Kingston resident and emerging theatre creative Chris Seville debuted as a playwright and director in this year’s OneFest, an annual weekend festival of plays under 30 minutes performed in Hobart’s Playhouse Theatre.
There were a total of 19 plays performed across the two-day festival, with a range of genres, set designs and actors on stage.
Whilst most of the theatre creatives involved operate in and around Hobart, a few had come from further afield.
Deloraine Dramatic Society travelled down to put on the one-man play The Queen and I, starring Greg Burgess as Martin.
Julia Lambert flew down from Victoria to perform in two one-woman monologues written and directed by herself, Un-TIT-led and I Bet He Does.
Chris’ play The Third Wheel was a love story between Jamie (played by Felipe Scher) and Josie (Poppy Lennon), with the mysterious character of Tony (Jonty Hilton) overlooking their relationship.
Chris said he was lucky to have such great theatrical peers and a fantastic assistant director to bounce ideas off, saying that Jonty came up with the idea to dress Tony in a bright red onesie.
This costume choice drew out much laughter from the audience when the curtain was first lifted on The Third Wheel.
Chris, who is president of the University of Tasmania theatre society PLoT (which stands for Produces Lots of Theatre), was joined by fellow PLoT member Lucienne Soulliere as his assistant director.
“I was a bit nervous at first when we got into rehearsals, but once we got stuck into it the direction was clear and it all ran smoothly,” Chris said.
“I was, and still am, very happy with my cast and how they performed on the Friday night of OneFest.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to be with me on this journey and I aim to expand The Third Wheel into a full-length play in the future.”
