Short and Sweet awards night

The first regional Short and Sweet festival concluded with a "sell-out" awards night on Saturday, July 28, as part of the final performance at the Peninsula Theatre in Woy Woy.

The season showcased the best 10 works each of 10 minutes entered by Central Coast playwrights.

They featured many local actors and directors, along with a few visiting guest performers.

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

"Best Actor was Randall Stagg as Peter Sellers in Black Dog, Pink Panther, a hilarious romp where Sellers visits Woy Woy's most famous resident, Spike Milligan, in hospital suffering from depression.

"The award for Best Director went to local theatre personality Brenda Logan for the very moving Child's Play, written by Shaun Cramond Tinkler.

"Audience votes throughout the week-long season were tallied and the joint People's Choice winners were declared in a tie: John's Liver, and Black Dog, Pink Panther.

"John's Liver by Tumbi Umbi journalist and writer Richard Noone is a brilliant comedy where hungover internal organs complain about their treatment.

"Black Dog, Pink Panther was written by Steven McGrath and directed by Ross Stagg with Randall Stagg as Peter Sellers and Nick McDougall as Spike Milligan."

Ms Kelly said other plays selected for the season included How Green Was My Grocer by Donna Cameron, Polemic by Rod Milgate, Stand by Josh Gibbs, The AWA by Simon Tonkin, Meditations of a Blind Man Eating a Peach by Jade Maitre and The Final Hour by Dorian Mode.

Central Coast festival director Steven Hopley paid tribute to the large company of actors, writers, directors and technicians who had put the show together.

Gosford Council arts and culture manager Ms Debra Schleger said the festival would become an annual fixture on the Central Coast arts calendar.

Short and Sweet Central Coast was a spin-off of the Short and Sweet Festival which holds annual events in Sydney, Melbourne and Singapore and shortly in Malaysia, the US and Britain.

Press release, 1 Aug 2007 Lisa Kelly, Laycock Street Theatre