I’ve always loved the intimacy of theatre and specially,
community theatre. After California, where I would often visit the Mountain
View theatre to indulge myself (and saw the extremely impressive ‘Life of a
Travelling Salesman’ by the Jewish theatre company), I found myself looking for
something similar here in Sydney.
Thankfully, a friend of mine introduced me to Newtown’s
theatre group, called ‘Crash Test Drama,’ As awesome as that name is, the fun
bit is what they do. A bunch of playwrights get together and submit 10 min
scripts. And on the day, actors and directors show up, pick up a script and
then perform after rehearsing within an hour! So, its fast paced, fun and
hilarious. [I know because on my first time there to watch, I somehow got
pulled into acting in one of the plays! A snobby foreigner-model, nonetheless!
Ahem…]
Anyway, Crash test Drama then led to Short and Sweet (http://www.shortandsweet.org/sydney)
run by the same friend and again comprising of similar short 10 min plays.
Sadly, I wasn’t able to attend many other nights (the
festival runs over 3 months), but did manage to get into one of the finals,
this weekend. Have to say it was good fun! The variety you see is quite
interesting, most were funny and light, some downright intense, while others
managed to strike a balance between portraying a serious issue in a light vein.
The acting in some of the plays blew me away, as did the
creativity. Not having access to the props and budgets that big productions
have, community theatre thrives on the strength of their actors, directors,
playwrights and supporters. And I have to admit, inspite of seeing some big
productions, the ones I remember are the ones I saw in a dark small theatre, so
close to the actor that I thought they were acting for me. ..and that is the
power of community theatre.
So, all in all, if you’ve been thinking of checking out the
theatre scene in your local city, cannot recommend enough that you do that now.
Right now!
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