Each year, we gather emerging and established actors, writers and directors to present seasons of the best local and international ten-minute plays in Sydney (Newtown Theatre, Seymour Centre), Melbourne (Arts Centre) and Singapore (Esplanade, Arts House, NAFA). In 2007 the first Regional S+S was held in the Central Coast, and a Community version in the Dandenongs in Melbourne.
In 2007 the Short+Sweet Theatre Awards Night at the Arts Centre in Melbourne was videotaped by the Movie Network and aired on the Movie Extra channel in March. The ten plays of the final were shown, two at a time, as five 30 minute episodes with hosting by Josh Lawson and featuring commentary by Alex Dimitriades, Pia Miranda and Suzi Porter amongst others. Similarly, the Sydney festival was videotaped this year.
But the Short+Sweet Theatre family has many more members than just the main festival!
Fast+Fresh Theatre is the youth version of Short+Sweet Theatre, and started in Sydney in 2005 under the direction of Neil Gooding at the Parramatta Riverside Theatre, and has been going strong since then.
In 2007 the first Melbourne Fast+Fresh Theatre was presented at St Martin’s Youth Theatre and the Fairfax Theatre (Arts Centre) in May under the guidance of Festival Director Miki Oikawa. The first regional Fast+Fresh Theatre was held in Geelong this year.
Shorter+Sweeter Theatre - the ‘Best Of’ touring version of Short+Sweet Theatre - the program was successfully presented at Long Paddock and accepted for a three month five-state regional Australian Tour which took place in the first half of 2008.
The first truly international S+S festival was presented in Singapore. The inaugural two week festival was at held in April/May 2007 at the NAFA Black Box with the Awards Night at the Esplanade Theatres by the Bay. Alex Broun traveled to Singapore as Artistic Director to guide the local crew in their first season.
With the addition of Singapore Short+Sweet Theatre has become, to the best of our knowledge, the first ‘trans-national’ Theatre Festival in the world, and will followed by Malaysia in August this year. Our plans for world domination (ten minutes at a time) continue apace with NZ, the UK and USA.
The first Short+Sweet Song was held at NIDA in 2007 to present 10 minute musicals. It was back again this year at the Seymour Centre under the direction of Michael Huxley.
Short+Sweet Dance is an opportunity for established and emerging choreographers & dancers to combine their creative talents to present 10 minute dance works. The first festival was held in 2007 under the direction of Olivia Ansell.
But wait… there’s more! Here are a few new additions to the family…
With Shorter+Sweeter Kids we’re creating a show that will consist of 10-minute-or-less plays for children. In fact, we’re really creating two shows: one aimed at 4-8 year olds, and one aimed at 8-12 year olds.
The Short+Sweet Theatre One-Act Festival is our experiment with a festival of longer plays: minimum of 20 to maximum of 30 minutes. This festival will be staged in Sydney (at Newtown Theatre) from July 21 to August 16, 2008.
In 2008 Short+Sweet Theatre launched itself into the realm of cabaret by staging Short+Sweet Cabaret at The Butterfly Club. To accommodate the festival’s growth it is moving to Chapel off Chapel in November 2009.
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