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It's that time again! The North Attleborough High School Theatre Company will present its annual One Act Play Festival on Friday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Judith F. Cobb Theatre at NAHS. This year there are added bonuses: four plays instead of the usual three. And all are comedies!

Last year the audience of the festival experienced the towering grandeur of "Hamlet in 40 Minutes." However, the Reduced Shakespeare Company has much more to offer. This year, under the direction of senior Tiffani Signorelli and assistant director Vanessa Schofield: portions of "The Complet Works of Willm Shkspr (Abridged)" will be performed by a new cast. With returning senior Bridget Moriarty, new actors sophomore Joe Marino and freshman Heather Ann Krasner take the "Compleat Works" to new levels of hilarity: exploring the deeper themes of "Romeo and Juliet," "Titus Andronicus," "Othello," all sixteen comedies, "Macbeth," "Julius Caesar" and "Anthony and Cleopatra."

From big ugly wigs and football games to interpretive dancing and cross-dressing, the cast of the "Compleat Works" is able to capture, in a single performance, the literary genius of William Shakespeare.

"The Scheme of the Driftless Shifter," written by Carolyn B. Lane, is directed by sophomore duo Ryan Caster (director) and Joe Kain (assistant director). In this play within a play, a stellar cast portrays-with some lighthearted exaggeration-everything that can go wrong in a performance. In the inner play, the beautiful Petunia Pompington (senior Maria Norris) wishes to marry her handsome suitor (junior Brendan O'Melia).

However, Petunia's father, the wealthy Mr. Pompington (sophomore Joe Kain), refuses to allow his daughter to marry the impoverished Victor. Hilarious line-botching and cue- slipping ensues as Petunia tries to convince her father to let the two be together while Victor embarks on a daring quest in order to gain Mr. Pompington's trust.

Did you like "Our Town?" Then you'll love the comedy "How Does a Thing Like That Get Started?" written by Pat Cook. Directed by junior Francesca Boulton and assistant directed by junior Ariel Cohen, this delightful parody tells the story of the hapless Doc, played by senior Michelle Shore, who hopelessly tries to prove her theory about gossip in small towns by interesting the rest of the town in a rumor about a friend's sick horse.

The rumor never quite catches on, but through a series of wacky events and partial eavesdropping, new rumors-such as the mayor's death, his secretary's elopement, and the grocer's bankruptcy-spread instead.

This, combined with the delightful ineptness of the quirky townsfolk, eventually leads to a web of confusion and misunderstanding, ultimately proving, in the most hilarious way possible, that gossip will change and mutate until nothing is left of the original rumor at all.