Called "One Act of Madness", one Wānaka and five South Canterbury teams each performed an original one-act play with the goal of being selected to progress to next week’s regional final.
Dunedin actor Mārama Grant was the adjudicator for the competition and took to the stage after each performance to provide her thoughts and feedback.
Performing first was the team of Sophie Dunn, Emily Jones, Suzan Anderson and Cameron Lines.
Their play Racing Raindrops tugged on the heartstrings of the audience, focusing on how different family members cope with grieving.
The play built to the revelation that the character Lily (Emily Jones) was an apparition and the tension of the piece was due to the family preparing for what would have been her 10th birthday.
Grant was very impressed by the performance in her adjudication.
"I thought the acting really showed us the disintegration of that family relationship and hopefully at the end an element of hope, there were some lovely technical offerings in that piece."
Mt Aspiring College was up next with Elephant Talk .
The play followed the clumsy, awkward and intimate relationship dynamics of high-school students before a fundraising concert.
It also featured original music, which was a big highlight for Grant.
"It’s always such a joy to see student-driven work and that was student-written, student-directed and student-performed and I think nothing beats that."
TJ Ramsay’s Child’s Play closed out the afternoon session and featured a cast of Georgia Carnegie, Cam Sutcliffe, Victoria Chappell, Cameron Lines and Emma Robb.
The performance was a crowd favourite and had everyone laughing from its first line.
The story delved into the relationship between four primary school-aged children.
It also featured a hilarious audition sequence for a school play, which was a highlight of the entire competition.
Grant said she was blown away by the performance.
"Kids can be so kind and so cutting in the same breath and I think this cast achieved that nuance really nicely.
"It was nice to see the individual strengths of the characters."
Georgia Carnegie and Cam Sutcliffe were joined by Jenna Still, Luke Robb, Stevie Gallagher and George Hollinsworth.
The play pulled back the curtain on the hospitality industry and more than likely gave any ex-hospo worker a healthy serving of anxiety-induced PTSD.
As someone who had worked as a waitress, Grant said the play was an accurate depiction of the industry.
"I loved what they did with the piece, there was so much fun happening on stage.
"It was a really insightful look into the madness and insanity that is hospitality.
"It was a beautifully naturalistic piece of set theatre."
Susanne Smith’s Frankenstein Abridged followed and put the madness into One Act of Madness.
The cast of David Mortimer, Anita Dawson, Elizabeth Contreras, Jon Harris and Kem Callaghan parodied Mary Shelley’s classic in a fast-paced, comedy of errors style performance.
The crux of the piece was the original cast had failed to make opening night so the crew took over, as the show must go on, and what ensued was complete chaos that had the audience in raptures.
Grant very much enjoyed the team’s chaotic take on the classic tale.
"There were some lovely moments of farcical comedy in there.
"It was such fun and, my gosh, did you actors work."
Closing proceedings was Wedding Party by TJ Ramsay, featuring George Hollinsworth and Suzan Anderson.
Their piece was from the point of view of two wedding cake toppers who reminisced and argued as they celebrated a second marriage for them both.
Grant enjoyed the intimacy of the performance.
"What an emotional and intriguing idea.
"So lovely to see an intimate play space, when we confine actors to a small space really exciting things happen."
Organiser TJ Ramsay was absolutely stoked by the support for the competition’s debut outing.
"We’ve done festivals over the years and the only audience are the other competitors, it’s really difficult to get an audience in for one act usually but we sold 73 tickets or so, which is amazing.
"The feeling of support around was just glorious, I thought it went really well."
She said she was especially thankful to have Grant as the adjudicator.
"She was fantastic!
"Mārama was informative, inclusive and very easy to talk to.
"A big thank you as well to Creative Communities and the Timaru District Council because without them One Act of Madness couldn’t have happened."
As well as spots in the regional final, several other awards were at stake.
Sophie Dunn, Emily Jones, Cameron Lines, Suzan Anderson and George Hollinsworth all received Excellence in Acting awards.
Racing Raindrops received a Magic Moments award and the Best Production of a Drama.
Elephant Talk received a Magic Moments award and an Excellence in Ensemble award.
Child’s Play received a Magic Moments award and the Overall Design award.
Service Please! was awarded the People’s Choice, Excellence in Ensemble, Best Production of a Comedy and was crowned the Overall Production winner for the competition.
Frankenstein Abridged received an Excellence in Ensemble award and Wedding Party was awarded the Best Production of a New Zealand Play.
Selected to go through to regional’s were Service Please! and Child’s Play.
They will compete at the Playhouse this weekend, against teams from Christchurch and Dunedin, for the chance to earn selection for the National Showcase next month.
