UPCOMING:

• ‘Sushiwushiwoo’ as part of ‘The Four Faces of Love’ Slide Bar, Darlinghurst, Sydney, September.
• ‘Push yourself’ , Paddington Arms – Details TBC.

• ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’, Reading, Crash Test Drama Final, Sydney, August 2010.

AWARDS:

• ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’ Winner ‘Peoples Choice’ Crash Test Drama, Sydney, May 2010. (Also won Best Actor for Kim Knuckey and Best Actress Runner up for Imogen Carn).
• ‘Sushiwushiwoo’ Winner ‘Most Popular Play’ PLAYTIME, Sydney, Apr 2010.
• ‘Crush’, Winner Best Play and Best Actress, Stage Rage Dec 2009. (Also won Best Actress for Sona Shinghal)
• ‘Sushiwushiwoo’ Winner ‘Special Playwright’s Prize’ Crash Test Drama, Sydney, Sep 2008
• ‘Mummy Monologues’ Nominated ‘Best Play” Newtown Theatre, Aug 2008, Sydney Short & Sweet Festival One Act
• ‘Bomb Disposal’ Finalist, Jan 2008, Sydney Short & Sweet Festival
• ‘Bomb Disposal’ Judges Choice No 3. Movie Extra TV show, Sydney Short & Sweet Festival
• ‘Bomb Disposal’ Nominated for Best Comedy Writing, Dec 2007, Melbourne Short & Sweet Festival. (Also won Best Actor for Jonathan Dyer)

PREVIOUS WORK:

• ‘Play (with) Misty for me’ a ten-minute play, Performance, Short and Sweet Singapore, July 2010
• ‘Mates’ a ten-minute play, Reading, PLAYTIME, Sydney, July 2010.
• ‘Nibbles’ a ten-minute play, Reading, PLAYTIME, Sydney, June 2010.
• ‘Crush’ a ten-minute play, Performance 10×10 Festival, WaggaWagga, May 2010.
• ‘Push yourself’ a ten-minute play, Performance, PLAYTIME, Sydney, May 2010.

• ‘Mates’ a ten-minute play, CAT Awards, Canberra, February, 2010
• ‘Crush‘ a ten-minute play, performance, Sydney Short & Sweet Feb 2010
• ‘Crush’ a ten-minute play, reading at Stage Rage, Nov 2009
• ‘Sushiwushiwoo’ a ten-minute play, Melbourne Short and Sweet Festival, 29 Nov 2009
• ‘Sushiwushiwoo’ a ten-minute play, Brisbane Short and Sweet Festival, Sept 2009
• ‘Crush’ a ten-minute play, reading at Writers Anonymous, Sept 2009
• ‘The Badger Game’ One act play, Edinburgh Festival, Aug 2009
• ‘Mulv’ a ten-minute play, Edinburgh Festival, Aug 2009
• ‘A Crowd of Stars’ a ten-minute play, reading Crash Test Drama, Aug 2009
• ‘Play (with) Misty for me’ a ten-minute play, reading Crash Test Drama, June 2009
• ‘A Crowd of Stars’ a ten-minute play, reading Actors Anonymous, June 2009
• ‘Mates’ a ten-minute play, 10×10 festival in Wagga Wagga, May 2009
• ‘Push yourself’ a ten-minute play, Sydney Short & Sweet Festival, Seymour Centre, Sydney Jan 2009
• ‘The Badger Game’ a one act play, finalist for Crime Scenes, Fusebox Theatre, Enmore, Sydney, 2008
• ‘Sushiwushiwoo’ a ten-minute play, Xmas Sushi, Newtown Theatre Sydney, Dec 2008
• ‘Dial L for Love’ a one act play, Xmas Sushi, Newtown Sydney, Dec 2008
• ‘Tumbletots’ a ten-minute play, Melbourne Short & Sweet Festival, Final 30, Melbourne, Dec 2008
• ‘Sushiwushiwoo’ a ten-minute play, Crash Test Drama, Sydney, Sep 2008
• ‘Mummy Monologues’ a ten-minute play, Sydney Short & Sweet Festival One Act, Newtown Theatre, Aug 2008
• ‘Sushiwushiwoo’ a ten-minute play Melborn Festival, Final 30, Reading, Melbourne, Jun 2008
• ‘Bomb Disposal’ a ten-minute play, Reading, Outhouse Theatre Co. New York, USA, May 2008
• ‘Tumbletots’ a ten-minute play, Reading, Outhouse Theatre Co. New York, USA, May 2008
• ‘Bomb Disposal’ a ten-minute play, Reading, Bite Size Theatre company, Brighton, UK, Mar 2008
• ‘Bomb Disposal’ a ten-minute play, Sydney Short & Sweet Festival, Feb 2008
• ‘Bomb Disposal’ a ten-minute play, Melbourne Short & Sweet Festival, Dec 2007
• ‘The Fallen’ a one act play, Finalist, AA Journey into Sin, Sydney, 2007
• ‘Missing so Much’ a ten-minute play, Sydney Short & Sweet Festival Feb 2007

REVIEWS:

CRUSH

The night finishes appropriately with a new play by one of Short+Sweet’s most popular playwrights Kate Toon’s Crush, directed by Catherine Hollyman.

Alex (the vivacious Niki Simpson) is the perfect PA, she loves her boss Dan (recent NIDA grad, the debonair Don Christopher). Loves him so much she wants to lick him and bite him and rip off his underwear with her teeth! A sometimes creepy comedy about office obsession which had the audience literally rolling in the aisles.

Alex Broun, Festival Director.
Alex is obsessed with her gorgeous boss Dan. As she takes us on a tour around the office we learn that Dan does not reciprocate her affections. Kate Toons script was brought to life by Niki Simpson’s brilliant portrayal of Alex. Director Catherine Hollyman created a play with spirit and humour that left the audience smiling.

Benita de Wit, Aussie Theatre

THE BADGER GAME
MULV

THIS trio of short, shoestring-budget plays from Australia’s EONN-ic company are a thematically mixed bunch, but each is assuredly carried off, and get to the point quickly, making for a good-value 45 minutes.

First, in Kate Toon’s Mulv, the quartet of performers enact a pitch-black comedy about a gang of marketing executives who are deciding how to sell the foodstuff of the title, a green meat substitute made of human flesh. This single-act piece is, believe it or not, the lightest of the three.

Finally, Toon’s The Badger Game is the strongest piece, a short, multi-act play about Jean Lee (Emanda Percival), the last woman to be hanged in Victoria, Australia. It’s a sharp, emotionally brutal shock, and Nicholas David Whyatt’s portrayal of Lee’s mercenary lover steals not just this final play, but the entire show.

PUSH YOURSELF

Alex Broun
Short & Sweet Festival Director
Coming in third in the People’s Choice, just another two votes back, was Kate Toon’s very funny (and a little disturbing) Push Yourself, well directed by Deborah Peebles, in her directorial debut, with Craig Purdon as a creepy personal trainer and Emma Butschek as the object of his affections.

www.aussietheatre.com
Felicity Burke.
‘In Push Yourself writer Kate Toon takes the somewhat over visited theme of the relationship between a personal trainer and client. Emma Butschek gave a pleasing naturalistic performance as the girl who just wants to get fit and has an obsessive and increasingly inappropriate trainer (Craig Burdon). There are lots of positional and verbal innuendo jokes directed in a suitably schizophrenic manner by Deborah Peebles.’

www.australianstage.com.au
Augusta Supple
‘Push Yourself written by Kate Toon and directed by Deborah Peebles, explores the relationship between personal trainer Daniel (Craig Purdon) and his client Sarah (Emma Butschek). With a bright and easy to watch performance from Butschek, this play bubbles along nicely interspersed with suitably suggestive stretches.

SUSHIWUSHIWOO

www.artshub.com
Chris Thorp

‘Liz McColl and Saskia Post in Kate Toon’s Sushi Wushi Woo were certainly the highlights of the night.’

TUMBLETOTS

Cassowary Crossing
David Astle
‘A fan of Kate Toon, I lapped up Tumbletots, a kinder-gym meeting of two contrasting Mummies, played by Renee Palmer (‘My son said flambe yesterday’) and Suzie Thomas (‘Your son certainly looks”robust.’). I can see how Kate resists a false climax or ribbon-bow conclusion, opting instead for the spirit of the encounter. Could there be a stronger story – or is an attuned ear and sharp eye more than ample? Discuss.’

BOMB DISPOSAL

www.aussietheatre.com
Maz Dixon.
‘This one made my night. Great script by Kate Toon; hilarious performances by Matt Butcher, Simon Dooley and most especially Deborah Peebles. Unhappy English tourists are in full whingeing-Pom mode when local boy Bazza decides to give them a friendly welcome. A funny, clever and entertaining clash of cultural stereotypes.’

Short and Sweet Website
‘Week 2 at the Newtown saw a result from the judges that was so razor-thin that you could cut yourself shaving with it. In a week overflowing with excellent comedies and some beautiful dramas, Kate Toon’s Bomb Disposal edged out Patrick Lenton’s hilarious The Interview. Bomb Disposal won the popular vote at the Newtown with 26.2%.’

Sometimes Melbourne
‘Kate Toon knows how to write a short play. She deftly combined past tense description with present action, balanced the authentic characters well, gave an original plot that surprised and maintained interest and actually gave her characters problems that resulted in definitive action. Supported by engaging performances and well paced direction, this was my favourite of the night.’

www.australianstage.com.au
Jack Teiwes
‘Bomb Disposal by Kate Toon was a lightweight but entertaining satire of national stereotypes about Aussie blokes and Whingeing Poms.’

www.australianstage.com.au
Carol Middelton
Bomb Disposal provided just the right change of mood. An overbearing English tourist (played brilliantly by Jonathan Dyer) encounters Aussie pub culture. The dialogue between him and his female companion (Clare Callow) is a clever counterpoint of their differing points of view, nicely accented by the laconic Australian (Matthew Green).

MISSING SO MUCH

www.aussietheatre.com

A brilliant and honest performance from Fiona Butler as the lonely Emma, made Kate Toon’s script one of the more enjoyable pieces from the Week Three Wildcards. Bruce Glen as Emma’s (incredibly believable) therapist asks her to talk about her week and her inner feelings. What Emma tells of is her longing and grieving over a lost relationship, and although the script is primarily doom-and-gloom material, Butler finds moments of light in her performance. The punchline is a dull ache when we find out that the man she loved is, in fact, dead.

FEEDBACK:

‘My name is Jeremy Waters and I am the artistic director of Outhouse Theatre Co. We are an Australian theatre company based in New York City. We are dedicated to the cultivation and development of both emerging and established Australian theatre artists. Since forming, Outhouse has provided a platform for Australian writers, directors and actors to showcase their work in New York City.

In keeping with this mission, it is part of my job to keep abreast of quality talent coming out of the Australian theatre community. I was lucky enough to come into contact with the work of Kate Toon through The Short and Sweet Festival. I was immediately struck by the potent mix of playfulness/ social commentary her work offered. I see and read a great deal of new Australian work and found Kate’s writing to be particularly strong. I very quickly programmed two of Kate’s plays, “Bomb Disposal” and “Tumbletots” for public readings here in New York City where they were rapturously recieved by our audiences.

Kate has a unique gift of blending a very modern sense of satire with hilarious and razor-sharp dialogue. It was thrilling to see our young audience respond so strongly to a new playwright. She writes particularly well for women and this talent alone is worth much cultivation. I am looking forward to exploring more of her work with my company in the future. In the meantime, I heartily endorse her application for a development exchange in New York City. She has a wonderful and theatrical gift for story-telling and deserves every chance to take her work to the highest level.’

Jeremy Waters

http://www.outhousetheatre.com/