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2009 NET FESTIVAL |
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Seeking Proposals for Performances |
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NET is thrilled to be returning to Blue Lake and Humboldt County for the 2009 National Ensemble Theatre Festival. Since our last National Festival, the ensemble field has grown and become more vibrant through the work of NET and its members. The 2009 Festival will not only celebrate our accomplishments, it will look deeply and critically into ensemble process as a means of defining and demonstrating the values of ensemble theater making. Below is a request for proposals to perform at the NET Fest (June 23-28, 2009). If you would like your company to be considered for a performance please send in a proposal before the August 1, 2008 deadline. We encourage and invite you to complete an application. Our hope is to program the festival from a diverse array of proposals. If there are any questions regarding the RFP, please contact Michael Fields at Dell’Arte. Communication is greatly encouraged and we are eager to work with you on your proposal should you want or need any assistance. Also if you know of companies you would like to see at the festival, who perhaps may not have received the RFP, please encourage them to apply (the RFP will also be posted on the NET website). If they are not NET members, encourage them to join. We will be following up in the coming months with additional information. In the meantime, mark your calendars and plan to attend! This will be an exciting opportunity to see new work, have exchanges with your colleagues in the field and be part of the dialog that is advancing ensemble work in this country. See you there! Sincerely,
Festival Committee
The Network of Ensemble Theater Festival From the NET ManifestoWhat makes ensemble work unique is that the primary decision-making power rests in the hands of the artists. Ensemble Theater is the antithesis of the corporate model that dominates the theatrical landscape in America today. Our resources are dedicated to supporting artists and the artistic process. NET is sparked by the vital and enduring international heritage of collective theater making. Our work is committed to the unique event of the living stage, where the imagination of artist and audience is linked in social communion and mutual creativity. We see at the center of ensemble work an essential investigation and evolution of way of working that is fundamentally different in it's impetus, its engagement of community, its artist driven organizations, and the collaborative manner in which creation occurs. This is the soul, the essence, of ensemble work. NET Fest 2009 Overview NET Fest 2009 seeks to embrace and celebrate the work of ensemble theatres by presenting a spectacular diversity of world-class performance and a series of investigations into the essence of the ensemble creative process. Our intent is to create an event where we cannot only see great ensemble work but truly learn from each other’s diverse ensemble processes and models of creation (and the organizational models that support them). We also want to investigate how interaction with community and the influence of place informs the work presented at the festival. In this regard we are seeking proposals for the NET Festival 2009. Our goal is to create an event that celebrates, elevates and promotes the national profile of the NET and its members’ work. Full ProductionsWe intend to present six full productions by ensemble companies. We are seeking a diversity of ensemble created work both in style of work and creative development processes. These productions can be premieres or remounts of seminal pieces. Lab PerformancesWe also intend to present three investigations by ensemble companies. In these investigations all of the ensemble companies selected would engage an exploration of the same play, THE ORESTIA. The intent is to investigate how ensembles engage a work that has massive adaptive possibilities, but that is not too familiar, a work that has a poetic nature, contemporary content, but has a more epic scope. This is a model adapted from the International Theatre Institute that was designed to engage the diversity of aesthetic approaches across international and cultural boundaries. Each ensemble selected would take one of the three parts of THE ORESTIA. This will allow us to see multiple parts of the story and yet different approaches applied to the same work. The thematic issues within THE ORESTIA are huge and pressing: war, justice, family, etc. How you interpret the story is up to you—it could be a traditional staging or you may want to create something original based on the themes of the play. The ensembles will have two open studio work periods during the festival. The first session is devoted to revealing the ensembles’ work processes—in whichever form you see best: lecture, demonstration, participatory, etc. The second session is a lab presentation that would present where the group has arrived to that point with the work. Both sessions are open to the public and festival participants. The presentations are not conceived to be anything close to finished or have any kind of big tech. The proposing ensemble is encouraged to begin this process of investigation prior to the festival. It is intended to be a lens into the middle of a process, not the beginning or the end. The simple questions are "How would your ensemble engage this work? What can you show us of that process? How do you consider your community/audience as you create? The idea of THE ORESTIA is a platform to work from as we hope to engage in the festival a real look at the dynamics and variety of ensemble process. HOW TO APPLY: FOR A FULL PRODUCTION 1. Please send a maximum two page description of the work you propose, the artistic focus of your ensemble, the creative process(es) you employ in making work and a brief ensemble history including how your ensemble is organized. 2. Please send the technical requirements of the work you propose, the number of people who would be part of the work, and your touring fee range for this work. 3. A DVD of the whole work (if it exists). If this is a work that is to be created please send a DVD of the whole performance of a past work (in the last 5 years). If you have promotional materials on this work please send a sample of those as well. FOR AN INVESTIGATION LAB OF THE ORESTIA 1. Please send a maximum two-page description of how your ensemble would approach this work, the artistic focus of your ensemble, and a brief ensemble history including how your ensemble is organized. 2. Please send the number of people who would be part of the work. (Each lab presentation will receive the same fee and the same level of technical support in terms of light and sound. We have yet to determine that fee until the full festival budget is in place). 3. Please send a DVD of a whole performance of a past work (from the last 5 years). If you have promotional materials on the company please send that as well. THEATRE VENUES FOR THE FESTIVAL These are the venues we have for the festival. Please indicate which space might work best for your work in your proposal. * At Humboldt State University there are three spaces: A 800 seat conventional one balcony, proscenium stage with fly rigging; a 130 seat thrust with raked audience, a 100 seat back box. * At Dell'Arte there are two spaces: A 120 seat theatre with raked audience and 30' X 30' stage; and a 300 seat outdoor amphitheatre with raised stage and seating on the grass. * At the Arcata Playhouse: a 120 seat flexible staging and seating space. SELECTION PROCESS · All ensembles presented must be members of NET at the time of the Festival. · Proposals will be reviewed by Dell’Arte with input by NET’s Festival Committee. Final decisions will be made by Dell’Arte. SEND ALL
MATERIALS TO: PLEASE SEND PROPOSALS AND MATERIALS BY AUGUST 1. 2008WE WILL RESPOND TO ALL SUBMISSIONS BY OCTOBER 1, 2008It is our intent to complete the festival line up by the fall of 2008 so that we can all adequately promote, plan, and put all of the financial and logistics piece in place in a fashion.
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QUESTIONS REGARDING PROPOSALS. QUESTIONS CAN BE DIRECTED TO: |