June 2012

We had a good turnout for our third show of the year, despite it being a rainy public holiday.

Our first play was Aaron Nilan’s “Tale of the Olympians,” directed by Emily Garrett. The ancient Greek Gods are worried about God of Death and the Underworld Hades, who seems to have picked up a marijuana habit. It starred seven actors: Graham Yates, Deborah Graham, Karol Binkowski, Kim-Cuong Do, Annie Thompson, Rosemary Ghazi and Lisa Hanssens. It was Runner Up of the Popular Vote by just a few votes.

Second up was “Rocky Mountain High,” written and directed by Felix Carlyle. This monologue was about a jogger befriended by a dog and the ensuing adventure. Brett Garland took on the great challenge of performing a monologue with just 90 minutes to prepare.

The next play was “Another Short Play,” written by Gabriel McCarthy and directed by Valentino Arico. When a scene is too dull for the director, he asks the actors to mix it up. Brennan Muhoberac won Best Actor for his energetic performance alongside Garreth Cruikshank and Shayan Askari. Valentino won Best Director for his first ever directional effort and the play would have been the audience’s runner up had it been two seconds shorter and not been penalised.

Closing the first act was Kathryn Yuen’s “Bus Trip,” the second monologue for the night. A woman’s first bus ride turns out to be a lot more horrifying than she expected. Michela Carattini’s powerful performance won her Best Actress and Alicia Gonzalez’s direction was strong, getting a very dynamic Crash Test monologue on stage. “Bus Trip” won the Judges’ Vote for Best Play and will be back in our Finals on 6th August 2012.

The fifth play for the night was Sonal Moore’s “The Heimlich Manoeuvre,” directed by Adrian Bitel. A woman saves a man from choking and a conversation sparks up, ending up with a broken rib and a date. The play was performed by David Thompson as Jake and Alicia Demou as Mel.

Next up was Robert Luxford’s “The Hot Seat.” Ruth Fingret directed this entertaining satire of a game show, with the ever-hilarious Steve McGrath as Bucks, Maxine Van Ryneveld and a pair of balloons as Busty and Nathan Hale as Storm. Timing in at under six minutes, Robert has plenty of room to expand on the play.

Seventh was “Down And Out In The Astral Lounge,” written by Phillip Gallop and directed by William Jordan. In this futuristic play, a man is sent to kill the woman who developed a new kind of drug but ends up temporarily paralysed by some of her wares. It starred Matt Thomson as Oliver and Amie Bransgrove as Mandy.

Finally, we had Bryan McMahon’s first ever play “A Lawyer’s Fantasy,” which took out the Popular Vote Winner prize and will be back again at the August Finals. Greg Eccleston directed Jessica Armitage, David Roberts and Alison Chambers in this play about a pompous solicitor being threatened by a woman whose father he drove to commit suicide. David and Alison won Best Actor Runner Up and Best Actress Runner Up respectively for their efforts.

Results

Jackie and Gerry Greenland had the unenviable task of judging the show. Their results are below:

Best Actor: Brennan Muhoberac

Best Actress: Michela Carattini

Best Actor Runner Up: David Roberts

Best Actress Runner Up: Alison Chambers

Best Director: Valentino Arico

Best Play: Bus Trip - wins a spot in the Crash Test Drama Finals

Popular Vote Winner: A Lawyer’s Fantasy - wins a spot in the Crash Test Drama Finals

Popular Vote Runner Up: Tale Of The Olympians

Playwright’s Encouragement Award: Gabriel McCarthy for Another Short Play

One more heat to go – 9th July 2012 – before our Finals in August. Hope to see you there!

Pete Malicki

Crash Test Coordinator

Georgie Edwards

Crash Test Assistant Coordinator