Actors' efforts help clinch win
Pint-Sized Plays 2025 winning playwright Andrew Jarocki (centre) is joined on stage by (from left) director Carla Creighton and actors Bridget Taylor, Nathan Lindsay and Emily Derham.PHOTO: KIM BOWDEN
A trio of Cromwell amateur actors has helped a Queenstown playwright take top spot in Remarkable Theatre's Pint-Sized Plays competition.
Emily Derham, Bridget Taylor and Nathan Lindsay starred in 200 Below Zero, a short play written by Andrew Jarocki.
An audience favourite across two showings at the Bannockburn Hall last weekend, the sci-fi dark comedy, directed by first-time director Carla Creighton, follows a couple considering cryogenic freezing in a crazy, not-too-distant future.
Mr Lindsay said a "twist" at its end helped make the play a hit — as did some key costuming.
Mr Lindsay and Ms Taylor, as the nervous couple about to be frozen, earned laughs wearing boiler suits and donning stainless steel colanders, while Ms Derham played a scientist with surprise wicked intentions for the pair.
The actors had five weeks to perfect the play, and Mr Lindsay said rehearsals had felt like "friends hanging out having fun".
Pint-Sized Plays is a script-writing competition where playwrights from all around the world can submit up to three plays each.
The mini masterpieces are written to be performed live in pubs and other small venues, audiences voting to determine a winner.
kim.bowden@alliedpress.co.nz
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