HREE one-act plays are to take centre stage at the Bermuda Musical & Dramatic Society's (BMDS) Daylesford Theatre.

The event serves two purposes, according to leading ladies Barbara Jones and Connie Dey. Not only will the night give residents the opportunity to enjoy great entertainment, but the beauty of the one-act play is that it affords novice performers an easy introduction to the stage.

"BMDS has a very strong commitment to training people," explained Mrs. Jones. "If you want to come and do something at BMDS, you do not have to know how to do it before you step through the doors. We will teach you.

"One of the ways we've done that in the past is by doing rehearsed play readings. Everyone's big bad fear is: 'I'll never learn the lines. How can I ever learn the lines?' So we started out having people on stage holding their scripts. And then we did a bit of rehearsal, a bit of staging. It wasn't a high standard, but it wasn't meant to be.

"(It's just) one way of trying to train people; of giving them a taste for going on stage. All it actually teaches you is that you can't act with a script in your hand because it gets in the way but it gives people confidence. So an alternative way of doing that without making it too stressful, is to make it a one-act play ? a short play of 20 minutes or half an hour, rather than a normal evening's play which is a couple of hours long. You have a shorter amount to learn. The rehearsal period is easier and so you can attract more people to try.

"It's a better learning experience all round because the director has to really create a play. Same for the actors. You really have to learn your lines. You have to put as much effort into it as a full-length play but it doesn't take such a big chunk of (time) out of your life."

The three one-act plays will run for six days beginning January 24. Performed will be written by David Mamet, by Jean McConnell and , by David Widdicombe.

Mrs. Dey and Mrs. Jones respectively portray Maggie Festoon and Pascaline Holbein, in As described by Mrs. Dey: "It's about two actresses who are very experienced. One of them is called an old actress. The other one is called a middle-aged actress. It's (about) two actresses who don't know each other at all, who meet accidentally sitting on a bench at a seaside pier. The older actress actually recognises the young one from a poster she has seen.

"Without letting the young one know that she recognises her, she just starts a conversation with her. The name of it is . And that's what we see, them digging at each other. I get her goat. So then she turns around and starts to get my goat and of course eventually we go through a common trauma and end up as good friends."

Both Mrs. Dey and Mrs. Jones are veterans of the Bermuda stage. Mrs. Dey first appeared with BMDS in 1958 and has since worked with most of the theatre groups on the island. Her most recent appearance at Daylesford was in Sam Shepard's play, , in 2003.

"Connie's credits run the gamut from outrageous characters in at least 11 pantomimes to classic and dramatic roles such as Shakespeare's Lady Olivia in Mrs. Quickly in the Blanche in Tennessee Williams' and Amanda in . If you're old enough, you may even remember her from the pre-TV days of Kindley Air Theatre!"

Mrs. Jones boasts just as impressive a resum?. According to the BMDS, she first took to the local stage in 1980, performing in and .

"She is a talented costume designer having worked on and , just in the last four years. She has also directed several plays, and several Famous for Fifteen Minutes plays."

Compelling as the upcoming plays are, Mrs. Jones said they become especially so when one considers that everything takes place in one act.

"It's quite difficult to write a one-act play," she said. "It's the same reason that short stories are not particularly popular, or well written. To create your characters, your situation, your plot, to get the development, to get the d?nouement, to get an ending ? all in a short period, is not easy. And that's often why short stories and short plays will only have a few characters."

Added Mrs. Dey: "A nice thing about having three one-act plays as far as the audience is concerned is if they don't like one they might like the others. The other good thing is that it's not just good for first-timers on stage. It's provides good training for people working in the background ? it's the first time our director, Deborah Bowness, has directed ? for producers, people working with lights, designing costumes and so on."