Jackie Wins Short + Sweet Theatre's Best Newcomer Award

Jackie Ashkin Presented Best Newcomer Award by Faridah Merican and Mark Cleary

Short + Sweet Theatre Penang closed last night with its final run of eleven original 10-minute plays. Closing night concluded with presentation of awards for writers, actors, and directors based on cumulative scores from independent judges and the audience over the four nights of performances. 

Jackie [Ashkin] did really well! She won the "Best Newcomer Youth Award (Female)" from among a very talented group of players. Festival Artistic Director Joe Hasham was exceedingly kind with his words and commended Jackie for her potential both as a writer and as an actor. His advice was "Don't let her stop". 

Audience Choice Award: (L to R)

Mark Sasse, Mark Cleary, Faridah Merican, Jackie

Ashkin, Amanda Khoo, Joseph Stolzfus, Sarah Lim

But that is not all. Mark Sasse's Drive All Night, in which Jackie acted in a key supporting role, was named the "Audience Choice", coming out on top of the eleven productions despite being the very last play to be performed each night. Mark is Jackie's drama coach at Dalat. Rumour has it that Jackie's script Smart Phones Stupid People was the runner-up. A win for all. 

And her Smart Phones Stupid People won the Best Glitz + Glamour award for costumes, and two other awards as well. Dr. Shark ("Leopard") was named the festival's Best Director and actor Timmy Ong ("Panda") received the Festival Director's Award.

Short + Sweet founder Mark Cleary was in the house for Saturday's performance. Thanks go out to Mark for the great concept and to Festival Director Faridah Merican for bringing it to Penang. Short + Sweet is now off to Kuala Lumpur where there will be theatre, dance, stand-up comedy, and musicals at KLPAC over the next month. Try to catch at least one performance if you are in KL.