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.
