Deadline: 21 November 2024
The Arts Council is pleased to invite applications for its Theatre Project Award to support specific projects in the field of Theatre.
Objective
- The objective of the Theatre Project Award (strands 1 and 2) is to support the development, generation and creation of theatre for general audiences. The award is open to professional artists and organisations with a demonstrable track record in theatre practice, in collaboration with artists and/or in partnership with existing theatre organisations, arts centres or festivals, where that partnership is additional to, and separate from, that organisation’s core activity.
Priorities
- Strand 1: Play Development:
- Priority will be given to proposals that:
- Seek to write a new play or text for performance and
- Can demonstrate excellence, innovation and/or experimentation and/or
- Work in collaboration with more than one creative artist as part of the play-development process and/or
- Seek to develop new and innovative concepts for productions of new dramatic material and
- Can demonstrate their feasibility by providing evidence of:
- Realistic timelines and budgets
- Appropriate pay for all artists, including collaborators where relevant to your proposal
- Financial and/or in-kind supports from other sources where relevant to your proposal.
- Strand 2: Theatre Creation:
- Priority will be given to proposals that:
- Seek to break new ground through innovation and experimentation and/or
- Seek to develop new forms of theatre through the collaboration of more than one creative artist, which is distinct from, and additional to, the usual collaboration between a lead artist (usually a writer or director) and performers in a rehearsal room and/or
- Demonstrate ambition and excellence in the quality of dramaturgical support and/or collaboration proposed and/or
- Seek to develop new and innovative concepts for productions of preexisting dramatic material and
- Can demonstrate their feasibility by providing evidence of:
- Realistic timelines and budgets
- Appropriate pay for all artists including collaborators
- Financial and/or in-kind supports from other sources where relevant to your proposal.
Program Specifications
- There are two strands to the 2025 Round 2 Theatre Project Award:
- Strand 1: Play Development:
- The objective of the Play Development strand is to enable the development of a new play or text for performance, in which the playwright is central to the creative process. This could be an application by the playwright themselves or an application by a third party who proposes to commission and support the development of the new play text for performance.
- The strand is open for a playwright to apply for time to write/develop a play on their own.
- While the emphasis is on the development of the text by the playwright, the process may also provide for collaboration from any number of artists or practitioners (e.g. director, dramaturg, designer, actor, performer), including the person responsible for overseeing the play or performance-text’s development.
- Strand 2: Theatre Creation:
- The objective of the Theatre Creation strand is to enable the devising of ideas for new work in a collaborative and interdisciplinary context where the playwright may or may not be the centre of the process. The emphasis of the award is on innovation and experimentation. The concept behind a proposal can be non-text-based or based on a piece of new writing for the theatre, a pre-existing dramatic text, an adaptation from another literary form, or a translation or adaptation of a text from another language. The objective of the award is to enable the development of ideas over time through collaboration without the requirement to present to audiences.
- Strand 1: Play Development:
Funding Information
- Strand 1: Play Development: up to €15,000
- Strand 2: Theatre Creation: up to €26,000
- You may apply for support under only one strand of the award.
Ineligible Activities
- Activities and costs that you may not apply for include the following:
- Major capital purchases
- Ongoing core costs
- Activities or costs that do not fit the purpose of the award (or strand of award) that you are applying for
- Production or presentation costs
- Activities that are more suited to another award funded by the Arts Council or operated by other state agencies, such as Culture Ireland
- Activities that have already taken place or which will have commenced before 1 July 2025
- Activities undertaken for charity-fundraising purposes, for participation in a competition, or for primarily profit-making purposes
- Activities that have already been assessed by the Arts Council, unless you demonstrate that you have further developed the proposal since previously applying or if the Council has specifically advised you to redirect your application to this award. Please bear in mind that such advice is not an indication of a successful outcome
- Projects that involve the touring of existing productions
- The development of work that is not clearly separate from, and additional to, the work of organisations already being supported through other Arts Council funding (e.g. Strategic Funding, Arts Centre Funding).
Eligibility Criteria
- The award is open to professional artists and organisations working in theatre. To be eligible to apply, applicants must:
- Be resident in the Republic of Ireland. However, they may accept applications from outside the Republic of Ireland. In this case, you must detail in your application form how your proposal would benefit the arts in the Republic of Ireland. They would need to be satisfied with your explanation.
Ineligibility Criteria
- Applicants who cannot apply include the following:
- Organisations currently in receipt of funding under the following Arts Council programmes: Strategic Funding, Arts Centre Funding, Partnership Funding – though the involvement of such organisations as partners is welcome
- Organisations or individuals that have been awarded 2025 Arts Grant Funding
- Members of the Council of National Cultural Institutions directly funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
- Individuals or organisations that do not have a demonstrable track record as professional artists or organisations
- Individuals currently in undergraduate education (including those undertaking foundation courses) or who will be during the period for which this award is offered
- Individuals seeking support towards fees for postgraduate (including unaccredited)/higher education or study.
For more information, visit The Arts Council.