CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Bad Hats is thrilled to announce the return of our new play development stream, New Bad Ideas. Bad Hats is seeking submissions from creative teams or individuals developing a new work or new adaptation intended for family audiences. We’re looking for pieces in which music forms an integral part of the story; these can be new musicals or plays with music at any stage of development, including pieces that are still in their conceptual phase.
This is a paid opportunity in which creatives will be compensated for a structured development period. We will be selecting two pieces to participate in the program. Each new work will receive dramaturgical support over a three-month period from late March to late June 2022. Following the development period in July 2022, Bad Hats will film an excerpt from each piece for the writing teams’ continued use in future development. The program will be Curated by Matt Pilipiak [Managing & Artistic Producer, Bad Hats] and Fiona Sauder [Artistic Director, Bad Hats]. The development period will be facilitated by Andrew Cheng [York University, fu-GEN Theatre, Silk Bath Collective], with additional dramaturgical support from the Bad Hats core team.
Priority will be given to teams who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and/or Next Generation Artists.
Deadline for submissions is Friday February 25, 2022 at 11:59PM.
Once you have prepared your submission, please complete the following Google Form to submit your project:
The Program and its Benefits:
Allocated funding of $3,000 per project.
An additional resources fee to cover individual project needs, including but not limited to masterclasses, supplemented writing time or dramaturgical support, supplies, and extra workshop support.
Access to mentorship from the Bad Hats Core Team. We’ll provide you with resources and tools for personal artistic development and further development of your work, including strategies for getting your work programmed in the future.
Dramaturgical support throughout the program from Dramaturg, Andy Cheng. This dramaturgy will be uniquely tailored to where your piece currently is and where it wants to go.
An opportunity to workshop your piece with Bad Hats’ Artistic Director, Fiona Sauder and an ensemble of Actors.
A filmed excerpt of your piece that can be shared with your community or artistic leaders that might be interested in developing or presenting your work, used on grant applications, or as promotional material for you as an artist.
Who is Eligible?
Any professional Artist, 18 years of age and older, who is a Canadian Resident.
Priority will be given to the following groups:
BIPOC Artists
LGBTQIA+ Artists
Next Generation Artists (Aged 18 - 30)
NEW WORK.
NEW VOICES.
NEW IDEAS FOR ALL AGES.
PROGRAM HISTORY:
This program began in partnership with the City of Mississauga, and was originally structured to culminate in a “workshop performance” in Mississauga’s Celebration Square, giving our artists a chance to test their new material on a live audience. Our first New Bad Idea, Princess Frownsalot, went on to be programmed by Roseneath Theatre.
The program continued to grow in 2019, with additional support from Theatre Direct, and we commissioned BLOOM, by Eliza Martin. Eliza shares about her experience, ”New Bad Ideas offered me an invaluable opportunity: it gave me artistic and financial support that, as an emerging creator, I hadn’t yet experienced. It afforded me the time to value my own growth and build my confidence in writing for children. Shortly after the program concluded, I secured a children’s book deal!”
In 2020, we switched New Bad Ideas to an online platform, reframing our inability to gather in-person as an opportunity to work with artists from across the country. Our 2020 New Bad Idea, Tune to A, was written by Edmonton-based artists Carly Neis, Cynthia Jimenez- Hicks, and Cameron Kneteman. Tune to A will receive its world premiere with Edmonton’s Azumith Theatre in Spring 2022.
In 2021, the program expanded to support three new pieces: Dakota Ray-Hebert’s Dreamer & The Turtle, Germaine Konji and Ben Page’s The Lobster Who Cried Person, and Jewelle Blackman and Chantal Forde’s Boy Boy & The Magic Drum. Chantal Forde on her experience, “Bad Hats Theatre provided us with an invaluable opportunity to develop our show and further our artistic learning. Their expertise and unending support allowed us to dig into our material bravely and work towards a goal. Their dedication to new work, new artists, and theatre in general is commendable.”
The New Bad Ideas Program was a dream incubator for our new work. While in early stages of musical development, it is so rare to have a space to create in that embraces you to come as the artist that you are, wherever you may be in the midst of the creative process-and this is precisely what New Bad Ideas did exceptionally. So much of the program was built in conversation with what we as creators said we most needed- from masterclasses, to scheduling, to allocation of the budget.
Somehow, even while creating space for the needs of your present artist, the program also shines at giving you many lessons and tools that will grow you and dare to try something new!
New Bad Ideas 2022 is made possible, in part, from the generous support of the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council.
