The Guide interviewed Amy Matthews. Amy Matthews is the program coordinator for Education, Youth and Family at Riverside Theatres Parramatta. Every year she produces a .season of short, sharp theatre at the Riverside. Sharp Short Theatre is broad and all-embracing competition for NSW kids under 18. Entrants include writers, directors and performers under 18 years old and they can present work from any theme in any styles that they like. The Festival has no ties with the Short and Sweet Festival which plays in Sydney every summer. I popped Amy some questions.
Hi Amy, thanks for giving me your time.This is the first time I’ve heard of Short Sharp Theatre. It sounds great. How many years has this been going at the Riverside Theatre and is it scheduled to take place every year? What drew the Riverside to first get involved in the project, and to lead the way?
My pleasure!
Sharp Short Theatre is now in its 5th year, and yes it is definitely an annual competition.
The project came about as a way for us, as a theatre venue, to offer a unique experience to students which allows them perform their work in a professional venue, with professional industry mentors and technicians.
We’re really well placed, being a venue that presents so much work for young people, to be able to provide access not only to our physical venue but to a vast number of professional contacts and opportunities. Our prize donors, for instance, are some of the best in the state in their fields, and each provide these young people with a chance to really develop their work and their skill
It’s a great idea to offer this Festival to young people, specifically under 18 years old. I guess the short form is very attractive to young people. The playwright can write short and doesn’t have to write a polished, full length piece. The actors don’t have to learn a lot of lines. No-one has to make a huge commitment, especially good for those doing the HSC. Has this proved to be the case?
The short play format does make it a lot more manageable, especially for our younger entrants and those just starting out.
What it teaches them though is the skill of good editing. Some plays can start out running 14 or 15 minutes and they do have to make decisions on what to omit and how to tell the story more efficiently in a shorter amount of time. This is a tricky skill but I think vital, even for full length plays. In my opinion, a short play is a good play! Some professional writers could use this skill I think!
The level of commitment does vary, some still put in a vast amount of work into it, and actually they are usually the ones that do go into the final. It also teaches the students that making a quality piece of theatre, even a short one, does take a certain level of commitment and hard work and that in itself if a valuable lesson, in the arts and in life.
The media release says that the Festival has proved to be a springboard for young people to get a career in the industry. Mention has been made of Sofia Nolan who has gone on to work in film, theatre and tv after winning Best Actor in 2015 and Best Director in 2016. Can you please tell me what kind of audience do you get to come and see the Festival? Do you get any talent scouts or agents coming along to see performances?
We don’t necessarily get talent scouts coming to the competition itself, but what provides the springboard mentioned in the press release are the prizes. The prizes are donated by some excellent industry partners and are designed to really develop further the talents these young people display. For instance, the way Sofia got noticed was through her play winning ‘Best Production’. As their prize they were given an opportunity from ATYP to perform their piece before an ATYP audience. Here, she got seen by the Artistic Director of ATYP Fraser Corfield who cast her in a professional ATYP show and from there she was seen more and more by the right people which eventually lead to her currently working as a full time performer. In fact, she is performing professionally at Riverside THIS WEEK in ATYPs Follow Me Home.
This year, prize winners can win opportunities like a Masterclass with Sydney Theatre Company (Best Performers), a session with ATYP’s resident dramaturg to help develop their script (Best Script prize), a day in the rehearsal room of a National Theatre of Parramatta production (Best Director prizes) among many others. As you can see, we have really tried to design the prizes to allow the winners to work with some of the best in business, which is a special and unique thing.
How supportive are the parents of the kids who are performing? Do they support the kids with their productions and the commitments to rehearsals etc? Do the friends and families come and see the show? What is the atmosphere like at the shows? Is it very raucous, with lots of cheering? I guess you could try and bottle that energy?
We don’t really get to see much of the commitment of the parents on the lead up to the performance, as we only see the students for the first time on the heat days, but I am sure all the parents are very supportive. It’s really their teachers who put in the hard yards to enter their students in the competition. Every entry has an adult ‘producer’ who is usually their teacher, and this producer does all the paperwork, fills out the entry forms, organises the students to be off school etc etc. It really does come down mainly to the passion of the teachers and we couldn’t do it without them.
The audiences are great! They are all very supportive and have a great time watching all of the entries, not just that of their children or friends etc. At the finals they get to pick one of the winners- ‘Audience Pick’- and they love this and really get into it!
Who are the judging panel? Are they drama teachers, people already in the industry?
I generally have both Drama teachers and industry people on each judging panel to really give that mix of perspectives. They all volunteer their time to judge and are all very passionate about supporting these young people, providing their feedback to each entry on how they might improve. We are very grateful for them!
What is the most left field subject that has been tackled in the Festival’s history?
Oh it is so varied and almost certainly half the entries are left of field! Last year our Audience Pick winner was a play about the murder of the Easter Bunny by his jealous brother who wanted to take over the top job. That was pretty left of field- but great also!
The competition involves groups from around the state? Which have been the most far flung areas who have submitted entries to the Festival? Have you received entries from Port Macquarie, Broken Hill and the like? Is it mainly Sydney based?
It’s really almost 50/50 regional NSW and metropolitan Sydney. We don’t get schools from quite as far as Port Macquarie and Broken Hill- essentially the comp takes place at night and they still need to get back to school the next day! But we do have one or two schools from the Hunter Region enter every year, they are probably the furthest. We also have schools this year entering from Wollongong, Bowral. Bathurst and Katoomba.
What: Sharp Short Theatre
When: Heats: Monday 3 rd June – Thursday 6th June. Finals Friday 14th June
Tickets: Heats: Adult $18, Concession $12. Finals: All tickets $22
Available from https://riversideparramatta.com.au/show/sharp-short-theatre-2/ or from the Box Office (02) 8839 3399.