Sydney news

Short+Sweet, the largest ten minute theatre festival in the world has announced the call for entries for its 2010 Sydney flagship festival season.

Short+Sweet began life at the Newtown Theatre in January 2002 and expanded to Melbourne (2005), Singapore (2007), the Central Coast of NSW (2008) and Malaysia (2008). It launches in Canberra and Brisbane in September 2009 and in January 2010 the first ever Short+Sweet Auckland hits the stage.

In its nine year history Short+Sweet has presented 1380 of the best ten minute plays from all over the world, with over 60% of those by Australian writers.

This amazing achievement underlines that Short+Sweet is now the largest producer of Australian theatre on the globe.

Australian writers whose work have featured in the festival read like a Who’s Who of Australian playwriting: David Allen, Alan Seymour, Hilary Bell, Ross Mueller, Kate Mulvaney, Suzie Miller, Daniel Keene, Nick Enright, Linda Aronson, Melita Rowston, Tom Holloway, Drew Fairley, Vanessa Bates, Benito di Fonzo, Tug Dumbly, Christopher Johnson, Jonathan Gavin, Mary-Rachel Brown, Rob Reid, Ben Ellis, Ron Elisha, Nick Parsons, Emma Vuletic, Alex Broun, Noelle Janacewska, Patricia Cornelius, Brendan Cowell, Caleb Lewis, Rick Viede and Van Badham.  And Short+Sweet has also played a role in discovering a whole new wave of exciting new playwrights including John A D Fraser, Gerry Greenland, David Astle, Stephen Vagg, Steven McGrath, Sean O’Riordan, Wayne Tunks, Glynn Roberts, Jane Miller, Adam Gelin, Ashley Walker, Cerise de Gelder, Mark Andrew, Tom Taylor, Carl J Sorheim, Nathan Curnow, Kate Toon, David Sharpe, Richard Graham, Steven Hopley, Con Nats, Charles Freyberg, Carly Nugent, Scott McAteer, Adam Cass and David Bulmer.

Short+Sweet’s ability to attract younger audiences also remains the envy of many established companies.

Short+Sweet Sydney 2010 will run from January 5th to February 20th at the Newtown Theatre and another major Sydney venue to be revealed shortly!

Writers from all over Australia and the world are invited to submit their plays to Short+Sweet with no set theme or motif. They may write on any subject in any style or genre for casts big or small – the only restriction is that the plays must run ten minutes or less.

Local actors and directors are also invited to register to be part of the Festival with the added bonus that all artists involved in Short+Sweet Sydney 2010 have a chance to be selected for Shorter+Sweeter, the professional touring arm of Short+Sweet which embarks on a four month nation wide tour in April 2010.

“With our Sydney, Melbourne, Central Coast, Singapore and Malaysian festivals all going strong and Canberra, Brisbane and Auckland about to come on line it’s a wonderful time to get involved in Short+Sweet,” says founder and Artistic Director of Short+Sweet International Mark Cleary.

“There is the added incentive for writers and directors of winning a place in the tour of Shorter+Sweeter next year and perhaps featuring in the popular Short+Sweet TV show – To Be Or Not To Be which is currently wowing audiences on Movie Extra.”

For entry details or more information visit www.shortandsweet.org/shortsweet/sydney