After winning Judges Choice in Week 6 of the Wildcards, we took home 3rd place at the Short+Sweet Wildcard Finals on the 5th and 6th March and it's worthing mentioning that our posters were given a mention and used as an example to all the other plays at the festival!
In November last year, after being nominated for Best Director (shorts) at the Sydney Indie Film Festival I was approached by Oprah K Oyugi to direct her Short+Sweet Play. I liked the material and feel I could bring my own vision to it and by January it was cast.
There was reference to a dog in the play and the expectation was to use sound effects or a toy dog but I felt that casting a talented actor as the dog would bring a whole new layer of comedy to the play and give us more scope to utilise the square two sided stage.
Our week, Wildcard Week 6 was their first completely sold out weekend and the full house was battling the heat to watch the plays at the Depot Theatre in Marrickville. The audiences responded well and the Judges enjoyed it, voting it Judges Choice and earning us a spot in the Wildcard Finals on the 5th and 6th March where we took home third place.
My first theatre directing experience has been a dream thanks to the cast, Sarah Berry, Adriana Orecchio, Danny Bolt, Scarlett Arthur and Benjamin Scott. They're a fantastic cast and have made our success possible.
But I Just Got Here. (10minutes) Written by Oprah K Oyugi and Directed by Ren Thackham. Sara moves to a flat in Sydney after living in Brisbane with her family all her life. Thinking she has it all sorted out, she moves in with Beth, with whom she’s only exchanged emails. She thought Beth moving out just after she moved in was the worst thing that could happen to her. She was wrong.