pete is directing The Ever After: A Musical featuring 17 of the area’s youngsters. Kayla will direct a scene from Heartwood Echoes: Lives and Legends of the Bigfork Valley. They are all wildly diverse and fun pieces.

The Jerry Girls one-act was written and performed in 24 hours as part of the Grand Rapids Players Insomniacts 5 production just three months ago. Josh Cagle wrote it, and now it will be performed again at the Edge Center. Waiting for the End of the World takes place in one scene and has dark, satirical humor but is still family friendly. It was written by John Shanahan and produced by special arrangement with the Eldridge Publishing Company. Ever After: A Musical helps us understand how our favorite fairytale characters have carried on with their lives 20 plus years after we last heard of them. The book is by Nathan Hartswick, and the music and lyrics are by Bill Francoeur. It is being produced by special arrangement with Pioneer Drama Service, Inc., in Denver, Colorado. The Heartwood Echoes piece is an original work from a 1999 collaboration of student writers working with elder citizens who grew up in the Bigfork area telling the students about how life was in their early days. It was wildly popular, and the whole play may be looking to be remounted again.

For those of you who have never ventured 45 minutes north to see the state-of-the-art theatre in Bigfork, this Festival of One-Acts would be the perfect opportunity! This small, 283-seat art center offers a visual art gallery that serves as its own exhibit space and as the lobby for intermission during performing arts events.

Since 1996, the EdgeWild Players have been presenting comedies, dramas, musicals, and talent shows. In April at the Festival of 0ne-Acts, you will get a wide range of shows and understand why the Edge Center is known to be “Wildly Unexpected!”