Armidale Drama & Musical Society

Favourite Shorts - 2014

The Armidale Club, Armidale

March 2014

Produced by Alex Robson

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A (Favourite) Short Note from the Creative Director

This year's Favourite Shorts have taken a remarkably (favourite) short amount of time to get together. Following the (favourite) shortlisting of the plays, the directors got to pick their favourite (shorts) play, cast their actors - some of whom, like myself are (favourite) short and so here we all are!

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What you will see is a wide range of plays of varying lenghts, tones and themes. Some of the plays are written by locals, others from playwrights across Australia. All of our actors and directors are however fresh off the streets of Armidale, with varying levels of experience. It is a core principle of Favourite Shorts to enable newcomers to theatre to try their hand (buttocks?) at something which interests them and I am delighted to see so many new actors, directors and playwrights this year, as well as some old favourite (shorts). I'll stop that now.

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"Amateur" is not a dirty word and these performances are amateur. And that is not to denigrate them. The actors and directors - mostly - have lives outside of these short plays and yet for the past few months have laboured over them with "professional" dedication. All involved are to be commended for their efforts.

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I have tried - with questionable success - to present a balanced two-week program of plays, mixing up the colours and flavours, so each play is the next enticing course in a gluttonous banquet of theatre. The brief that the playwrights and directors were given was to keep it simple and focus on the storytelling. A story told well is far better than a story told prettily with lots of different fonts and colours and borders and illustrations and stuff. We are also very excited to be performing in this very dynamic venue! It is not a conventional theatre and you not be watching conventional theatre.

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So sit back, listen to the stories, look at the storytelling, have a beer and pull on your favourite shorts!

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