The Biggest Little Play Festival in the World

Short & Sweet in Melbourne, Australia, showcases bite-sized dramatic treats – each less than 10 minutes. Over 200 new plays are premiered at festivals in Sydney, Melbourne and Singapore annually. The Sydney season alone features 90 main stage theatre productions (one week run), 50 wildcards and 10 music theatre pieces. It's anticipated that 1400+ scripts will be submitted from around the world – the bulk of them from Australia and New Zealand.

I submitted two 10-minute plays – "PASS THE SALT, PLEASE." is a dinner conversation between a married couple in their 50’s which resembles the script pages of a scene in a pornographic film. It won BEST OF SHOW honors at UNcover: An Art Exhibition with an Erotic Vibe, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, March 2007. The other new play is 4 1/2 MINUTES (give or take) TO CLIMAX, a drama about three couples attending a Christian swingers convention who are trapped in a janitor's closet by a gun-wielding religious fanatic.

This is my first year submitting to Short & Sweet – they offer over $20,000 in total prize monies and only a small percentage of their submissions come for the U.S. You Aussies and Kiwis will rue the day you met Jeffrey James Ircink. Wish me luck.