Footprint Theatre is celebrating its ninth birthday by performing three short plays at the Canberra Short+Sweet Theatre Festival.
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Director Lis Shelley said "We've been extraordinarily lucky this year to have all of our entries accepted for the capital's biggest short play festival, a great achievement for a small regional theatre company."
The top 10 plays from the thirty finalists at the festival will be invited to play again at the Gala Final shows at 2.30pm and 7.30pm on Saturday, April 28.
"If anyone from the Far South Coast is in Canberra we'd love to see them in the audience supporting our actors,” Ms Shelley said.
“One of the prizes is the People's Choice award, which is determined by the audiences that attend the festival. Audience members can vote for their favourite two plays from the ten staged at each performance.
“There are also awards for acting and directing and script awarded by anonymous professional judges who attend," she said.
If anyone from the Far South Coast is in Canberra we'd love to see them in the audience supporting our actors
- Lis Shelley - Director
The Pambula based touring theatre group has had an association with Canberra Short+Sweet since 2012.
Since then they have staged four plays at the festival, including Driving the Holden, Call Out, The Waiting Room and Slow Dating.
One Night Stan by Adam Szudrich was performed locally as part of Footprint's Spring Shorts production in Bega and Merimbula last year. The script has won numerous short play festivals around the world.
Directed by Lis Shelley, the play is a comedic love story told by three very different women about their date with the mysterious 'Stan'. Original cast member Sarah Dangers from Tura Beach returns in the Canberra production as 'Rachel', while Bega actor Jennifer Willcox will play 'Holly' and Elizabeth Brennan from Cobargo will play the role of 'Marie'. One Night Stan will be staged each evening at 7.30pm from April 17 – 20.
Walking the Dog by Merimbula playwright Penelope Hunt is a Wildcard entry and Graham Brown is directing the original cast of Penelope Hunt (Jill), Karl Auer (Darryl) and Lis Shelley (Sally).
Walking the Dog will be performed at 2.30pm and 7.30pm on Saturday 21 April. In the play, Jill recruits her friend Sally to help investigate why her dog Barney seems to be gaining weight since Jill's husband Darryl has taken over evening 'walkies'.
Seventeen-year-old Lochiel writer and performer Anna Auer's play Still Life has also been accepted for Week One and the Wildcards in the festival.
A black comedy monologue about a surgeon and the rivalry of two artists was initially written as a drama assignment and it is the second time one of Anna's plays has been performed on the Canberra stage; Security Blanket was performed by Anna and other students from Eden Marine High in 2017 at ActingUp! Still Life is directed by Lis Shelley and will be performed each evening at 7.30pm from April 17 – 21.
Short+Sweet Canberra is at the Courtyard Studio at the Canberra Theatre Centre and bookings can be made at www.canberratheatrecentre.com.au or by calling 6275 2700.