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Out with the new, in with the old!
EDIT: This call-out is now closed and the event long past. Keep your eyes peeled for more opportunity to recycle in the future!
Past Works Recycling Plant is a night for recycled performance. Artists might present, for instance, a retired piece that only got a couple of outings, material which has been reworked and remixed in some way, a condensed retrospective of their whole career, rehearsal room B-sides and offcuts, a re-performance of a live art score that influenced their practice, or the very first work they made 10, 20, 30 years ago. Or something that is not any of those things. It can involve making something new with old stuff, but it can also just be doing the old stuff
WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
Returning to making work together after a pandemic hiatus, we’ve been thinking a lot about our practice, and what having an artistic practice means (this year also happens to mark our 5th birthday!). We’ve been thinking about the uneven and non-linear ways that artistic practice develops over time, the tyranny of the 'new' and the pressure to
constantly innovate, the sometimes unconscious tendency to return to the same interests time and time again, and the way that practice can be (is always) composted and fed back to itself in ways that are healthy and nourishing.
After what has been a relatively fallow time for a lot of artists — ourselves included — we are interested in creating spaces for creative exchange and artistic community in both private and public facing settings; ways of gently reintroducing ourselves to our own instincts, skills, methodologies and desires, together as peers. We’re really interested in the unpolished, the almost-forgotten-about, the scribblings-in-the-margins, the what-was-there-all-along. We think all of this is special and worth paying attention to.
WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
From this call-out, we are looking to select three pieces of performance which are recycled in some way (the night will consist of five acts in total, those selected from this open call and two acts which have been invited). Labels are thorny things, but broadly we are looking for artists who make contemporary, experimental performance in any field — theatre, live art, poetry, dance, music, expanded cinema and the intersections between these disciplines. We’re not looking for work that exists firmly in what we’d call ‘traditional’ art forms - narrative drama, classical dance, etc.
We imagine that each performance would last around 20 minutes on average, but some might be shorter and some longer — we’re open to whatever the work asks for and is practically feasible. Durational/one-to-one/other formats could also be possible.
Similarly, we are imagining that the night will mainly take place in CPT’s black box theatre space, but it might also be possible to present work in the basement rehearsal space, or the foyer/bar area (see here for specs). Technical rehearsals will run from 1pm-6pm, with each act having an hour to tech their piece — again, flexible depending on the various requirements of the five pieces). We will host dinner the night before (Saturday 12th) for those participating to meet and chat (not mandatory, of course, but hopefully cute).
THE FEE
We are offering £100 for solo artists or £160 for duos/groups. We have a limited travel budget but will do everything we can to cover travel expenses for those based outside of London.
We’re aware that these are not huge fees, but we’re hoping that the nature of the brief means your piece can be a fairly low-effort thing to put together (in fact, we encourage this!). We invite you to apply only if it sounds like this would be a fun and nourishing thing for you to do in ways that exceed the money we’re able to offer.
ACCESSIBILITY
Access info for Camden People's Theatre is available here and here.
If you have any other requests/adjustments to enable you to apply and be part of this night - there is space on the form for anything you'd like us to know. You can also email us an access rider or other documents if that's easier.
We have a very limited budget but will do whatever we can!
HOW TO APPLY
The deadline is 26 September at 11:59pm.
If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch at emergencychorustheatre@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
Ben and Clara x
Photo: Clara Potter-Sweet and Ben Kulvichit