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Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Creative opportunity welcomed
Whether you're new to the stage or have decades of experience behind you, competitive, festival theatre has something for you. A Timaru playwright is relishing the opportunity to unleash his creativity at a returning one-act play competition this weekend. As part of One Act of Madness, the South Canterbury round of Theatre New Zealand's Theatrefest, Wayne Doyle will be sharing two of his original works. He said the first was called Lovelock and the Rose. "Not many people know that 10 years before [Jack] Lovelock there was a famous New Zealand runner called Randolph Rose who broke records left, right and centre. "He was probably faster than Lovelock, but he was lazy, he didn't like training and he went overseas, did well but then he just gave it all up. My story is what would happen if both these guys were around at the same time and if they competed against each other, who would be the better athlete? "It's a story about who actually deserved to go to the Berlin Olympics. We could have been talking about Randolph Rose, Olympic champion, but something happened and now we don't even know who he is." His second play, Till Death Do Us Part, is a short play about a conversation between two elderly people. "I've got some wonderful actors involved for that one. Anita Dawson and David Mortimer, they're both well-known around town for being talented performers and they are just absolutely brilliant together." In One Act of Madness, six South Canterbury teams will be performing one-act plays, with the opportunity to go on to compete against teams from all around New Zealand. It is the second the time the event is taking place in Timaru, and this year's competition will be adjudicated by Aidan Theatre's Kimble Henderson. A selection of the best pieces will be put forward to take part in the regional finals, and from those, another selection will be taken from the whole of New Zealand to go through to the national showcase performance. Last year, two South Canterbury teams progressed to be selected as part of the six teams to compete at the national showcase. Organiser TJ Ramsay said competitive theatre was important to a thriving theatre community. "It allows and provides a space for challenge at every level of theatrical endeavour. "It gives theatre practitioners a place to explore ideas which may not survive a full-length environment, ideas that even work better when forced into a shortened time frame for delivery. "Whether you're new to the stage or have decades of experience behind you, competitive, festival theatre has something for you." Mr Doyle said it was great to have an event that allowed for the opportunity to be creative, original and innovative. "There's not many opportunities to do it in a safe environment, have a receptive audience and also gain constructive feedback too from the adjudicator. "It's a great way for original content to get exposed and performed in public." The six plays will be held over two sessions, with session one starting 3pm and session two at 7pm. Session one will feature White Noise, a Dramatix youth entry, Lovelock and the Rose, and The Extraordinary Revelations of Orca the Goldfish, a Dramatix open entry. Session two will include Incident at the Border, a Dramatix open entry, Till Death Do Us Part, and Perfect, a Dramatix open entry. The event will be held on Saturday at the Playhouse on Church St. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $15 per session or $20 for both — a $10 concession is also available for students and gold card holders.
Otago Daily Times
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Creatives called to take to the stage
A theatrical dose of madness is set to return to The Playhouse. After a successful inaugural event last year, the call has been put out again for South Canterbury creatives to showcase their talent as part of the One Act of Madness showcase. The event is the local round of Theatre New Zealand's TheatreFest and challenges playwrights, actors and directors to perform one-act plays with the potential opportunity to go on and compete against teams from all around New Zealand. Last year, two South Canterbury teams progressed through the local and regional rounds to be selected as part of the six teams to compete at the national showcase in Wellington. Organiser TJ Ramsay said it was an easy decision to bring the event back for another year. "We put the systems in place last year and I had a great team. I've got to know the South Canterbury Drama League people really well and they came on board to help and do all the important crew kind of jobs. It all came together really nicely and bless their hearts because they've all come back again. "I'm hoping it will look similar to last year because it all worked really well and it seemed to get good feedback. The Q&A session also worked well so we'll be keeping that too. "The shape will mostly be [the] same. The only thing that will differ, of course, will be the number of productions and whether it runs over one day or two." She said there was a good number of entries last year but she would love to see even more take part this time around. "It would be lovely to have more entries — it's always the hope. Last year we did Saturday afternoon [and] Saturday evening but it would be nice to drop another one or two plays in and if we had to spill over into Sunday morning that would be fine as well. "For people to enter they need to be a part of Theatre New Zealand and all the information on how to get involved is on their website. It's actually quite simple. "There is a cost per play to enter and that covers the adjudicators and everything like that. The main thing is to be aware that you could be put through to the next levels so you'd want to be able to have a team that can commit to that." The event is open to performers of all ages and original and non-original plays can be entered. One Act of Madness will take place from August 15-17. Entries close on July 18. More information can be found on the Dramatix Facebook page.
