Week 5 Winners and Gala Final line up
Organisers Short+Sweet 2008’s record-breaking festival have announced the finalists to compete at this Friday and Saturday’s nudie Gala Finals.
The final week saw a win at the Seymour Centre for local writer Melita Rowston’s hilarious one-hander The Diver, starring Duncan Fellows and brilliantly directed by James Beach for Platform 19 productions.
At Newtown Theatre, Venetia Taylor’s delicious satire on racism and romance Terror on the Northside won the judges’ vote. Directed by Boris Ivanoff for Rag and Bone Productions, it starred Taylor herself along with Beejan Olfat, Helen Tonkin and Brett Nevill. The Wildcard winner – appropriately in a week when the Parliament said “Sorry” – was 100 Years by Bob Tissott, a play about a century of black/white relations in the Northern Rivers area of NSW. According to Short+Sweet Artistic Director Mark Cleary, this extraordinary family production directed by Diana Tissott and starring Bob Tissott and their son Jed Tissott and Athol Compton – all from Northern NSW – “manages to say in 10 minutes everything John Howard’s government couldn’t manage in 10 years…”
They join previous heat winners Perfect by Aaron Scully, audience and judges’ favourite The Stallion of Death by Drew Fairley, Kate Toon’s Bomb Disposal, Noelle Janacewska’s Duet With a Dictionary, Anne Frankenstein – The Musical by David Holstein, Dead Weight by Joseph Talarico and Call me Comrade by Ross Peter Nelson and runner-up audience choice A Lesson in Hand Holding by Mary Rachel Brown in a magnificent line up at the Seymour’s Everest Theatre.
The night will be hosted by Movie Extra’s Renee Brack and actor-writer-comic Tug Dumbly.
Finalists – winning through from more than 1500 original entries from all around the world - will compete for cash, mentorships, and other prizes from some top names including nudie, Movie Extra, Screenwise, Realtime and Dendy Films. Movie Extra is commissioning and screening film adaptations of all of the finalists’ shows.
The Short+Sweet nudie Gala Awards Final - Seymour Centre’s Everest Theatre Fri 22 & Sat 23 Feb 7.30pm. Tickets $40, conc $35. Bookings 9351 7940
For more information including the full program and bookings, visit www.shortandsweet.org