Short+Sweet festival to lift spirits during arts recovery season

In this year's Short+Sweet festival at KLPac and PenangPac, 36 groups from various arts, film and music communities will be competing. Photo: magicross (Leggoshoot)

Sixty performers. Thirty-six groups. Ten minutes each.

You know what that means.

The annual Short+Sweet festival is back for the 14th year, with limited two-day runs for each category (from theatre to film).

This multi-disciplinary arts festival, presented by The Actors Studio, will see various Short+Sweet categories rolled out at Pentas 2, KLPac from Nov 11-21, while PenangPac will host the festival from Dec 3-11.

“Due to the pandemic, Short+Sweet suffered for the last two years. And, last year, we almost didn't manage to present the festival. But, above all challenges, we did.

“This year, we are able to take a bigger step forward, and much to our joy we have been included in the MOTAC list of the funding recipients,” says Datuk Faridah Merican, festival director and KLPac co-founder, referring to the Tourism, Arts and Culture ministry's pandemic recovery initiative.

The upcoming on-site festival will maintain its 10-minute offerings. Theatregoers can expect up to 11 different performances in one evening. Each work will be a new and original piece.

“From the very beginning, the Short+Sweet festival has always been able to excite many, especially our younger generation.

“They can either put pen to paper or play a few chords on their guitar/piano... it's a platform to help them indulge in creativity,” says Faridah, who will be hosting the festival.

The stand-up comedy and song category will kick-off the festival on Nov 10 and 11. This will be followed by the film category, which will be streamed via CloudTheatre on Nov 12 and 13 (8pm), musical (Nov 13 and 14), dance (Nov 17 and 18) and theatre (Nov 20 and 21) at KLPac.

PenangPac will welcome the dance and theatre categories on Dec 3 and 4 and Dec 10 and 11 respectively.

The Gala Night will not be part of this year’s Short+Sweet festival. Instead, the winners will be announced on the second day of each category. The audience can also vote in the Audience Choice Award.

More info here.