Their journey started in late August with the local round of "One Act of Madness", which was held at the Timaru Playhouse and featured one Wanaka and five South Canterbury teams competing.
From that round TJ Ramsay’s Child’s Play and Cameron Lines’ Service Please! were selected to progress to the regional round.
Once again held at the Playhouse, the lower South Island regional round was one of four held across the country, and had the two Dramatix entries go up against teams from Dunedin and Christchurch.
Both plays were once again lauded and selected to go to the final round — the National Showcase.
Only six from across the country were selected out of the 32 teams that took part in the four regional finals.
Lines received a distinctive emerging talent award and an achievement award for playwriting.
Cam Sutcliffe received an excellence in acting award and a scholarship opportunity to the Bryan Aitken Summer School, and Child’s Play won the national award for creativity and design.
TJ Ramsay, who organised "One Act of Madness" and directed and wrote Child’s Play, said it had been an incredible journey for Dramatix.
"You never enter to win, you just enter to do the best show you can, but it is unusual — pretty much unheard of — for one group to get two plays all the way through.
"For South Canterbury to have done that, it’s amazing. I never would have picked for us to get two plays through at all.
"The wonderful thing was especially from our South Canterbury teams, going right back, was that it was all original. Everything in there was New Zealand-written. It was so great."
She said much of the cast had never really even been a part of TheatreFest before.
"Apart from us old hands like myself, George [Hollinsworth] and Cameron, everyone else had never done competitive theatre and especially never at festival.
"It was nice for those team members who had done very little straight theatre to get that validation — three at least had only really done musical theatre until very recently.
"For them to get that acknowledgement that they have the potential to do much more is wonderful.
"They did a great job, they toured well and everyone is already excited for next year, which we are already working on.
Ramsay said both plays were very well received at the National Showcase due to their more comical nature.
"We had a lot of people coming back and saying they enjoyed them. The other plays were devised theatre, very well done but heavy dramas, not written for enjoyment.
"Our two were able to give them a little bit of something to laugh at, which was great."
She said she was very thankful for all the support they had received.
"A big thanks to the council and community grants because literally without them this doesn’t happen. They gave us that great kickoff to get ‘One Act of Madness’ going and then we were able to help for the regional final.
"Thanks as well to audience that showed up for our fundraiser. That was magical. We were able to pay for our ferry travel through that.
"These things can become problematic but we had wonderful community support and I can’t be more grateful."
