Short+Sweet Sydney 2009

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THE BIGGEST LITTLE PLAY FESTIVAL IN THE WORLD

Well I would argue that it’s about both, and about finding the pathway from one to the other. While S+S is an event for all kinds of artists in the theatre, it is most especially about uncovering and developing new writers; and a writer is not something that you can grow overnight, certainly not a good writer.

It takes talent and time and a lot of hard work, and one other thing – the opportunity to get the work on the stage.

Because, without a clear destination, it’s almost impossible to take a first step on the precarious journey to becoming a playwright.

We take pride in the fact that we have supported many new writers in being able to do just that.

However that doesn’t mean that everything that has entered a S+S from stage left or stage right has been great art.

For myself, in an average night of S+S, I’m prepared to put up with two pretty crappy plays if it’s balanced by two wonderful works, and the others falling in between.

My theory is that it’s only ten minutes after all, and we can allow mistakes on the stage – so long as there are not too many. What often amazes me is that (and this is a common and not rare occurrence) my choice of the two worst works is totally at odds what a lot of other people think.

It just shows how astoundingly diverse human opinion really is and that more diversity for the theatre, not less, is what is needed to keep us evolving. Personally I’m glad to be in a position where I can be responsible for a lot of people getting a chance to try their hand, and not someone holding up a sign saying ‘no admittance’.

It’s my very great pleasure to welcome Alex Broun back to the helm of Sydney Short+Sweet 2009.

Alex has been in busy in Melbourne for the last few years running the S+S program at Arts Centre Victoria as well as working on his own writing and recently launching a website (www.alexbroun. com) that has quickly become one of the most popular short play websites on the internet.

Alex is truly an inspiration for new writers and speaks with great passion and authority. He has been responsible for many of the best inclusions and innovations into Short+Sweet over it’s eight year history and has done an astounding job in moving the festival forward in 2009, adding new programs that help encourage new voices in the theatre.

Alex was also responsible for bringing Crash Test Drama to Sydney from Melbourne, and running it almost single-handedly for the last few months at Newtown Theatre. It has been a great addition to the Sydney theatre scene.

It is a great pleasure to offer my support for the 2009 program of Short+Sweet.

Attending past seasons, I have been delighted to see the Festival progress from a raw concept to what is fast becoming an institution of Australian theatre.

It is no small achievement to draw growing audiences to new works of theatre, many from emerging writers, directors and actors. Six seasons on, with a growing international reach, the Festival’s success speaks for itself.

Short+Sweet embodies many of the remarkable qualities of the arts in Australia. The Festival’s format doesn’t just allow for innovation on shoestring, it positively demands it, delivering 10-minutes bursts that are always enthusiastic, often challenging and sometimes brilliant.

This year’s Festival will bring us over 130 offerings, some of them shining the spotlight on new talent, others providing a playground for established performers - and all off them creating an opportunity to continue pushing the boundaries of Australian theatre.

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I don’t know about you but I reckon I’ve learned a lot more from my many Crash Test Drama was developed by talented mistakes than from my few Melbourne theatre -maker Harry Paternoster successes. But really that’s over the last few years at Dantes in Fitzroy and new part of the S+S plan – nurtured by Alex in it’s development through his writers have to have the role as Artistic Coordinator of Short+Sweet at opportunity to participate Arts Centre Victoria. but also to make mistakes.

Mark Cleary Artistic Director Short+Sweet

MESSAGE FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF SHORT+SWEET

Some might say that it’s not about quantity, but about quality.

Of course the trick is always to find the balance between allowing and stimulating participation in theatre, itself a worthwhile endeavour, and driving audiences away with boring and inane work.

This is a really exciting time to be involved in the arts in Australia, with no lack of creative talent ready to be nourished , encouraged and unleashed . Short+Sweet will put this talent on full display, and as Minister for the Arts, I commend to you the Festival’s 2009 season, wishing its participants every success.

The Hon Peter Garrett AM MP Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts

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Short+Sweet reached an astounding milestone late last year. It passed 1,000 new plays produced for the stage. By any measure that is an astounding amount of new work.

Short+Sweet began life at the Newtown Theatre in Sydney in 2002 but in only eight short years it has now grown to become the premiere ten minute theatre festival on the planet.

It has established a strong national and global presence with festivals now well established in Sydney, Melbourne, Gosford, Singapore and Malaysia and in 2009 Canberra and Brisbane joining the burgeoning Short+Sweet family.

As Sydney based writer-director, and Short+Sweet Sydney 2009 participant, Vic Kline recently wrote – there are very few art forms where Australia leads the world.

But in terms of ten minute theatre, due to Short+Sweet, Australia is clearly leading the world.

In playwrights like Cerise de Gelder, Jane Miller, Tom Taylor, Mark Andrew, Gerry Greenland and Kate Toon, Short+Sweet has helped to developed writers who are constantly testing the ten-minute form and constantly finding new answers to the question – what can you do in ten minutes?

A quick glance at ten minute festivals around the world will see a proliferation of these names amongst the list of playwrights and many more Australian writers as well.

Short+Sweet is developing masters of the ten minute play, a theatrical form that is growing and growing every year. In fact in a recent survey of US theatres, ten-minute theatre was found to be the fastest growing theatrical form in terms of both productions mounted by theatre companies and audience attendance.

Short+Sweet is riding the crest of that tenminute wave.

Although from time to time plays from Short+Sweet are develope d into full length theatrical works – Drew Fairley’s ‘Stallion of Death’ and Sara Browne’s ‘Cowgirl of the Wild Wild Inner-West’ are two examples in 2008 alone – that is by no means our primary concern.

At Short+Sweet we believe passionately in the validity of the ten minute theatrical form.

We seek to create a complete theatrical experience in ten minutes, a perfectly formed mini-universe that the audience is able to inhabit for that limited period of time.

We believe that a theatrical experience that lasts ten minutes can be just as funny, profound or moving as a full length play. It can also be more immediate, surprising and compact.

At Short+Sweet there is only one restriction – the running time must be ten minutes or less.

You may write or create a piece of theatre in any style, genre, on any subject, with as large or small cast as you desire. You can do anything at all, as long as it’s under ten minutes.

This a tremendous discipline for artists involved in the festival and forces them to make use of every second, every gesture, every moment to drive the action forward, elucidate the characters and build towards the climax.

It raises the stakes and increases the challenge – and in the good news for our audiences it is a challenge more and more artists are meeting with thrilling results.

Short+Sweet is a theatrical smorgasbord, a snapshot of local and global concerns , a crack in a door opening on a world of possibilities.

There are no taboos either in Short+Sweet, or any form of censorsh

ip.

This is shown in the inclusion in our programme of controversial plays on hot topics, such as Nick Modrzewski’s response to the Bill Henson photogra phy scandal ‘Bill Henson and his children’, Stephen Martin’s ‘The Goat or what the fuck?’, which defies moral categorization and Gemma Galley and Scott Drummond’s ‘Will you lick my eyeball?’, exploring sexual taboos.

In a night of Short+Sweet we want you to experience a range of theatrica l styles, ideas and voices and go through a range of emotions – laugh, cry, gasp, think, wonder, nod, blink, shake your head, applaud, shudder, even squirm.

In short we want you to feel. One thing you definitely won’t do is

yawn.

Indeed as the Sydney Morning Herald wrote “if you want to check out the current state of Australian theatre try Short+Sweet.” In 2009 – that statement remains truer than ever.

And we present not only the best local writers. Short+Sweet attracts the best ten- Enjoy. minute playwrights from across the globe and in Gregory Hardigan, Aoise Stratford Alex Broun and Dean Lundquist we have three of the S+S Festival Director world’s best in Short+Sweet Sydney 2009.

Short+Sweet has three aims: to develop the skills of our writers, directors and actors; to showcase to the industry the wonderful talents of our participants so they may go on to secure professional employment opportunities; and to create excellence in ten minute theatre.

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Increasingly this third aim is becoming more and more vital in Short+Sweet.

A NOTE from the FESTIVAL Director of short+sweet

It is my great pleasure to endorse and support Short+Sweet 2009. The City of Sydney has had a long relationship with Short+Sweet and has watched it grow into what has to be the largest short festival in the world.

I wish all the participants the best for Short+Sweet 2009. I know all the audience will gain a great deal of pleasure from the plays and I commend the organisers for their hard work and creativit y in presenting Short+Sweet 2009.

Clover Moore MP Lord Mayor

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Venetia Taylor Best Best Script The response to ‘Terror on the Northside’ in 2008 has inspired a year’s work. While the ten minute play has been performed in New York, we’ve been working on a full-length stage play and a television pilot – expanding on the ideas we began exploring at Short+Sweet.

I am pleased to add my support to this exciting and innovative festival of short plays .

Mid 2008 we received funding from the Metro Screen Jump Start subsidy to produce a TV pilot, with an eye to a six part comedy series, based on ‘Terror on the Northside’. We finished shooting in December and it’s been such a pleasure to reassemble the cast and take the characters further, into new and darker territory.

Short+Sweet 2009 provides playwrights , directors, producers and actors with a chance to showcase their considerable talent and cutting edge ideas . It is breaking new ground in technology and direction and adding yet another rich dimension to the cultural life of Sydney.

r e SHADOW ministe

Short+Sweet provides opportunities for creative expression and the development of new work, so critical if we are to have a robust theatre community. It has also provided a wonder ful launching pad for the careers of many theatre professionals. Since it’s inception in 2002, local actors, directors and writers have had the chance to demonstrate their skills in the ten minute format. I am always impressed with how much humanit y, joy, sadness and depth can be presented in just ten minutes .

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MESSAGE FROM THE LORD MAYOR

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Helen Tonkin Best Best Actress

The amount of local publicit y we received , thanks to Geoff Sirmai, meant we were offered locations and much support – and the Short+Sweet sponsor prizes, including a course in producing for film and television, have been invaluable.

The ten minute time frame forces participants to sharpen their skills leaving no time for wasted words or actions.

As the Shadow Minister for Arts in NSW I wish everyone involved with Short+Sweet 2009 tremendous success.

Jillian Skinner Shadow Minister for Arts in NSW

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The festival provides emerging artists with much needed opportunities to exhibit their artistic endeavours in a public arena . And it offers them a chance to work with established artists.

I’ve just begun editing the pilot – which is a welcome change from churning out jokes all year! (AND trying to finish a thesis – meaning countless hours in the library eating triple chocolate brownies. And sobbing…)

The thing everyone loves or loathes about making independent theatre is doing everything yourself.

Short+Sweet allows you to take a new play and focus purely on creating – while they take care of the rest. That, and the guarantee of a good house every night, is seriously good stuff. S+S has been a kind of incubator for ‘Terror on the Northside’ – allowing us to test new material on an audience, and gauge how far we can go.

The sheer size of the Short+Sweet festival – the number of committed and creative people involved – is reason enough to participate (or buy a ticket!), and I hope 2009 is a wild success .

2008 Shor t+Sweet was the first time I had participated in the festival as a perfo rmer and so ending up as best actress in the best script and best production really was a case of first time lucky!

It was ironic that a few weeks after wearing the hijab in such a misguide d way in ‘Terror On The Northside’, I had to wear it correctly as the Nurse in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ – a production that was set on the West Bank with the Capu lets as Palestinians, the Montagues as Israe lis.

It was an exciting and powerful piece of theatre.

Equally powerful was an Australian premiere of Laura Wade’s play ‘Cold er Than Here’ at New Theatre. I playe d Myra ,dying of cancer and planning her funeral.

It was a challenging part trying to convey not only the physical decline but also the conflicting emotions and final acce ptance of Myra during the last six months of her life. It was mainly a year of theatre but I did get to screen test for Bruce Bere sford ’s ‘Mao’s Last Dancer’. You won’t see me in the film but that’s how it goes!

Although Shor t+Sweet gives oppo rtunities for many actors and directors to strut their stuff, I think it is particularly valua ble as a showcase for writers. It is much more difficult for writers to get their work exposed and yet without their stori es where would the rest of us be? I loved Venetia Taylor’s script and I was delighted by the audience’s response to it and to my ghastly character. We had such fun with these characters that Venetia expa nded her ideas and wrote a television pilot .

With a producer, co-director/camera man and the original cast, we shot the pilot over a couple of intensive days , prob ably some of the most interesting work I’ve done for camera. So a ten-minute play can grow! I am really looking forw ard to collaborating with Venetia as her work develops. Shor t+Sweet involves many people so it is a great way to catch up with old theatre friends and to makenew ones .

The prizes were a nice surprise but forging new creative partnerships is inval uable. It’s also great to play to full houses!

Have fun in Shor t+Sweet 2009.

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