Sprint is London’s major annual festival of new and unusual theatre. It showcases work by the most exciting new artists and companies in the UK and beyond. With Sprint, CPT opens its doors widely to artists at the very start of their careers, artists who’ve never performed at CPT before, or artists with hot-from-the-rehearsal-room new projects to perform.
Since its inception in 1997 as a showcase for ‘physical, visual and unusual theatre’, companies who have found early success at the festival include Unlimited Theatre, Cartoon de Salvo, Fevered Sleep and Shunt. More recently, Sprint has featured the work of Action Hero, Made In China, Sh!t Theatre, Stoke Newington International Airport and Coney.
Applications are now open for the 2017 festival, which runs from March 7 to 25, 2017. Ideally, proposals will be for work that is finished by March 2017. We will also consider works-in-progress, ‘scratch’ performances and on-site artist development (see Starting Blocks, below).
What to submit: In their own words:
What we want
- Shows the like of which we’ve never seen before. New work, new ways of making theatre, new experiences for audiences
- Work to take place in our theatre. If you are applying to perform in our theatre, please come and see a show and ensure you’re familiar with the size and character of our space
- Work to take place elsewhere in our building. E.g. intimate-scale and/or one-on-one performances that may lend themselves to other spaces in our building.
- Site-specific and/or off-site work. E.g. work taking place in the streets and squares, waterways and byways beyond CPT’s doors – as long as the artist has a realistic idea of how this might be achieved. It will be the artist’s responsibility to produce off-site work. (CPT will support this process, but cannot take full responsibility.)
- Virtual work. E.g. audio projects, walkabout projects – or projects that otherwise take theatre off the stage and into the world (or the audience’s heads). Technical equipment may need to be provided by the artist.
- Student/graduate work. Sprint 2017 will contain a strand of student/graduate work: the most exciting new theatre work being made in (or within one year of leaving) university, college or drama schools. Please indicate on your application if your project fits this description.
- Proposals that demonstrate an engagement with what CPT is here to achieve. Please find more about our CPT at our website: https://www.cptheatre.co.uk/about/
What we don’t want
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‘New writing’. We usually work with artists who create collaboratively. Playwriting, in the conventional sense, isn’t usually part of their process. We may consider exceptions, provided a highly innovative approach is demonstrated
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Revivals of classic plays.
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Dance. We are primarily a venue of theatre and performance, not a dance venue per se. We will consider proposals for dance-theatre performance, where the emphasis is on ‘theatre’
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Academic projects that don’t demonstrate why non-academic audiences should be interested.
What you get: The arrangement with Sprint artists is flexible according to the needs of each show, but the usual offer is:
- PR and marketing support, inclusion in brochures, flyers, website, social media activity
- PR, marketing and other professional skills training sessions for participating artists
- 50:50 box-office split
- Technician to support get-in and get-out; and to operate shows on request
- Discount tickets to other events in the Sprint festival
Deadline: Friday 18 November 2016 at 10am
Source: @Playwriting_UK