Total Theatre announced the launch of the 16th Total Theatre Awards with seven awards across five categories to be awarded. Categories include:
- Physical & Visual Theatre
- Innovation, Experimentation & Playing with Form
- Emerging
- Circus
- Dance
For the third year running, an award for an Emerging Artist or Company, supported by Farnham Maltings will have a £500 prize; for a second consecutive year there will be a Total Theatre Award for Circus presented in association with Jacksons Lane; and this year we are delighted to introduce a new Total Theatre Award for Dance in collaboration with The Place.
Eddie Nixon, Director Theatre & Artist Development at The Place, said: ‘There are lots of great, bold dance shows in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and thousands of people there to see them. There are shows that deserve to be talked about and in joining forces with Total Theatre to sponsor this new award The Place is hoping to fuel the conversation amongst the audience and the critics about what makes an unforgettable piece of dance performance.’
This year’s Total Theatre Awards will also include an international collaboration with the British Council Ukraine. A delegation of four Ukrainian Theatre Curators have been selected on a competitive basis by a panel of senior Ukrainian theatre professionals, directors, producers, and cultural activists to join the 2015 Total Theatre Awards Assessment team and to contribute to the judging process.
The Total Theatre Awards team of 25 Assessors will see over 450 shows at least once and often two or three times in the first eleven days of the festival. Following five morning-long assessment meetings and a daylong shortlisting meeting the Nominees list of shortlisted shows will be announced on Thursday 20 August. 12 judges will then see the shortlisted shows and announce their decisions at the Total Theatre Awards Ceremony on Friday 28 August.
Supporters of this year’s Awards include Battersea Arts Centre, British Council, University of Chichester, The Empty Space, Farnham Maltings, Jacksons Lane, The Place, The Point Eastleigh, Puppet Animation Scotland and University of Winchester.
The Total Theatre Awards was developed for the benefit of artists, the sector and audiences, and have over the last two decades, blazed a trail of recognition for independent artists and companies creating innovative, artist-led theatre and performance. Resisting too narrow a definition of the term ‘total theatre’ the awards focus on artists and companies leading innovative work within the fields of devised theatre, live art, visual performance, mime, puppetry, physical theatre, experimental theatre, clown, circus, street, immersive, outdoor, dance, site specific performance and more.
Key dates
- Applications for Assessors open Monday 15 June. Applications Close Monday 29 June
- Applications for Artists & Companies open Monday 22 June. Applications close Monday 3 August.
- Awards Assessment Dates Saturday 8 – Wednesday 19 August.
- Nominees Shortlist Announced Thursday 20 August.
- Judging Dates Thursday 20 – Thursday 27 August.
- Awards Ceremony Friday 28 August
For more information visit:
Twitter: @TotalTheatreAwd