Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Sikka 2015

Both 'Surgery' and 'Tréteau' get another run, this time at the 2015 Sikka Art Fair thanks to the wonderful folk at Short+Sweet.

Information about the annual art fair along with performance listings, location maps etc. can be viewed and downloaded here.

We will be performing on Saturday March 21st at 17:00 on the Main Stage at Sikka, Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood, Dubai.















Third Half Theatre presents..

Surgery
Based on the short story by Anton Chekhov
Hindi adaptation by Sunil Jasuja
Directed by Disha Joseph
Cast: Sanjeev Dixit, Sunil Jasuja

A priest visits the dentist of a small town in India with a toothache but finds himself trapped in the hands of an amateur subordinate… from hell.

Tréteau
Written & Directed by Sanjeev Dixit
Cast: Shereen Saif, Minali Patel, Ushma Shah Jasuja, Cmith Sarkar, Dharam Veer Sood, Siddarth Sivaprakash, Sunil Jasuja

I don’t know how to describe this play; some alternate titles were: ‘It’s All Been Done Before Too’ and ‘Think Inside The Box’. I suppose in many ways it’s a distillation of my love—our love—for the theatre.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

'Surgery' and 'Tréteau' at The Emirates Litfest 2015

If you haven't been able to catch our plays at the 2015 Short+Sweet festival, you have a chance to catch two of them at The Emirates Litfest's 'A Short+Sweet Showcase' this weekend.

After a roller coaster Gala Final weekend, we've barely had a breather before we're up and running once again on Friday at 6:00 p.m. at the Al Baraha 1 Ballroom of the InterContinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City as part of The Emirates Litfest.

Third Half Theatre's 'Surgery' and 'Tréteau' will feature along with four other handpicked plays from the recently concluded Short+Sweet Festival. A full list of plays being showcased can be viewed here.

Tickets are available online and at the venue.





















Third Half Theatre presents..

Surgery
Based on the short story by Anton Chekhov
Hindi adaptation by Sunil Jasuja
Dialect consultants: Ruqya Khan, Kalyan Chakravarthy
Directed by Disha Joseph
Cast: Kalyan Chakravarthy, Sunil Jasuja

A priest visits the dentist of a small town in India with a toothache but finds himself trapped in the hands of an amateur subordinate… from hell.

Tréteau
Written & Directed by Sanjeev Dixit
Cast: Shereen Saif, Minali Patel, Ushma Shah Jasuja, Cmith Sarkar, Dharam Veer Sood, Siddarth Sivaprakash, Sunil Jasuja

I don’t know how to describe this play; some alternate titles were: ‘It’s All Been Done Before Too’ and ‘Think Inside The Box’. I suppose in many ways it’s a distillation of my love—our love—for the theatre.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

'Tréteau' wins Dubai's Short+Sweet 2015

All of us at Third Half Theatre are extremely proud and happy to have won Short+Sweet this year.

'Tréteau' bagged Best Overall Production, Audience choice winner, Best Director and Best Script (shared). Third Half was also nominated for the best Independent Theatre Company of the year. The full list of results and nominations can be seen here.

In what turned out to be a dream Gala Final for us, eleven plays selected from the over seventy plays that participated in this year's festival played to packed houses on Friday and Saturday at Kilachand Theatre, Ductac.

The amazing part about this year's Gala Final was that eight out of the eleven finalists were locally written original productions. This was by far the best opportunity for a Dubai written play to win Short+Sweet in its three year history. All of us at Third Half Theatre are honoured to be the first to earn this milestone. Here's to many more locally written plays shining through in the years to come.

The most consistent feedback on 'Tréteau' has been praise for the ensemble cast who took a difficult play and made it look, well, easy. Their timing, their dedication, their hard work and most importantly the fun they had putting this together showed on stage and was the deciding factor in the play having won over both audiences and judges alike.

I think the cast as also surely all Short+Sweet participants would join me in thanking all our families who have had to put up with some insane hours to support this passion of ours. Thanks are of course due to the festival organizers Liz and Alex and to the wonderful sponsors they brought on board. A big thanks also to the judges and the audiences who wholeheartedly embraced our attempt at something completely different on stage.

As I had said at the awards ceremony, Short+Sweet has always been and remains about the dressing room shenanigans, the camaraderie between different theatre groups and the selfless joy in seeing fellow actors do well on the boards.

Here's to the spirit of the theatre, a microcosm of which we endeavored to encapsulate in our magical 'Tréteau'.