Founded in 2002 by Mark Cleary, Short+Sweet began as a small festival of 10-minute plays in Sydney, Australia. Since this time, this unique brand has extended to multiple performance mediums; from theatre to dance, cabaret to Bollywood, musicals to stand-up comedy; all maintaining the single rule of performance, being presented in 10 minutes or less.
Short+Sweet has made a huge impact on the Australian theatre scene through developing new, original work with emerging artists and providing a platform for established artists to showcase their talents. The expansion of Short+Sweet within Australia has also taken short-form theatre internationally, with ever increasing popularity and ever increasing festivals. Short+Sweet is currently active across India, New Zealand, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates, with growth planned for additional cities in these countries, as well as across the US and UK.
With the expansion of Short+Sweet, licenses and partnerships have been developed to allow local running of festivals around the world, while maintaining the established brand and systems grownfrom Sydney, Australia. This ensures the community interest and support that is the heart and soul of Short+Sweet, and means that the expansion is not limited by the management capabilities of the head office in Sydney.
This unique license opportunity also means that if you are interested in starting up a festival in your region, you can. A few things to consider when planning a Short+Sweet festival near you are:
- Suitable venue/s nearby, accessible by participants and audience.
- Marketing and publicity opportunities, media contacts and participant networks in the region.
- Artist contacts in your local region
- Employees and networks, it's best to have an awesome team ready to take this highly successful brand and run with it
If you think you can take the Short+Sweet brand and make it thrive in your region, contact Mark Cleary at mark@shortandsweet.org for further information. Beyond theatre, there are also many performing arts genres of Short+Sweet that have been developed over the past 15 years. If you have a performance medium that is not already covered but you believe would be a great success in your region, please let us know.