THE UPRISING NEW WORK PROGRAM
Downstage is a theatre company based in Calgary that produces Canadian plays that create conversations around social issues.
We support and produce theatrical works created by artists who live in Canada or who identify as Canadians. We are interested in new works in a variety of forms that are bold, inclusive and that ask complex questions about the world we live in. We are most interested in pieces that reflect the true diversity of our communities, whether that’s our city of Calgary or your home community.
If this describes a project you’re working on, we want to know about it and may be able to help you with further development through our Uprising New Work Program.
HOW IT WORKS
There is no deadline for submissions. We anticipate that there will be sufficient demand that funds will be used up before the year is through, but still encourage submissions as we may still be able to help you access other opportunities, or provide support in a future season.
WHAT WE HAVE TO GIVE
– Open to individuals, ad-hoc groups or companies
– We have some direct funding as well as in-kind assets to offer (including theatrical space, dramaturgical support, community connections)
– We want you to be able to define what you need for your project. This might include but is in no way limited to:
* engaging other collaborators for a creation process (a designer, a musician, a graphic novelist)
* engaging actors to do a workshop or reading
* space to work in
* dramaturgy
* a letter of support for a grant, writer-in-residency program or another opportunity
* help making connections (to collaborators, or to specific communities)
* we are asking that all proposed projects go through this process, so you may just ask for us to read your script in consideration for production if that’s the stage you’re at
WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU
Please write an email to Artistic Director Simon Mallett at simon@downstage.ca with the following as attachments (.pdf files preferred):
– About You: Introduce yourself to us (and your collaborators or your ad-hoc group or company if applicable) in a page or so.
– About The Project: Describe your project in a page or so; what are you working on, what stage is it at, what needs to happen next? How does it fit with the type of work we’re interested in?
– How Downstage Can Help: Define the support you are looking for – please be as specific as possible. A ranked list would be great. If you are looking for financial support, please include a brief budget.
– Support Materials: Please include any relevant materials that you think we should consider; this could be a script if you have one, relevant press, links to videos, etc.
We would really appreciate it if you could name your documents in a way that makes it easy to see what they are, like FirstnameLastnameScript.pdf (instead of myscript.pdf).
We will respond to you within a day or two to confirm we received your materials and then get back to you within six weeks to let you know if we are interested and able to lend support.
Thanks for your interest in our program!
