Short+Sweet: Slaves and Santa?

Shoko Tezuka

 Do you like theater? Do you like competition? Then Short+Sweet is for you, as it is filled with a variety of plays and awards. This year, Short+Sweet consisted of 11 plays, hosted at Penang Pac, over four nights, November 16-19. It encouraged people in Penang to perform in or watch theater performances. Dalat presented a play titled, "The Runaway Slave: A Christmas Story." Its script was written by Mr. Sasse a couple years ago, though it wasn’t Christmas themed. Because he really liked it, he decided to re-write it as a holiday play for this year's RLT Players.

Three classmates, Kimberly Horton (12), Lilian Li (12), and Aaron Chand (12), represented Dalat in this play. They worked hard alongside Mr. Sassee for this performance and were able to give all they had to the audience. The slave role was acted by Lilian, the lady by Kimberly, and the sheriff by Aaron.

After the competition, our actors voiced what they disliked and liked about Short+Sweet. Both Lilian and Kimberly said they enjoyed getting to know a lot of aspiring actors outside the Dalat community, and they also liked meeting a lot of new people in the audience. What they disliked was how stressful it was. It is a challenging competition because it goes on continuously for four days. They had to stay up late into the night and ended up not getting home until nearly midnight. But they both agree that all that fun overruled the stress and exhaustion that they had felt.

Mr. Sasse said, “Short+Sweet is a great venue for young actors to work with experienced actors. There’s no age limit, which is great. Unfortunately, it also makes the content sometimes not appropriate for younger people, which is too bad.”

When asked what was challenging about the performance, Kimberly said switching props was tough because there was only one minute of transition time. She also had to sit on a shaky rocking chair, and she was scared it might tip over during the performance. Lilian replied that it was challenging to cry and make the audience feel sad.

To be expected, Dalat won a few awards. The Newcomers Award was won by Kimberly Horton, and the Festival Director's Award was won by Mr. Sasse.

When asked how he felt after getting the award Mr. Sasse said, “I was honored to win the Festival Director's Award. It shows me that they recognized the quality show that we worked so hard on. It means a lot.”

 And when asked the same question, Kimberly said, “I was surprised; I did not expect that!”

Mr. Sasse said with faith, “I was so proud of Kimberly. She gave a fantastic performance.

I predicted she would win and she did.”

The group went beyond their abilities, improving each performance, even after that had a fantastic start on their first play. All in all, it was a great night, with Mr. Sasse saying he had no regrets.

If you missed Short+Sweet, “The Runaway Slave,” along with other skits, will be performed by the RLT Players at the Tales of Wonder II on December 1-3 at Penang Pac. If you haven’t already purchased tickets, you can go ticketpro.com.my.