THIS OPPORTUNITY IS OPEN TO WELSH AND WALES-BASED ARTISTS! FOR DETAILS AND DATES PLEASE READ ON...

Theatre Sandbox is a new opportunity for theatre artists, companies and collectives. We are offering six £10,000 commissions to support the research and development of experimental pieces of performance which engage with Pervasive Media Technologies. (See http://www.theatresandbox.co.uk/what-is-pervasive-media/ for an explanation of Pervasive Media).

The process of application involves participation at one of five half-day workshops and a written application. Workshops will take place in Bristol, London, Birmingham, Manchester and Cambridge. This is an invitation to attend one of those workshops.

Workshops will give you an opportunity to share an idea for a new piece of theatre. You must be open with your ideas and willing to collaborate with others. You should also have some sense of pervasive media technologies and have some idea of how you might like to engage with them in your work. That said, you absolutely do not have to have a full understanding of what’s possible. That’s what these workshops are all about: exciting artists and their ideas for new performance works in collaboration with other artists and technologists working at the cutting edge of pervasive media.

The workshop will give you a chance to do a quick and dirty pitch of your ideas to the others present. You will then vote on around 6 ideas you want to progress in the session as case studies. Although these ideas will get the chance to be developed in the sessions they will not be seen by any of the assessing panel and applicants will still need to write an application like everybody else – they are examples to help everyone develop understanding, knowledge and ideas in the session. We’ll have a technologist on hand to help move things along and to help you challenge what’s possible.

What we’re after in this project is shared learning, creative collaboration, and brilliant theatre. The workshops are designed to support these objectives.

We will create a safe space where you can explore how you can work with pervasive media, who you might work with and where you can find them. We hope the sessions will be a positive end in themselves as well as aiding you in writing an application for one of the research and development commissions.

If you think this scheme might be for you then you can book your place at one of the workshops here: http://www.theatresandbox.co.uk/events

7 April 2010 – Watershed, Bristol – 1:30-7pm
8 April 2010 – Soho Theatre, London – 1:30-7pm
12 April 2010 – Fazeley Studios (hosted by mac), Birmingham – 1:30-7pm
13 April 2010 – Contact, Manchester – 1:30-7pm
14 April 2010 – The Junction, Cambridge – 3pm-8pm

Workshops will be hosted by the Theatre Sandbox Producer Katie Day, and iShed Director Clare Reddington, and facilitated by Seth Honnor from Theatre Bristol (theatrebristol.net). Technology advice will be provided by Calvium (calvium.com). A representative from the theatre venue partner will also be in attendance.

Stay in touch
To keep up to date with information as it is announced join the mailing list on www.theatresandbox.co.uk. You’ll also find lots more about the scheme and our advisory group.

Follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/theatresandbox

Theatre Sandbox is produced by iShed and supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. iShed is part of Watershed, a cross art form venue in Bristol