Fast, Fresh...And Huge!

Details: 04 May 2007

The 3rd annual festival of short theatre for young playwrights, actors and directors opens this month with a HUGE number of all-new entries!

51 plays submitted by students from 26 different NSW schools have made the cut for the week long festival at Riverside’s Lennox Theatre, Parramatta from 21 May.

The record number of plays - which represents a doubling of entries each year since its inception in 2005 – will be performed over five nights, all competing for a spot in the Gala Final in the big Riverside Theatre on 18 June.

Fast & Fresh, is the youth version of Short & Sweet which is now a major international theatre festival – with seasons in Sydney, Melbourne, Central Coast, Singapore and shortly the US and Europe!

Produced by Newtown Theatre and hosted by the Riverside, Fast & Fresh 2007 boasts the best new work of 10 minutes length or less - by writers and performers aged 18 and under. Like its parent festival, this exciting project offers young writers, directors and actors the opportunity to develop new Australian short plays, and to showcase them in professional conditions in front of a hyped up audience of friends and family a judging team of stars and influential industry identities.

Producer Mark Cleary said the festival would “give new talent an opportunity to surface, produce original new work, inspire and educate theatre practitioners of the future and make theatre accessible and affordable to a wider younger, audience”. “Fast & Fresh supports educational aims in the English and Drama curricula and offers practical experience that benefits both students and their schools,” added festival director Neil Gooding.

Schools which have won places in the festival are: Oakhill College Glenhaven, Meriden Strathfield, Abbotsleigh Wahroonga, Elderslie Narellan, St Josephs Gosford, Wollongong Conservatorium, the Australian International Performing Arts High (Harris Park and Narremburn), William Clarke Kellyville, Thomas Hassall Middleton Grange, St Scholasticas Glebe, Hills Grammar, Oxley College Bowral, Nadia’s Performance Studio Wetherill Park, Kids on Stage Strathfield, Action Atellier Bondi and Well Thought Productions Cherrybrook as well as Tempe, Rutherford, Port Macquarie, Katoomba, Sydney Boys’, Homebush, Davidson, Northern Beaches and Campbelltown Performing Arts high schools.

FAST & FRESH

Heats: Mon to Friday 21-25 May 7.30pm | Riverside Lennox Theatre, Parramatta
Tickets: $18 (adults), $14 (tertiary students, seniors), $10 school students

Final: Mon 18 June 7.30pm Riverside Theatre
Tickets: $24, $19, $14
Bookings: (02) 8839 3399 or riversideparramatta.com.au

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