Interested in applying for this program?
The Vancouver Fringe Festival and Playwrights Theatre Centre are calling for applications for the eleventh cycle of the Fringe New Play Prize. Through the Fringe New Play Prize, PTC and the Vancouver Fringe offer emerging BC theatre artists a huge opportunity. Over an eighteen month period, the chosen theatre artist or artistic team will undergo an extensive development process for their new play or theatre creation, which includes: dramaturgy and production support from PTC and the Fringe, a residency space during the 2023 Fringe AND a presentation for the 2024 Fringe Festival.
We encourage BC writers* and producing teams to imagine how the FNPP can be instrumental in their show’s development!
The program offers:
- Eighteen months of dramaturgy with PTC Dramaturg, Davey Samuel Calderon
- Some free creation and rehearsal space
- Production mentorship for emerging writer-producers or producing teams (including grant writing workshop, production plan development, and fundraising support etc)
- A residency spot at the 2023 Fringe, including a public reading
- A free and guaranteed space on the Fringe Mainstage, September 2024.
All told, the Fringe New Play Prize is a juicy package with a $18,000 value: ($800 Fringe application fee + $2500 Fringe venue costs + $2000 in studio space + $7000 of dramaturgy + $3000 of production mentorship + $2700 script copying + promotion + fundraising support etc).
All production costs are the responsibility of the prize winner.
The application asks for:
- A script idea, outline, fragment or draft
- A letter of intent, telling us what you plan to do with your idea
- The resumes of artists involved in the creation
- A production plan**
**A production plan is a rough timeline of the production process for your project, including deadlines for important decisions and processes such as when and how all the major resources have to be in place – personnel, money, design, promotion etc. You are producing your own work and the Fringe model requires proficiency in independent producing.
Application eligibility:
- For emerging BC based playwrights, theatre artists and theatre collectives*
- For shows / plays whose production run time is under 80 minutes
- Artists or production teams who have at least 1 – 2 credits in producing (is not limited to performance productions, can include: arts and culture events, workshop series, arts festival, community projects etc)
*We define “emerging” as any artists or playwrights who identify as early in their professional theatre career and has not had more than one to two professional productions of a project they have led/wrote. Artists can apply if they are temporarily in another North American timezone during the 18-month period. However, artists or artistic leads MUST be in Vancouver for the residency (September 2023) and the production phase of their workshop performance (mid-July to mid-September 2024). Artists outside the Lower Vancouver mainland area are responsible for the costs of their travel and accommodation during these phases.
The decision is made by a jury of readers based primarily on the artistic potential of the idea/script, supported by a production plan that will adequately support the project’s artistic and technical needs. Applications must be received no later than February 3rd, 2023 and the winner will be announced March 2023.
PTC is continuously working to make all our programs accessible. We encourage writers with a lived experience of disability to apply for all of our programs. We are dedicated to creating spaces within which Indigenous, Black, people of colour, LGBTQAI2+people, and people with intersectional identity perspectives can lead and create.
The 2021-22 winner of the Prize, Zahida Rahemtulla, worked with PTC’s Dramaturg Davey Samuel Calderon on her play The Frontliners, which had a successful production this past November 2022. Read more about the project and its journey here.
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