One act evenings are generally divided into three parts - with three one-act plays being run over the course of the evening, and a small break in between each play for set change.
This is fine if all three plays are reasonably short in duration. However, if each play is somewhere between 30-45 minutes long, the entire experience can go on well past
2.5 hours! While this may have been perfectly acceptable for audience members twenty years ago, it's too long for the average punter today.
In fact, it's not uncommon for audience members to "duck out" before the final play is presented.
These days, a night at the theater lasting 1.5 hours (including intermission) makes for a great evening out.
Now, you may be thinking that this is too short and people will be looking for "more for their buck" -
think again. People go to the theater for one reason: to be entertained. The biggest killer therefore, is
boredom or restlessness.
You are far better off leaving someone eager for more, than having them scrambling for the door as soon as the curtain falls!
The former will mean they are likely to come again. The latter means they almost never will.
I was part of a one-act play season a couple of years ago, which ran a 40 minute play, an intermission of 20 minutes, followed by a 25 minute play. The total experience lasted 1 hour and 25 minutes.
One of the common recurring positive responses I heard - aside from the fact that everyone enjoyed the plays themselves - was that the evening was short!
People loved the fact that they came out of the theater full of energy. In fact, the theater made some additional income from intermission and post-production drinks, because less people
were scrambling out the door, and were happy to stick around for another 20 minutes!
So, if you're considering running a one-act play season, here's 4 potential ways to structure your evening:
- Two plays at 30-50 minutes each in length, with a 10-20 min intermission; or
- Three plays at 20-30 minutes in length, with two 10-15 min intermissions; or
- Two 10-15 minute plays (or even some pre-play entertainment) with very fast set change in-between while the audience waits. Then intermission. Follow intermission with one 30-45 minute play; or
- If running multiple 10 minute plays, try not to do more
than 6 one-act plays in total. With set change and intermission added after play no. 3, this will end up being about the
right length.
Now of course you can structure your one-act evening any way you see fit and it will depend on the plays you wish to present. I would however strongly encourage theaters to aim for the 1.5 hour target.
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