Our History

OAP Executive Producer, Ted McLauchlin was no stranger to community theatre when he became obsessed with the concept of a One Act Play Festival. A concept that could be used to introduce people in the community who always wanted to be on stage but were intimidated by the prospect of a full length production. He was a past President, Graphic Designer, Producer and even Actor in many plays since getting involved in 2009. In 2017, he presented his one act concept to Theatre Woodstock and again in 2018. Both times the theatre felt it wasn’t a good fit. Undeterred, he reached out to other local theatre companies and the concept caught the eye of the Ingersoll Theatre of Performing Arts. After discussion back and forth on the logistics, they agreed to hold the very first Festival of One Act Plays in September of 2020. Unfortunately, the world had other plans…

Undeterred once more, Ted resurrected the Festival (now referred to as FOAP) and the event was rescheduled for November of 2021. Just under the wire of another lock down, FOAP1 hit the Ingersoll stage for three performances. The masked, screened and vaccinated audiences LOVED it! It featured four 20-minute one act comedies, each directed by their own director. Ted invited two experienced directors and two directors who had never directed a play before. One of those new directors was Kim DiLello, who is today OAP’s Artistic Director.

Plans to continue the event at ITOPA for another year, fell short but Ted was approached by Theatre Woodstock with the possibility of coming back to Theatre Woodstock for FOAP 2 in 2022. Upon condition that the one act group, now known as FOAP Community Theatre, maintained some autonomy from Theatre Woodstock, an agreement was reached. In September of 2022, three new one act comedies along with new Directors delighted audiences for three performances.

Kim and Ted came together again in 2023 and together produced and directed Standing Room Only, which was their first single production that involved 6 small playlets about theatre. It was performed for The South Gate Centre and a performance at Theatre Woodstock in June of that year.

2024 was to be their biggest year yet. The writing was on the wall, that something new and exciting was developing in the local theatre scene for Woodstock and Oxford County. OAP (One Act Players) Community Theatre was born! Ted and Kim brought together a team of talented people to start planning the establishment of a new local theatre company.
In April of 2024, FOAP 3 hit the Market Centre stage for another successful three performance run and again in June of 2024, OAP Community Theatre produced a single one act comedy/drama, Our Little Secret by Rollin Jewett, which again played at the South Gate Centre and the Market Centre stage. Lastly, FOAP 4 “On You Mark… Get Set… Laugh!” which challenged our combined talents with eight 10-minute comedies delighted audiences in November of that year. It would be the last production we would do with Theatre Woodstock.

2025 is OAP Community Theatre’s inaugural year with two major productions scheduled and a brand new venue partner with St. David’s United Church! We have an amazingly talented team, that is dedicated to bringing our concepts of real community theatre to life. The new Board of Directors along with our dedicated technical team and our vast community of actors, are ready to hit the ground running as a completely separate community theatre company.