Sydney news

The first regional of Short & Sweet festival concluded has climaxed with a sell-out awards night final at the Peninsula Theatre in Woy Woy.

Short & Sweet Central Coast - sponsored by Gosford City Council - was spin-off from it's bigger, older and increasingly globe-trotting sibling whose festivals now figure as annual events in Sydney, Melbourne Singapore... and shortly Malaysia, the US and UK. As Short and Sweet founder and Artistic Director Mark Cleary quipped when presenting the awards, "Sydney, Singapore, Melbourne... once we've taken Woy Woy, we take New York and London!"

Following the successful formula, this season showcased the best  ten ten-minute works entered by local Central Coast writers and featured many local actors and directors - along with a few visiting guest performers.

Winner of the Best Original Script award was Alexander Gibbs for "Dialogue" a quirky romantic two-hander about life, time, god and everything else - with a brilliant twist at the end.

Best Actor was Randall Stagg as Peter Sellers in "Black Dog, Pink Panther" - an hilarious romp about Sellars visiting Woy Woy's most famous resident the late great goon Spike Milligan depressed in hospital.

The Best director award went to local theatre personality Brenda Logan for the moving "Child's Play" (by Shaun Cramond Tinkler).

Audience votes throughout the week-long season were tallied and joint People's Choice winners were declared in a tie: People's Choice: "John's Liver" by Tumbi Umbi journalist and writer Richard Noone (a brilliant comedy where hungover internal organs complain about the treatment they get) and "Black Dog, Pink Panther" by Steven McGrath.

Other plays selected for the season included How Green Was My Grocer by Donna Cameron (a futuristic drama/comedy about genetically engineered food); Polemic by Rod Milgate (about love, jealousy and blame), Stand by Josh Gibbs (a well-paid worker cracks and throw in his job to live on a park bench); The AWA by Simon Tonkin;  Meditations of a Blind Man eating a Peach by Jade Maitre and The Final Hour by Dorian Mode (Hitler and Eva Braun make a theatrical farewell...).

Festival Director Steven Hopley paid tribute to the large company of actors, writers, directors and technicians who had put the show together as well as to the council and other supporters.

Gosford City Council Arts and Culture Manager Debra Schweger pronounced the season a HUGE success that would become an annual fixture on the central coast arts calendar.