Inevitable Theatre Company in St. Louis, MO, seeks constituent writers to participate in a unique collaborative play-building ensemble. The resulting company-curated performance project (tentatively titled GATE) will be fictional, yet inspired by recent and current events in St. Louis and around the country, related to police violence and African-American youth, and filtered through the lens of Brechtian epic theatre and nonlinear, often contradictory theatrical narratives (see Brecht’s poem “On Everyday Theatre”). Exact details of the project’s scope are still in development and will be shared as they become available.
The number and demographic makeup of the ensemble has not been predetermined, but we are projecting the collective will ultimately consist of approximately 20 individuals, including directors, dramaturgs, and project administrators. While we are not employing restrictive criteria regarding artists’ backgrounds for this project, the company desires to include a substantial representation of writers of color, especially those who are St. Louis-based or possess historical/familial connections to the St. Louis community, to participate in this unique artistic endeavor.
We anticipate the final performance script will be about 2 hours in duration, with individual playwrights contributing approximately 10-15 minutes of text each (in addition to collaborating towards the structure, tone, etc., of the piece as a whole).
Inevitable Theatre Company will retain ownership of the final piece, with mandatory billing and a guaranteed royalty percentage for constituent playwrights contracted into all future production licensing and publication negotiations. The company is currently pursuing project funding in order to offer constituent writers an initial commission/stipend for their participation.
The anticipated project timeline is as follows:
- selection of constituent playwrights in mid-2018
- preliminary script development/ensemble building in mid- to late 2018
- collective writing workshops occurring in late 2018 to mid-2019
- a public staged reading in fall 2019
- a world premiere full production in 2020
The workshop process will consist of both virtual and in-person components, pending funding for artist travel/lodging. The individual time commitment from constituent playwrights, outside of the total scope of the project outlined above, will vary based upon availability, geographic location, etc.
Interested playwrights should email résumé, short writing sample (5-10 pages; 10-minute plays are ideal), and any relevant reviews, to info@inevitabletheatre.org, with “GATE” in the subject line.
Deadline for submissions is April 15, 2018.
Our goal is to select constituent writers by the end of June 2018.