LegalAliens Theatre in collaboration with Migrant Dramaturgies Network is looking for plays by EU-based playwrights on the theme of Migrations: Harbour Europe. We are encouraging submissions that address and reflect on the broad topic of migration and Europe. While we acknowledge the importance of documentary/ verbatim plays that deal directly with migratory identities and experiences, this CfP wishes to attract original, bold and imaginative scripts which fully embrace theatricality and offers creative/ aesthetic alternatives for (re)imagining migrancy in Europe today.
We welcome plays that challenge stereotypes, clichés and dominant narratives of migration. The call is intentionally broad and can be approached literally, metaphorically or abstractly. This is to allow writers to interpret the theme widely. Yet, playwrights might wish to reflect on some relevant questions, such as: How recent geopolitical and economic events affected people’s perception of Europe? What is the relationship between those who arrive and those who reside, i.e. migrants and host communities? Who is the other and what it means to be a foreigner? How is ‘Fortress Europe’ seen from the outside? What is home?
We particularly encourage submissions from strong female voices and playwrights who identify as migrants or of migrant descent (including those born in an EU country but living in another or born outside the EU but currently living/working in Europe).
Submission requirements:
- Written in a European language (including English)
- Please include a one-page synopsis in English. If an English translation exists, it can also be attached, with the understanding that LegalAliens is likely to create a new translation
- Plays already performed in their original language are welcome, provided they’ve never been presented in the UK
- Between 60-80 minutes in length
- 1-5 actors (multi-roling accepted)
- Submitted in .doc or .pdf format
Further details
Submissions will be read by a panel composed of theatre-makers (directors, actors, dramaturgs), translators, academics and theatre critics. Up to three plays will be selected and translated into English. After selection (and translation), plays will be given a week of R&D with our team in London and presented as staged readings at the Tristan Bates Theatre in Central London. Staged readings will be followed by public debates led by international theatre scholars. We hope to identify at least one play to take forward into full production, directed by Becka McFadden.
Timeline
Deadline: 15th October 2018
Shortlist announced by 10th December 2018
R&D: February 2019
Staged Readings: February-March 2019 (dates TBC)
Full production: June 2019 (dates TBC)
Please send your play together with a one-page synopsis in English to both: info@legalaliens.org and info@newtidesplatform.org
Project Partners
LegalAliens has been promoting European playwrights in the UK since 2010. Our original approach to translation based on the physicalisation of language and direct, rehearsal-based collaboration between translators, cast and creative team. We consider ourselves as migrants in the UK, and believe in inclusion, always trying to cast international and ethnically diverse actors. Our original, visual, interdisciplinary approach and style has been praised by critics in the UK and abroad. To learn more about our work, please visit www.legalalienstheatre.com
Migrant Dramaturgies Network is an international research network developed in partnership with New Tides Platform (UK) and the Centre for Theatre Research at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. It is a platform for exchange and knowledge sharing between academics, theatre-makers and organisations involved in migrant theatre on various levels of artistic and cultural creation and development. We aim to explore emerging dramaturgies of theatrical responses to migration in light of recent migration and shifts in global politics and economics. We wish to map new theatrical forms of migrant representation and identify their impacts on national theatre cultures in shaping the perception of non-European migrants and migrant cultures. Visit our microblog at: www.migrantdramaturgies.tumblr.com
