One species, ours, has by itself in the course of a couple of generations managed to powerfully raise the temperature of an entire planet, to knock its most basic systems out of kilter. But oddly, though we know about it, we don’t know about it. It hasn’t registered in our gut; it isn’t part of our culture. Where are the books? The poems? The plays? The goddamn operas?
What The Warming World Needs Now is Art, Sweet Art, Bill McKibben, 2005
This is the provocation that inspired the creation of TippingPoint, an organisation committed to energising the cultural response to climate change. Following Doing Nothing Is Not An Option, their latest three-day gathering of artists, activists and climate scientists, House has teamed up with TippingPoint to create a seed fund of £7500 to invest in one or more new theatre projects that address climate change.
The seed funding will be awarded to partnerships between theatre makers and venues in the house network and we’re particularly looking for projects that engage a potential audience through the creative process.
Two themes particularly struck us during the Doing Nothing Is Not An Option gathering and we hope that the seed funded projects might speak to these in some way. The first is about the potential power of shifting the paradigm from one of doom and apocalypse, to one of positive possible futures; from ‘how do we avoid this’, towards ‘how do we build this’. The other is about how we discuss issues relating to climate change with people across the political spectrum. Climate change has become a deeply divisive political issue, particularly in the States where your response to the question ‘Are you concerned about climate change’ is the second greatest indicator of your political allegiance after ‘Do you think Obama has been an effective President?’. And yet this has not always been the case; for instance in the UK, impassioned calls to arms were made by Conservative leaders during the late ’80s and ’90s. One mistake has been to point a finger of blame at people we should have been trying to recruit, and failing to find the arguments that resonated with their values (such as conscientiousness, love for the natural world, and an aspiration for happiness). This is examined in greater detail by Climate Outreach in publications including How Narrative Workshops Informed a National Climate Change Campaign and Climate Silence (and How to Break It).
As well as projects that respond to these ideas – both in terms of content and process – we’re particularly interested in partnerships with venues that are keen to explore climate change in greater depth with their audiences and also those venues that have less of a track record for supporting new work.
Applications will need to be made through our online form and be a partnership between a theatre maker and a venue.
The deadline for applications is midnight, Friday 21 October 2016. Apply online.
Applications will be short-listed by Monday 24 October and short-listed projects will be asked to provide a budget – we don’t need an indication of how much you are applying for before this.
To discuss an idea in more detail, or if you have any other questions, contact Richard Kingdom on 07714 216519 or richard@housetheatre.org.uk.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Do venues and theatre makers have to be based in the South East and East of England?
No - each project must have at least one venue from the South East or East of England (Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Surrey and East and West Sussex) but the theatre maker(s) and other venue partners can be based anywhere in the world.
-
Can independent producers, directors, writers etc apply?
We’ve used the term ‘theatre maker’ hoping that it will be open to a wide range of interpretations to include companies, individual artists (writers, directors, designers, performers etc), producers, producing theatres and so on. As long as the project seeds an idea for a new piece of theatre, we hope to be surprised by some of the proposed approaches.
-
Do we need to have match funding?
We welcome applications that include other sources of income such as an investment from the venue. However we are keen to support ideas that may be difficult for other grant-giving bodies to
fund and as such we do not expect these awards to form part of a Grants for the arts application. However, it is likely that Grants for the arts will provide the means by which some of the projects are further developed after our initial investment.
-
When do projects need to be completed by?
We expect the seed funded activity to have been completed within a year of being offered the funding. However, if your project necessarily takes longer then we can be accommodating.
-
What are you looking for by way of an outcome at this stage?
The funding we are offering is designed to seed an idea and we are much more interested in the ambition that it enables you to explore than we are in how far you can make the money go. As a result, we don't want to be prescriptive about the outcome of your greenhouse project. However, we do need to be able to determine which projects we want to take further and will need enough of an outcome to inform our decision but this could take the form of a pitch, a proposal, a scratch performance; whatever feels most appropriate.
-
I am a venue - can I make more than one application?
Technically yes and if you are the lead partner on one and only a more minor partner on another then that shouldn't be a big issue. However, it is unlikely that we will fund more than one project at any one (lead) venue and so if you make more than one application you are likely to be creating competition between the two projects. Submitting more than one application may also dilute the case you're making about the ambition that the project is helping you to move forward. If however the two projects are both supporting the same ambition then you might be better off combining them in a single application - just as we're up for theatre makers having more than one partner, we're also open to a venue having more than one theatre maker.
-
Are there particular venues that you can recommend approaching?
There aren't. But we can tell you that we are particularly keen to work with venues in the house network that have a limited track record for supporting new work and, with this specific commission, those venues that are keen to discuss climate change with their audiences (this could be anything from a campaign to improve the energy efficiency of the building, to themed seasons of work, or a series of Education workshops). However, these are not hard and fast rules.
If you are a venue that fits this description and are keen to work with a theatre maker on a project that addresses climate change, or a theatre maker with an idea but no venue, get in touch with Richard (richard@housetheatre.org.uk) and he will try to make some connections.