The performances will be on Saturday, 29th February 2020 as part of the Takeover Festival. There will be a matinee and evening performance.

The Upsetters make theatre written by writers of colour, directed by directors of colour and performed by actors of colour in all roles unless the script specifies otherwise. At the moment, they feel that theatre has an unconscious bias which they want to overcome by creating opportunities for those from underrepresented groups to have their work seen and performed.

They believe in accessibility,here’s what they do to make events more accessible to artists and audiences:

• Paying artists.
• Captioning events using The Difference Engine for D/deaf and hard of hearing audiences.
• Subsidised rehearsal space through our partnership with Theatre Deli London.
• Relaxed performances for neurodivergent audiences.
• 10% of all tickets go to the Black Ticket Project.
• Wheelchair accessible venue.

Guidelines  

• Plays should be 15 minutes long, either as a short play or an extract from a longer play.
• If you submit an extract, it should stand on its own as an outstanding piece of writing.
• Only one submission per writer.
• Pieces do not need to be on any particular theme or genre. However, they do have a few limitations on the scripts.
  • They ask that casts are kept to no more than four people.
  • They do accept monologues.
  • They also ask that writers try to keep props and staging to a minimum.
  • Plays will be performed on top of whatever set is already present at the Bunker Theatre.
  • They only accept scripts from writers of colour.*
• All writers involved will be paid £100.00.
• Actors and directors will also be paid for the performances.
• They will provide notes and guidance to all scripts selected.
• Rehearsal space is being provided through our partnership with Theatre Deli London. They will have a full week reserved in the lead up to the show and will arrange time slots with each director.
• They can also provide links to other affordable rehearsal spaces if you require additional rehearsal time.
• They will work with writers and directors to caption your scripts which will then be imported into The Difference Engine so that D/deaf and hard of hearing audience members can enjoy your writing.

*While we fully appreciate that other groups including disabled, neurodivergent, D/deaf or LGBTQ+ are also underrepresented, our focus is on BAMER artists. However, we 100% welcome, encourage and would love intersectional creatives of colour to send us their work.
We respectfully ask that white creatives do not submit work to us. While we fully appreciate the support and would love to see them in our audiences, we really want to bring artists of colour front and centre.

Deadline 

Sunday, 19th January 2020.

https://www.theupsetters.co.uk/script-submissions