CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Short Audio Plays For WE TREATY PEOPLE – Burnt Thicket Theatre’s New Fiction Podcast

Burnt Thicket Theatre welcomes play submissions for a new series of digital audio dramas from diverse artists exploring the question, “What does it mean to embrace all our relations?” Be provoked by this original fiction podcast and hear the stirring call to truth and reconciliation in our neighbourhoods, all across Canada. Captivating, unsettling, refreshing.

Up to 9 episodes will premiere digitally from January to May, 2022 (dates to be confirmed).

Guidelines

Scripts must be: 

• submitted in PDF format
• have a running length of approximately 15-30 minutes 
• be written for performance as audio-only or be readily adaptable as an audio play 
• be written in English
• require no more than 4 actors
• must be a finished draft, though first drafts are acceptable

Preference will be given to unproduced new work which fits with our mission and values.

Playwrights selected will receive a fee of $675 minimum, at least 2 hours of dramaturgy, with an expectation of at least one round of playwriting revisions to their script, followed by a rehearsal process with professional actors, recording and online release between November 2021 – March 2022.

Submission Deadline: September 20, 2021

Submit by email with script and resume attached to Stephen Waldschmidt, artistic director, at: stephen@burntthicket.com

More about this project:

Audio recordings of nine live performances will be released every other week, alternating with artist interviews in the off weeks. Each episode will be accompanied by interactive suggestions for learning more or ways to engage the episode with friends. We will also host monthly Audience Talkbacks with artists and special guests over Zoom. 

Creating this audio drama series will build on what we learned with our first fiction podcast Tied In Knots. Most of our productions are inspired by true events. For these audio plays the playwrights will be asked to respond to the thematic question about what it means to be Treaty People, using their lives in Canada as raw material for their stories. Listeners will experience a visceral immersion in other human beings’ lived experience. That understanding will invite artists and audiences to live more intentionally for the common good of all – particularly in the critical realm of relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. 

As a company we are seeking to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Call To Action #83, to support good ways “for Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists to undertake collaborative projects and produce works that contribute to the reconciliation process.” We are mindful also of the Calls For Justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, particularly #6.1 which urges artists and arts producers to “take decolonizing approaches to their work” and to “support Indigenous people sharing their stories, from their perspectives, free of bias, discrimination, and false assumptions, and in a trauma-informed and culturally sensitive way.” This project will leverage a storytelling platform to amplify the voices of artists who identify as Indigenous, Black or Persons of Colour. 

Treaty People is supported by a Digital Now grant from Canada Council for the Arts.

About Burnt Thicket Theatre

We’re an independent professional company producing live theatre and online performance that brings awareness to real issues in our community, planting seeds for positive social change. Our mission is to tell stories that change people’s lives. We lead artists and audiences to live more intentionally for the common good of Canadian society. Our vision is a world of hopeful people who know their immeasurable value in the midst of brokenness and who work together towards a shared future marked by justice, equality and love. Created in 2007 in Calgary, Burnt Thicket moved to Saskatoon in 2017. In those years we have generated 8 professional touring productions (6 world premieres) which performed in 27 cities across Canada from Halifax to Victoria, impacting thousands of audience members and garnering critical acclaim.