Hunter drama students in Sharp Short Theatre festival 2015

The Sharp Short Theatre event, which began on Monday night at Parramatta’s Riverside Theatres, includes 45 short plays developed by school students and youth theatre groups from across NSW.

Riverside Theatres hosted Fast and Fresh, a juvenile section of the Short and Sweet festival, for a decade until 2014, but decided to put together its own festival of 10-minute juvenile plays this year.

The new festival has attracted more entrants, with Hunter School of the Performing Arts among those competing for the first time.

Sharp Short has also increased the involvement of young people.

Previously, the 10-minute plays had to be written and acted by people aged 18, but could be directed by someone older. Now the directors also have to be under 18.

Hunter School of the Performing Arts has three of the 45 plays in the competition, with 15 being staged at each of three heats nightly from Monday until Wednesday. Four plays from each heat will be chosen for the competition final on June 12.

The three Hunter school plays, being staged on Tuesday, are: The Elephant in the Room, a serious work by Jordan Warner and Emma Ure about domestic violence; It’s a Woman’s World, by Jack Doran, a satirical look at gender inequalities in society; and The Librarian, a comedy by Kirrily McAlpine and Nicholas Thoroughgood.

Theatre group Hunter Drama  on Monday night performed a play called Busted, written by Roseanna Gately, which looked at the lives of bus travellers.