Creative Arts students to ‘UnHinge’ Wollongong with short play festival

Aug 05, 2005

In February this year, a group of five current and former University of Wollongong students tossed up the idea of organising a short play festival to showcase the creative theatre talent that existed at UOW and in the Illawarra.

Five months later, what the group thought was just a hopeful discussion has become a reality with the launch of ‘UnHinged 2005’, a festival presenting 10 short plays by production groups in the Illawarra and Sydney -- all of which will incorporate this year's unique set-piece into their presentation: a freestanding functional door.

How interesting can a door be? Very interesting according to Festival Co-ordinator, Katrina Rautenberg, who recently completed a Master of Creative Arts at UOW.

“It’s something a little different, offbeat and new,” she said. “It will be great to see how the different groups use the set piece as creative inspiration in their own original and creative way. Audiences will see short, sharp, compelling and witty plays.”

‘UnHinged 2005’will present circus theatre, expressionistic and physical theatre, drama and comedy and the 10 production groups will compete for over $6000 worth of prizes, judged by industry professionals including renowned theatre director and NIDA graduate, Kate Gaul; Curator of the Australian National Playwrights Conference, Chris Mead and IPAC Director, Simon Hinton. Katrina said the festival is a great example of actors taking up the challenge of creating and showcasing their own work.

“Finding work as an actor can be extremely difficult,” she said. “If we don’t get involved with the industry we could spend a lifetime waiting for the industry to get involved with us. So we thought this would be a great way to give aspiring actors a platform and professional stage to show Wollongong what they have to offer."

"Our ideas about the festival have continued to grow as we’ve let our imaginations run wild, and we think audiences will be really impressed. The support has been incredible with a number of businesses jumping on board eager to support this initiative, proving that Wollongong is a diverse cosmopolitan city that can support a thriving arts scene.”

The four other team members behind the creative event include Artistic Director, Melvin J Montalban (former UOW Arts student); Literary and Publicity Manager, Samuel Booth (UOW Creative Arts graduate); Production Manager, Sarah Quinn (UOW Creative Arts graduate) and Technical Director, Chris Mercer (current UOW Creative Arts student).

When: Wednesday 10 - Saturday 13 August (Awards Night) at 8pm

Where: Illawarra Performing Arts Centre (IPAC), 32 Burelli Street, Wollongong

To purchase tickets: Call the IPAC on 4226 3366 or visit www.ipac.org.au (**Note that closing night tickets are selling fast) $20 adults, $15 concession

For further information: Contact Katrina Rautenberg on 0425 228 792 or visit: www.unhinged.org.au

For more information, contact:

media@uow.edu.au
University of Wollongong
Ph: (02) 4221 5942; fax (02) 4221 3128