SEED COMMISSION
Hello,
This is an opportunity for writers.
You might be one. You might be one but aren’t quite brave enough to call yourself one yet. You might be trying to be one whilst also working lots of other jobs to pay your rent. It doesn’t matter what sort of writer you are because you have an idea. Not a script or a play or draft but just an idea.
You have something; a question or a thought or a concept that you want to articulate but haven’t tried to yet. Maybe it feels too precious or too bold or you got stuck when you tried before. But the idea is there, sitting somewhere in your soul and the only way you know how to get it out is to write it down for other people to say live, on stage, in front of an audience.
You are excited by live theatre. You are excited by collaborating with a team of people who see your idea in a totally different way from you; who push you and question you and hold you. You are excited by actors taking your words and doing something with them that you could have never imagined.
If this feels like you then we have an opportunity.
WHO WE ARE
We are FullRogue. We are a theatre company from Bristol run by Ruby Gilmour and Julia Head. Our debut show, Wild Swimming by Marek Horn won a Pleasance Regional Partnership Award and was the recipient of a Ronald Duncan Prize and a Ferment Commission. It was due to transfer to New York City in April 2020 as part of Brits Off Broadway festival, which was postponed due to Covid-19.
We believe in LOVE and GENEROSITY and SABOTAGE.
We develop new theatre texts through a process of stress-testing; A form of deliberately intense testing used in science and innovation to determine the stability and resilience of a given system. It involves testing beyond normal operational capacity, often to breaking point, in order to observe the results. And we are offering a FullRogue seed commission to support a writer through our rigorous process of stress-testing to create a first draft of their theatre text.
THE OPPORTUNITY
A £2700 seed commission to support one writer in the development of a first draft of a new theatre text.
WHY WE ARE DOING THIS
We think that new theatre texts are often made with the aim of being perfect. That the writer is expected to solve the form, characters, world, narrative and flow of the text on their own. That the text is then wrapped in cotton wool and treated like it is something fragile that will break.
We want to treat new theatre texts differently. To ask: what if we push it past breaking point? What if we treat it as if it were indestructible? Because a text that survives all this testing can be approached with a fearlessness that it will survive. We think this pushes you, the writer, past your comfort zone and allows the work to be bolder than work you would make alone.
HOW IT WORKS
We will support the writer through our rigorous stress-testing model that involves:
-
Initial Idea: You have an idea for a new theatre text.
- Active Thinking: You and Julia get to know the idea better; your desires, how it works formally and imaginatively. This might happen while walking, or cooking for example.
- Stress-Test 1: Two Days in a room with actors to investigate your question. This is about asking what if, about pushing the idea beyond your imagination.
- 0.5 Draft: You begin writing your ideas down in a text. This is not a finished script.
- Stress-Test 2: Three Days in a room with actors and the 0.5 draft. We stress-test it; deliberately pushing it past breaking point to see what survives.
- Reflection: You and Julia reflect and work through the structure and form of the text.
- 1st Draft: You complete a full first draft.
- Read Through: One day in a room with actors to read through the first draft.
- Next Steps: The hope is that you come out of this process with the first draft you feel really confident in. We will then decide together what happens next, we may want to continue working together or we may not. This is all about process not product.
WHO YOU ARE
We are looking for writers who are:
- Wanting to articulate an idea in a theatrical text for live theatre
- Ambitious and rigorous in their work
- Open to and excited by the FullRogue process
- Actively pursuing writing for theatre as a career
- Over 18 and not in any form of education or training
- Based in the UK and comfortable travelling to Bristol
- You don’t need to have any qualifications and you don’t need to have had your work professionally shown before
APPLICATION
Please send us a 20 page extract of one of your scripts to give us an example of your voice and answer the following questions in a format that best suits you. These 20 pages must not be from the script you want to write with us, as that idea should not yet be written.
- Tell us what you know about your idea so far?
- What question is your idea investigating?
- What areas of your idea need further exploration/research before you can write your text?
- Why haven’t you written it yet? What is stopping you?
- If you could pay a famous artist to express your idea, who would it be and why? This could be a musician, a painter, a photographer - anyone you would consider an artist.
- What have been your main sources of inspiration for your idea so far?
HOW TO APPLY
- Complete our anonymous Equal Opportunity form by clicking LINK HERE
- Answer the above questions via one of the following:
- A written application no longer than 2 sides of A4
- A video recording no longer than 7 minutes provided by online link such as YouTube
- An audio recording no longer than 7 minutes provided by online link such as YouTube
- Provide us with a 20 page extract of a script you have written
- Submit your application by clicking LINK HERE
We love diagrams, images, drawings and references to give more of a sense of your idea so please feel free to include a page of these alongside your application.
Please note: The idea you apply with must not have already been written. It must not have received support from any organisation. It must be an original idea; this can include radical adaptations of existing texts.
NEXT STEPS
We will recruit a team of readers; this will be a range of different theatre makers from all over the UK. We will look at all the applications, go through a long and then short-listing process and invite 5 people on the shortlist to an informal interview which will give us a chance to meet each other. We will then select one writer to commission.
KEY DATES
Deadline: Wednesday 17th November at 5pm
Interviews: Thursday 16th December
Commission begins: January 2022
This is not a full-time commission. We will be flexible about dates and want to work with you to decide deadlines. There are currently no set dates in the process and can work around other work commitments, parental & caring responsibilities or anything else that might be a barrier to you taking part in this process.
FAQs
Can I apply with more than one idea?
No, please only apply once. Apply with the idea you are most excited by!
Can the 20 pages of writing I need to submit with my application be from the play I want to write with you?
No, it must be from a different text. It's really important that the play you want to make with us has not been written and that we work towards a first draft together.
Can I apply to develop a script I have already written?
No, this is not a development opportunity for an existing script, but a project to create a first draft of a new theatre text. This is incredibly important and the process won't work on an existing text.
LINKS
Equalities Monitoring form: HERE
Application form: HERE
Large Font Copy: HERE
If you have any questions regarding the commission, please email Ruby at fullroguetheatre@gmail.com
