PERFECT STILLNESS WINS FIRST
EVER
SHORT+SWEET DUBAI THEATRE
FESTIVAL
Perfect Stillness, a moving and funny tale
of a husband struggling to write a eulogy for his wife, swept the awards at the
Gala Final of the first ever Short+Sweet Dubai Theatre Festival, presented by
Marina Home, 7DAYS and Emirates NBD, at DUCTAC on Saturday night.
Written by Jane Miller, Perfect Stillness
won both major awards at the festival - Best Overall Production, as chosen by
the judges, as well as the People’s Choice Award for the audience’s favourite
play.
Aswathi Menon, who played Annie, also won
Best Actress, while Rohit Prakash, who played the husband Tim, won Best Actor
Runner-Up. The production was beautifully directed by Rashmi Kotriwala and also
starred Majoe Mathew as Harrison.
The Best Actor award went to Mathivanan
Rajendram, who travelled all the way from Chennai, for his portrayal of a
hapless actor in The Lost Audition, presented by Stray Factory.
While the Best Actress Runner-up went to
Niloofar Farzaneh for her hilarious portrayal of the feisty Mimi in No.22.
Best Director went to Sadia Noori for her
powerful productions of The Others for Theatrewallas Productions while Dubai
Drama Group’s Clifford Single won Best Script for his dark comedy, Friends and
Colleagues.
The Others also finished second in the
People’s Choice while Third Half Theatre’s production of I Am, written and
directed by talented local writer-director Sanjeev Dixit came in third.
Best New Talent for the Festival was
awarded to Sanjit Chakravarty, a student of the American School of Dubai, for
his stunning performance as a young man trying to find The secret to making the
perfect aloo paratha.
Saturday night was
the climax of Dubai’s first ever Short+Sweet Festival, which is the largest
ten-minute play festival in the world and is already established in Australia,
New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and India.
The Gala Final
featured the best eleven plays as chosen by the Judge’s and the Audience from
the over 50 ten-minute plays presented at DUCTAC over the past fortnight.
Many of Dubai’s
top local theatre groups were represented on the night with Backstage, Dubai
Drama Group, Third Half Theatre and Theatrewallas Productions all having
productions in the Gala.
2/…
Alex Broun,
Festival Director of the Short+Sweet Dubai Theatre Festival, said he was
delighted with the festival’s launch in the U.A.E.
“Short+Sweet Dubai
was a huge hit and the response to our inaugural festival has been better than
we could have ever hoped for”, said Broun.
“With over 200
local actors, writers and directors taking part in the Festival its clear the
local theatre community has already taken Short+Sweet Dubai to its heart.
“And with
audiences nearing 2000 over the fortnight its clear local theatre-goers were
also delighted by what they were seeing on stage.”
“Short+Sweet is
now firmly established in Dubai and will definitely become an annual event. We
have already begun plans to make our next Festival in 2014 bigger and better.”
“We also want to
thank our wonderful sponsors Marina Home, 7DAYS, Emirates NBD, DIFF, The
Kreative Company and all the staff at DUCTAC for making the festival a success
and supporting local theatre in Dubai. Giving a platform to local actors,
writers and director in Dubai is one of Short+Sweet’s primary goals which we
clearly achieved in this festival.”
The full list of
award winners from last night is as follows:
SHORT+SWEET DUBAI 2013 GALA FINAL AWARD WINNERS
BEST OVERALL PRODUCTION: Perfect Stillness
PEOPLE’S CHOICE
AWARD: Perfect
Stillness
BEST ACTOR: Mathivanan Rajendran (The Lost Audition)
BEST ACTRESS: Aswathi Menon (Perfect Stillness)
BEST ACTOR
RUNNER-UP: Rohit Prakash (Perfect
Stillness)
BEST ACTRESS
RUNNER-UP: Niloofar Farzaneh (No.22)
BEST DIRECTOR: Sadia Noori (The Others)
BEST SCRIPT: Clifford Single (Friends and Colleagues)
BEST NEW TALENT: Sanjit Chakravarty (The secret to making the
perfect aloo paratha)
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