5 Questions with Val Kavanaugh

Sand Lake Center for the Arts is kicking off the new year with its One Act Play Festival this Friday through Sunday, an event that’s sure to be a good time filled with high spirits and folks discovering the joys of creating theater from scratch. The festival will feature seven original one-act plays by local writers, directed by seven local directors, with many of the participants playing roles in the festival’s production.

Val Kavanaugh has portrayed many roles at SLCA and is a playwright at this year’s festival, but later this year will be directing the Capital Region premiere of “Little Wars,” a fascinating play – filled with the literary characters Agatha Christie, Dorothy Parker and Gertrude Stein – which will audition Sunday and Monday at 6:30 p.m.

QUESTION: How did you get started in theater, and specifically playwriting? 

ANSWER: I taught high school English, and one year a group of students wanted to do a play and needed a director. Our school had a brand-new auditorium with an amazing stage (I had no idea HOW amazing till I directed on other stages) and no drama club! I’d always loved theater and said yes, even though at the time I was totally ignorant of directing or producing. Sets? Royalties? Blocking? My first play was “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds” and I’ve directed shows every year since then. A few years later my friend (and often co-director/producer) Sue Frost and I started doing a youth summer theater program. In the beginning we paid for published scripts until we decided it would be more fun to write our own – and it was! Getting one play published and receiving our own royalties was the icing on the cake. 

Q: What is your play and who is involved? 

A: My play in the festival is “The Lie Down.” It’s directed by Kathy Glasser and acted by Karleen Hayden, George Filieau, Jim Hulihan and Bill Daisak. I know the people involved and have to say, these actors are funny and the director’s great. I’m hoping there are lots of laughs because if there aren’t it’s got to be the script’s fault. 

Q: Tell us about the One Act Festival at SLCA and what audiences can expect when they attend. 

A: SLCA has been doing a One Act Play Festival for a number of years. They are ALWAYS fun – and funny. This year especially, I think, as all seven plays are quick-moving comedies. Topics range from driver’s ed to doctor’s appointments, to what really happened to Jack and Jill. Audiences can expect a roller-coaster ride. They’ll laugh, laugh some more and then the play will end. They’ll give a satisfied sigh, another play will begin and they’ll just laugh some more. 

Q:: Every year new one-act festivals happen. What are your thoughts on the popularity of this genre locally?

A: I love these festivals. It’s a celebration of local writers and actors – a great way for a person to jump into acting and a fun reward for local writers who love to write plays. The plays often come from some small piece of conversation or image that just just tickles the playwright and usually relates to just about everyone – as in, “Oh yeah, that happened to me, but it wasn’t as funny.” 

Q: What is a play that changed your life and how? 

A: This is hard. Every year I see new shows and as theater changes, society changes, and I hope I am changed by what I see. But I guess two semesters of Shakespeare with professor Goldman have stayed with me always, as did a summer session in Shakespeare and “play“ at Lenox. I taught “Hamlet” for years and it was a new journey every time – for me and my students. “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”

The 2024 SLCA One Act Festival runs Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

Sand Lake Center for the Arts 

2880 Route 43, Averill Park

(518)674-2007

For tickets, visit  https://slcactp.square.site/product/slca-2024-one-act-festival/125.