The Fox and Hunter was the people’s choice
Short+Sweet is back with its smorgasbord of 140 short plays from January 9 until early March.
Now in its 12th season the festival held at the King Street Theatre, Newtown – as well as a People’s Choice finalists week at the Sidetrack Theatre, Marrickville – showcases the talents of emerging playwrights, directors and actors in a competition that features independent judges as well as audience voting.
The Handyman has made it to the finals
Handyman is the first play to make it through week 1 to the gala finals at the Seymour Centre in March. My Name is Cine-Ma came in second and The Fox and the Hunter came in third but secured the audience vote to make it to the People’s Choice Showcase at Sidetrack Theatre.
The Coming Out was both the judges’ and the people’s choice to win a spot in the Wildcards Finals. The highest-rated play not already in the Wildcards Finals is Clean Sweep with 14.68 per cent of the vote.
The Top 100 plays will be performed Wednesday to Sunday and the popular Wildcard program this year will be running three performances (Saturday, Sunday matinees and Monday nights) with its own finals at Sidetrack.
The festival climaxes with the Gala Finals at the Seymour Centre on March 22 and 23 where the winning play from each of the festival’s 10 weekly programs, the best Wildcard play and the People’s Choice will face off, competing for awards and rich prizes.
Short + Sweet is now an internationally successful franchise. The festival began in Newtown but has now expanded nationally to Melbourne, the Central Coast, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Newcastle, Townsville and Rockhampton as well as internationally to Auckland, Malaysia, Singapore, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru.
In NSW, successful regional festivals have recently been held in Dubbo and Broken Hill with five more online in 2013.
The Coming Out has made the Wildcards final
In its 10-year history Short+Sweet Sydney has presented more than 2000 of the best 10-minute plays from writers all over the world, with more than half of those Australian writers. At least 3500 actors and 1600 directors have taken part with hundreds more staff, volunteers and crew members.
“In fact if you add up all the people who’ve been involved with Short+Sweet Sydney over the years the number is in the realm of a whopping 10,000,” festival director Peter Malicki said.
Highlights this year include Harry Potter in 10 minutes, the return of award-winning (Short+Sweet and Tropfest) Downs Syndrome actor Gerard O’Dwyer and famed Sydney actor-director Lex Marinos.
Visiting independent theatre companies from Melbourne, Brisbane, Newcastle, Dubbo, Broken Hill, Canberra and India are participating.
“Chennai-based theatre company Stray Factory [have brought] their play My Name is Cine Ma to Sydney, direct from it having recently scooped the awards at Short+Sweet Chennai, Mumbai and Kuala Lumpur,” Malicki said.
“Short+Sweet creates opportunities. Artists are exposed to a huge number of producers, agents, venue managers, arts administrators, audiences and fellow artists. The alchemy of the Short+Sweet formula is its magical appeal.”
More information and performance details at http://shortandsweet.org/
