If Canberra Theatre Centre wish to support emerging writers and actors through their ten-minute play festival, they’d be better off choosing a name for their event that doesn’t sound like a brand of deodorant. What is it with the names of play writing seasons in Canberra? Canberra Youth Theatre’s choice of New Seed evokes a reproductive element and Fast and Fresh induces a preoccupation with personal hygiene. Nevertheless, Fast and Fresh is a worthy inclusion in Canberra Theatre Centre’s calendar and demonstrates the Centre’s commitment to encouraging young performance artists from ACT secondary schools.

Fast and Fresh employs a competitive structure over three consecutive nights and in 2010 was judged by Gil Huggonet, the programming manager of Canberra Theatre Centre; Peter Wilkins, a well-known theatre practitioner, Lowdown contributor and former Theatre Arts teacher at Canberra’s Narrabundah College; Tony Martin, who manages Canberra Theatre’s education programs and Felicity Packard, a screen writer and script editor.

Canberra Theatre’s Director, Bruce Carmichael explained to the finals audience that Packard replaced Mary Rachel Brown who was initially invited to join the judges but had to pull our due to her work obligations as writer for Home and Away. Carmichael neglected to mention that Brown is also an established playwright who received the 2006 Griffin and the 2006 Max Afford Awards for her play Australian Gothic. She also wrote Clown Empire/Red Nose Rising for Jigsaw Theatre Company; saw her play A Street Car Named Datsun 120Y produced by ABC-TV in 2000; enjoyed performance seasons of her play Inside/Out at Hot House Theatre and Seymour Theatre Centre; and her piece Permission to Spin was included in the hotINK International play reading festival in New York in 2009. This, in addition to Canberra Theatre’s choice to replace Brown with Packard, a writer for television with no mentioned theatre writing credits, sends the wrong message to young theatre students.

While Packard’s professional writing ability is not in doubt, Canberra Theatre’s emphasis on commercial television as the pinnacle of drama-writing success merely perpetuates a profoundly mediatised culture and marginalises live performance. Carmichael thus cast his theatre playwriting festival as a mere diluted apprenticeship to television writing. In addition to the associated cultural implications, Carmichael’s effort makes no economic sense. His emphasis on TV would do little to entice potential ticket buyers away from their heated lounge rooms on a Canberra winter’s night into the Canberra Theatre auditorium.

The finals, held on the evening of Saturday June 19, 2010 included performances from six ACT schools.

Stromlo High School’s Conform to the Box, created and directed by Inge Peterese was a refreshing alternative to text-based theatre. This movement piece was a poignant commentary on the protagonist’s struggle for individuality. Conform to the Box could have been enhanced by a more seamless delivery and prior instruction on the cultural heritage of in the students’ choice of aesthetic which can be identified, historically, in the video clips of musicians David Byrne and Brian Eno.

St Francis Xavier College provided two performances for the final, the collaborated piece Yobbo and Madre Soltera by Matia Ryan. Yobbo was littered with highly offensive sexist and racist dialogue devoid of necessary deconstruction. This demonstrated little understanding of both the sensibilities of a contemporary audience and of the pedagogical needs of its predominantly female cast. How did Yobbo pass the care of St Francis Xavier’s teachers and why was it included in the finals?

Marist College’s Molting provided audiences with clever anthropomorphic representation of two caterpillars in the final phase of their cocooned gestation, and earnt cast member Dayne Spencer the award for Best Male Actor for his committed performance. The costume design was nothing short of brilliant due to the innovative application of mundane objects. However, the negative gags against teachers in the script were somewhat tiresome and unwarranted, given the vast educational resources that had supported the students’ public performance.

The aesthetic of Canberra Girls’ Grammar School’s Four People and One Extra by Georgia Kriz can best be described as Pirandello meets Doctor Who. It was commendable to see such risk-taking in the creation of this performance and Georgia Kriz was well-deserving of her award for best director. Cast member Morgan Weaving, niece of actor Hugo, was awarded Best Female Actor. While Weaving was certainly confident and clearly extroverted, her stage colleagues well-inhabited their roles and I couldn’t help but wonder whether in Fast and Fresh, it pays to perform loudly, even if such expression is at the expense of an authentic portrayal.

Erindale College’s Lock Up When You’re Done by Brendan Kelly was a well-timed farce which unfortunately relied on out-dated office politics as its source of comedy. Lock Up When You’re Done was awarded Best Play earning it inclusion in Short and Sweet Canberra. Carmichael proudly reminded his audience that Erindale College’s drama teacher, Ben Sticpewich is a former employee of Canberra Theatre Centre. Given that Sticpewich’s students won the coveted award, CTC, by announcing Sticpewich’s work at Canberra Theatre, could be thoughtlessly exposing itself to accusations of favouritism.

However, it was the two contributions from Lyneham High School that inspired me the most. The Marvellous Misadventures of Miscellaneous Man by Lachlan Scott was a witty satire of superhero movies. Scott should be encouraged to pursue his writing, which is clever and highly entertaining. However, it was disappointing that Scott should use cinema as a referent within a theatre festival. Lyneham High School’s Knock...Knock...Knock by Bram Rider-Hays was the dramatic vehicle for a delightful and endearing representation of adolescent girls. While female cast members of Erindale College’s performance regrettably appeared to mimic the grooming styles of Tori Spelling and Jennifer Anniston, the Lyneham High School’s characterisation in Knock...Knock...Knock, showed girls as fun-loving dags – spending Halloween eating lollies and sharing scary stories. The performance was humorously concluded by the girls, transformed as zombies, exiting stage left. What a hoot! And what a disappointment that such an honest scenario did not receive more commendation from the judges.

I congratulate Canberra Theatre Centre for not only granting its venue to school performances but also for its committed encouragement of theatre arts students. Fast and Fresh, however, seems to be judged according to principles based on formalism with little emphasis on discursive analysis. Staff who lead students in Fast and Fresh need to remind their charges that it is not only form, but also a writer’s choice of content, which makes for a good night at the theatre. Fast and Fresh participants should also be conscious of, and not victims to, the cultural influences on their work.

Theatre arts students are nothing less than precious because they are the future of the theatre industry. It is not sufficient to merely encourage potential theatre artists. They are deserving of our most heightened rigour.

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