South-West Shorts 2017: Six Short Plays from South-West Western Australia

South-West Shorts is an initiative of Western Edge Performance Writers in Perth, Western Australia to foster relationships between Perth and South-West writers and create an opportunity for original local work to be performed and distributed. Writers from the City of Busselton, the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River, and the City of Bunbury in Western Australia were invited by Western Edge Performance Writers in Perth to join them in writing a short, original monologue or duologue about life in WA's south-west for the 2017 program. A panel of judges then chose six finalists: three from the South-West region and three from Perth. These plays were performed at a rehearsed reading at Rivendell Winery in Yallingup on Sunday 26th March 2017.

About the Author :
NORM FLYNN enjoys writing in several forms - plays, monologues, and bush poetry. His recent play Wollaston: A Man and a Mission was an adaptation of historical diaries. In August Norm will visit West Wickham, UK, with the cast for a performance in the village from which John Wollaston departed in 1840. Norm is also a keen set builder and historian; several of his oral history recordings are kept in the State Library of WA. JAMES FORTE is a playwright who prefers the one-act format. His plays tend to be about how people relate to systems and technology. Most have psychologically strong female protagonists. Fifteen have been produced in theatres around Australia and have won several awards; seven have been adapted and recorded for radio. In 2013, he was a member of the Black Swan Emerging Writers Group. His plays are published by Moore Books. KATE JENKINS is reigniting an old passion-flame for writing which has taken a backseat to raising her four children over the past fifteen years. She also has a great love of music, and enjoys teaching various instruments, song writing and arrangement, and conducting community choirs. She has also written and co-directed several mini musicals over the years. Kate and her family currently reside in Margaret River. HELEN MUNT started developing her skills in writing and performing for theatre, radio and music as a teenager and into her tertiary qualifications from WAAPA, UWA and Murdoch. Since the 1990s, she has been involved in the Perth independent theatre scene and was a board member of the Blue Room Theatre. Helen is co-creative director of Scooplight Theatre and a member of Western Edge Performance Writers and also works as a professional historian. MICHIKO PARNELL is a Perth based writer. She was a finalist in the 2014 Noosa Arts Festival with her first play for adults, winning the Nancy Cato Audience Choice award and later, best script at the Hills Festival of Theatre in 2016. Propelled by an old human quest to make sense of the world, SKY RIVER uses various artistic practices to explore life's story. Building on a background in theatre, Sky has written, produced and performed original puppet shows and spent many years creating marionettes. She has a BA in Visual Arts and English and is currently researching how ecological relationships can be expressed through storytelling, performance and puppetry to encourage social and environmental connection.