anywhere theatre festival information for producers

Anywhere Theatre Festival

www.anywherefest.com

Anywhere Theatre Festival. A Jam & Bread [email protected] +617 3102 1978 skype:jamandbread 1

Anywhere Theatre Festival5-14 May 2011

Introduction Pack for ProducersVersion 2.1: 11th July 2010

Anywhere Theatre Festival ................................................................................................................................1

Welcome and thank you..........................................................................................................................................2

What is the Anywhere Theatre Festival? ..................................................................................................................3

Why you should be part of the Anywhere Theatre Festival .......................................................................................4

Why is the Anywhere Theatre Festival different? .....................................................................................................5

How much will it cost? ............................................................................................................................................7

I really like lists. Tell me again, what do I get by registering? ...................................................................................8

Important dates......................................................................................................................................................9

Your next move.......................................................................................................................................................9

Other information .................................................................................................................................................11

”Yeah, but…” Fact sheet.....................................................................................................................................12

Theatre companies doing work outside of traditional theatre venues.....................................................................15




Welcome and thank you

If you’re reading this you’re a producer/writer/performer/actor/director and you want to find out more detail aboutthe Anywhere Theatre Festival with the intention of getting involved. Great!

We hope this pack gives you enough answers for you to want to give us a call immediately and start talking about aproduction.

The Anywhere Theatre Festival will run for ten exciting days in 2011 from May 5th to 14th. It is the first theatrefestival to get around the lack of theatre venues in Brisbane by only allowing productions that don’t use them.Shows can be anywhere – a park, a backyard, a bedroom, an elevator, a street, a train, on twitter, even Second Life.Anywhere except a “traditional” venue.

The idea for the festival came about after Jam & Bread’s exhaustive search for a suitable permanent venue inBrisbane earlier this year came to a disappointing end after a number of very near misses. We realised that if aproduction of Waiting for Godot with Ian McKellen can’t get a few nights at QPAC, we’ve got Buckley’s chance offinding a theatre space we can use all year.

Once we started thinking about eliminating venues from the picture, the festival, the rolling snowball that is nowthe Anywhere Theatre Festival began to take shape.

We realised that by creating a festival we can eliminate many of the issues preventing theatre practitioners fromdoing more work outside of theatres and provide a bigger profile for those already questioning what theatre isthrough different performance styles and environments.

We provide an organisational framework for theatre companies while providing a marketing focus and a criticalmass for potential audiences to come along. Just as importantly, you take the box office.

We look forward to you getting involved in the Anywhere Theatre Festival. It’s going to be an exciting ride

Paul OsuchAnywhere Theatre Festival

Next page: What is the Anywhere Theatre Festival?




What is the Anywhere Theatre Festival?

The Anywhere Theatre Festival (May 5th – 14th) is the first theatre festival to get around the lack of theatre venues inBrisbane by only allowing productions that don’t use them. The festival will be anywhere – a park, a backyard, abedroom, an elevator, a street, a train, on twitter, even Second Life. Anywhere except a “traditional” venue.

The festival will provide the opportunity for performers and theatre companies to create a unique opportunity tofocus on story, experience and connection with the audience.

For audiences it provides a new experience combining the excitement of theatre without the fussiness andformality, the new without the restrictions of the old. The success of Brisbane Backyards at Brisbane Festival or theInhabit Festival demonstrated the interested in non theatre outside the theatre and now the Anywhere TheatreFestival brings these together with the best of site specific theatre, local theatre companies and internationalcompanies never before seen in Brisbane.

Our aim is to propel a world wide trend for exciting, engaging, passionate theatre outside of traditional theatrespaces. Story telling began as something we did around camp fires and over time it has evolved into high artghettoised into theatre venues. A lot of it is amazing stuff, but the Anywhere Theatre Festival is a brazen attempt tostrip away the artifice of “going to the theatre” to reconnect audiences with theatre, with story telling and withperformance anywhere we like and to have a damn good time.

We're not saying we are the first people to think of it. Far from it. That’s why we know there is demand for a festivalfrom performers and audiences. Directors and companies from Eugenia Barbo, Complicite, shunt, forcedentertainment, Zecora Ura, Zen Zen Zo, Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble and Queensland Arts Council haveembraced site specific theatre, promenade theatre, flash mob theatre and the "perform anywhere" idea in manydifferent shapes and forms.

We want to take it to the next level and shine a spotlight on it over ten exciting days here in Brisbane. Nontraditional and traditional theatre: Faust in a railway yard, tour theatre, “Glengarry Glen Ross” in a real estate agentoffice, live art. It will include site specific stuff and productions in places that lack any connection at all.

The only stipulation: it’s not in a theatre.

Next page: Why you should be part of the Anywhere Theatre Festival




Why you should be part of the Anywhere Theatre Festival

By being registered you get to utilise festival resources, from marketing and promotional focus on the festival,centralised ticketing, front of house, umbrella public liability, networking events, etc. All for a price less than aquarter page ad in Time Off, or Scene or map magazine or… well, you get the idea. Even if you only look at yourinvolvement as part of your production’s marketing plan you’ll be ahead.

Anywhere Theatre Festival is run by Paul Osuch, who has a wealth of experience in producing and marketingtheatre in Australia and the U.K, from sell out seasons of “All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane” and “Friday NightDrinks” at the 200 seat Cement Box Theatre (Geoffrey Rush Studio) to productions of “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’sNest” at the 600 seat Cochrane Theatre in London’s West End and the annual New Writing and Directors Season atthe Battersea Arts Centre.

The festival has been timed to allow for productions touring to other festivals, is in a gap in the Brisbane calendarand the climate is cool but not too cool.

Being part of the festival gives you the opportunity to trial new material, do one off shows that would beprohibitively expensive to market if not part of a festival or simply do a show you have already planned and benefitfrom the additional support and coverage.

Also, we don’t curate and we don’t take the box office. That goes to you.

If you already do site specific, promenade or live artFestival marketing focus provides an ideal opportunity to expand and broaden your audience through combinedmarketing initiatives, centralised ticket booking and word of mouth.

Coordination of umbrella insurance, group submissions to councils, location managers, front of house – all toreduce the administrative workload so you can focus on the production.

If you normally produce within a “traditional venue”Have your tried booking a theatre venue recently? Remove the cost from your budget and see what a difference itmakes.

Depending on the style of show, your production costs in lighting, sound, etc will also be reduced or at the veryworst, the same. This means that there is greater potential for income to go to the artists involved in the show.

The festival combines theatre and performance created beyond theatre walls with productions that may have beenadapted from another life inside a theatre.

Check out the “Yeah, but…” fact sheet which should answer some questions about the practicalities

Next page: Why is the anywhere Theatre Festival different?




Why is the Anywhere Theatre Festival Different?

Good question, and you’ve come to the right place to get the answer.

1. It isn’t curated, but we want to talk with you about your production before you confirm your show andregister. We want to do this because this is the inaugural festival. It’s going to be very hard, well,impossible actually, to find someone to talk to about their experiences at the last festival. Instead, wewant to advise you on what we think you should consider and give some advice if this is the first time youhave considered a production outside a traditional theatre environment.

We also have the advantage that we know all the other companies getting involved and may be able tosuggest people to talk to in case there is potential for shows to work together or to prevent twocompanies doing a production of the same text. We’re happy if you decide to do it, but at least you’llknow someone else is out there instead of discovering six other productions of “Midsummer Night’sDream” when the program is released.

2. There will be two important dates in sorting your production with us. November 1st and February 1st. Whytwo dates, and what’s the difference?

November 1st Registration Date

• Part of all the New Year guides promoting the year of theatre in Brisbane.

• More time for support from Anywhere Theatre Festival, particularly in securing spaces for theevent, part of the group submission to councils and location management for use of spaces andpart of the coordinated effort to coordinate locations, ticket prices, potential sponsors

• Greater potential to gain additional sponsorship dollars as part of the Anywhere TheatreFestival’s sponsorship seeking program

February 1st Final Confirmation date

• By this date all productions need to have finalised all details. If you register with us byNovember 1st you will be part of Anywhere Theatre Festival negotiations. If you get involvedlater and register between November 1st and February 1st, the registration cost will increase 1%per day past November 1st to a top of 20%.

3. You don’t have to scramble for venues that have over inflated their prices for the period of the festivalbecause you won’t be using a traditional venue. A week at the Sue Benner Theatre at Metro Arts was$2,000 a little while ago. An 80 seat venue at the Edinburgh Fringe will set you back the equivalent of$2,000-$4,000 a week and you’ll probably only have it for two hours a day.

If you register by November 1st, we guarantee we will work with you to suggest potential locations andput you in our first submission to Brisbane City Council to have any permissions you may need. We won’tcharge you for that.

4. We will be running a centralised box office. The centralised box office provides you with additional profileas well as a worry free ticketing system AND the box office goes to you.

5. We will be organising events in the lead up and during the festival for producers and performers to easilytalk with each other about ideas and collective issues.

6. Being part of a collective marketing effort will maximise potential audiences for a minimal spend.




7. The festival will run an umbrella public liability policy for the period of the festival. Indicative quotes havealready been provided and are only a fraction of what you would be paying for a venue… and that’s onecost you no longer have to worry about.

8. We will be organising festival wide sponsorship connected to the festival. We will liaise with you toensure no clashes occur and will funnel any sponsorship opportunities that may sit better with individualproductions.

9. Oh, did we mention this is the first festival of its kind in the world and we are going to make it happen inBrisbane. There are “street festivals”, there are fringe festivals that include some work that would fit atthe Anywhere Theatre Festival, but this will be the first of its kind. The potential to create new theatreaudiences, develop performance methodologies and create a new regular festival in Brisbane different toanything else is huge and we want you to be part of it.

We want the festival to be an amazing experience for everyone involved: performers, volunteers, sponsors,organisations, and most importantly, the audience. If you have any questions at any time, contact me direct andwe’ll get it sorted so we can make this thing not just good, but incredible.

Next page: How much will it cost and what do I get?




How much will it cost?

Registration costs for November 1st deadline:

• One Off or Free Event $200

• Two to five performances $250

• Greater than 5 performances $300

• Production Company registration (multiple productions / performances) : $400

Registration cost will increase 1% per day after the November 1st deadline to a top of 20%.

Other announcements will be made over coming months with further initiatives, but the four tiers above are themain ways to get involved with the festival.

In case you are wondering, this is how it stacks up to other festivals

• Hollywood Fringe - US$400

• Edinburgh Fringe - UK£385

• Melbourne Fringe (2009) Free events: AU$220, One-off (i.e. 1 date) ticketed events: $220, Ticketed Events: $300

• Adelaide Fringe (2011) Up to 3 performances AU$210, Greater than 3 performances AU$395

Next page: I really like lists. Tell me again, what do I get by registering?




I really like lists. Tell me again, what do I get by registering?

1. Inclusion in the Anywhere Theatre Festival guide

2. Inclusion in group space negotiations with councils, venues, advertising buying, etc

3. Box office goes direct to you.

4. Inclusion in all festival marketing and PR materials (space permitting)

5. Assistance in planning productions, particularly in location and marketing

6. Access to the Anywhere Theatre Festival Producers web site, full of resources, blogs, announcements, andeverything you will need to know in one handy location.

7. Invitation to the producer and performer information sessions leading up to and during the festival

8. Centralised box office facilities for all events and online booking system1

9. Discounted tickets to see other festival productions2

10. Access to the festival publicist

11. Inclusion in the Anywhere Theatre Festival web site

12. To be part of an exciting and innovative festival that is the only one of its kind that gives you theopportunity to do exciting work and minimise extraneous expenses…like venue hire

The Anywhere Theatre Festival is not curated, but it will be coordinated. Unlike larger festivals, we want to workwith you as your prepare to register your production.

It is still up to you to manage the other components of theatrical production: casting, rehearsal spaces, staging,logistics, rehearsal and show specific public liability and marketing.

We will be able to advise and liaise with all companies to get better deals through bulk booking, but it will still beyour ultimate responsibility to ensure the production opens.

If there is something else you would like us to offer, give us a call and we can discuss.

Next page: Important Dates

1 Details to be confirmed2 Details to be confirmed




Important datesSeptember 1st Registrations open

October 1st Anywhere Producers and performers session to get together, ask questions or hear others askquestions prior to the first registration deadline

November 1st Registration deadline

Nov 2nd – Jan 31st Work with Anywhere Theatre Festival to confirm all details of your production in the context ofthe entire festival:

• Location

• Audience numbers

• Ticket prices,

• Festival wide and production specific marketing plan,

• Potential Sponsorship arrangement

• Marketing materials, blurbs, etc

Pre Christmas Marketing of festival in year end guides. Productions registered by November 1st to be included

February 1st Second and final registration deadline and commencement of festival marketing activities

May 5th Official Anywhere Theatre Festival Opening

May 14th Last day of the Anywhere Theatre Festival

May 21st Festival debrief

Next page: Your next move




Your next moveOkay, so you’ve made it this far and want to know the next steps. Here they are

1. Make sure you follow us on twitter @anywherefest, join the Facebook Group Anywhere Theatre Festivaland follow the blog site at www.anywherefest.com. As we make announcements or have furtherinformation, we’ll make sure it is available here.

2. Talk with us about expressing interest and tell us about your project.

3. Confirm the overall details of your production. For example, you may not know exactly where you aregoing to perform but you will know the type of location you are looking for.

4. Register with us. Details on how to register will be announced before the registration open date ofSeptember 1st

5. Put together your marketing strategy / plan and talk with us. If we know fifteen productions are planningto advertise in a particular place, there will be opportunities to reduce your cost by combining theadvertising spend.

6. Do your thing to prepare your show

7. Come to producer / performer information sharing sessions

8. Market your show.

9. Put on a kick arse production, see what everyone else is doing at the Anywhere Theatre Festival

10. Come along to the debrief and start planning for next year.

Next page: Other Information




Other informationBig Producers PacksWe are currently working on a specific producers pack for the Anywhere Theatre Festival that includes checklists,example budgets, and marketing plans. This will be made available on the Anywhere Theatre Festival producers’site. In the meantime, here are three we didn’t prepare earlier to get the juices flowing:

• Melbourne Fringe 2010 Producer’s Pack

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/for-artists

This is our current pick of the packs. Full of very useful stuff including a budget template and a riskassessment template, which will be a very important part of any production involved in the AnywhereTheatre Festival. They also have a page of different artist resources that may be of interest athttp://www.melbournefringe.com.au/for-artists/artist-resources

• The Edinburgh Fringe Guide to doing a show

http://edfringerenewal.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/fringe-guide-to-doing-a-show.pdf

Lot of colour and hot pink in this one so check your magenta toner levels before deciding to print this onein colour. Gives some good example budgets for different types of shows. Obviously all the prices are inpounds (and inflated Edinburgh Fringe pounds at that) but useful as a starting point or a second referenceafter the Melbourne Fringe 2010 Producer’s Pack

• taking part in Adelaide Fringe 2010

http://www.adelaidefringe.com.au/getdoc/80707474-ce83-47c2-b502-ab182272c9f1/TakingPart_2010.aspx

Best part of this is the “Some important things to consider” and “Still more important things to consider”which is a nice three page summary of points covered in more detail over many more pages in Edinburghand Melbourne Fringe packs

If you have trouble finding any of the documents, let us know and we’ll find them for you

Next page: “Yeah but…?” Fact Sheet




”Yeah, but…” Fact sheetAnswering your difficult questions about the practicalities of the festival.

Q: Who is behind the Anywhere Theatre Festival?

A: The festival is the brain child of Paul Osuch, director and a graduate of the NIDA Playwrights Studio. His playshave been performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and several London venues including “Remote Control”downstairs at the Hampstead Theatre. He was Artistic Director of Borderline Defamation Productions, directing theworld premiere of many plays, including “All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane” by Stephen Vagg, which has sincebeen adapted into a feature length film. He has worked in and around many venues in the U.K. and U.S. as aplaywright, director and producer. He marketed productions of “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” in London’s WestEnd and the annual New Writing and Directors Season at the Battersea Arts Centre. He has always focussed on newinitiatives, running or consulting for events such as “The Green Room” in London and “Short and Sweet” inBrisbane. He has been back in Brisbane for a year and this is Jam & Bread’s second major project.

Q: Is the festival curated or open to anyone?

A: The festival is not curated, but it is coordinated. It is open to anyone who registers, pays and adheres to theconditions of registration. We want to work with you more than major festivals like the Melbourne or EdinburghFringe allow to finalise your registration so that we can do little things like advise you that there are already threeother companies interested in doing “Midsummer Night’s Dream” through to assistance in negotiating a venue or amore powerful bang for your marketing buck where multiple productions have similar plans.

Q: What is the purpose of the festival?

A: To start a world wide trend creating opportunities for exciting, engaging, passionate theatre to be presentedoutside of theatre spaces. Story telling began as something we did around camp fires and over time it has evolvedinto high art ghettoised within theatre venues. The Anywhere Theatre Festival is a brazen attempt to strip away theartifice of “going to the theatre” to reconnect audiences with theatre, with story telling anywhere we like, anytime.

Q: Doesn’t Brisbane Festival do this already?

A: They did do bits of it in 2009 and will no doubt do the same in 2010 with the Backyard program and Under TheRadar. But the Brisbane Festival is in September and the Anywhere Theatre Festival is in May. Our research backs upour gut feeling that Brisbane can support more than one festival a year with theatre in it. The Brisbane Festival isfantastic, as is the laneways fiesta and we will add to the Brisbane calendar with the Anywhere Theatre Festival.Premiere with us or do a return season with us after Brisbane Festival if you want. Or do something completelydifferent. We’re not expecting monogamy from productions. If Anywhere Theatre Festival allows your production tohave an extended life then go for it.

Q: What can be presented? Short plays, Full Length, Circus, Shakespeare, already performedproductions?

A: Short answer to all those are yes except circus and that has more to do with public liability, but if you can sortthat out and it fits in a sort of outside the box kind of way then absolutely. We are encouraging full length, hourlong and shorter (bring your Metro, Short & Sweet production if you want) to the festival.

Q: If we aren’t performing in a traditional venue, won’t the cost of public liability kill us?

A: No. Indicative quotes have already been obtained for the period of the festival and they are quite reasonablewhen done as an entire festival. You will still need your own public liability on a production level, but if this is a newarea to you we can help you out an area you are to cover your rehearsals, which you would need anyway.




Q: If we don’t use a venue, won’t we have to buy or hire all the things used in a theatre – lighting,sound, rostra, seating, etc?

A: No, not necessarily. The ethos of the festival is to show that theatre can be performed anywhere and you don’tnecessarily need _ of your budget spent on the technical elements. To use a production that has been pitched to usas an example, performing “The Duck Variations” on a park bench in the middle of the day could require little morethan a park bench, audience seating to allow 20-40 people, the actors and front of house staff organised by theFestival. You could go to the other extreme with a full rostra, lighting rig, etc.

Q: If we are performing out in the open, surely anyone can watch… and what about rain?

A: Just because the festival is called the Anywhere Theatre Festival, it doesn’t mean you have to perform in theopen. It can be anywhere as long as it isn’t a traditional theatre space. If it is in the open, there will be a number ofincentives for ticket purchase, including seating and other benefits. Performance spaces will be chosen to minimisethe impact of rain with nearby alternative spaces.

Q: When do we need to flag our interest and get involved?

A: See the “What are the important dates?” section above

Q: Hang on, there’s a registration date of November 1st and a final details date of February 1st – howdoes that work?

A: You do not need all the details of your show confirmed before you register. If you do, that’s great, but given thenature of the festival, we expect that between November 1st and February 1st we will be working with all registeredtheatre companies to ensure the festival is coordinated and similar needs between companies are addressed. Forexample, two different companies may register to do shows with a large cast and a requirement to be near a river.The festival will work with both companies to determine if the same location could be used and how that wouldsave time and money in marketing and production. All these details would then be sorted by February 1st for themajor marketing push and for tickets to go online for sale.

Q: We are an interstate or overseas company? Can we be involved?

A: Absolutely. We will be announcing a number of schemes to make it as easy as possible for you to schedule aproduction. We’ll also be releasing more information during the year explaining the ins and out of getting involvedin the festival.

Q: You are a festival. Where does the box office go?

A: To you.

Q: I’m still unclear.

A: Contact us to talk through potential stumbling blocks and let us explain why you should be involved in thefestival.

twitter @anywherefest

blog/web www.anywherefest.com

facebook Anywhere Theatre Festival

phone +617 3102 1978

email [email protected]




Other Festivals

Want your production to go to other festivals? Here’s a brief list of some major festivals to assist with yourplanning.

Festival Name Date

Adelaide Festival 2-18 March 2012 (no 2011)

Adelaide Fringe Festival 18 Feb – 13 March 2011

Melbourne Comedy Festival March to April

Easter 22 – 25 April

Anywhere Theatre Festival 5 – 14 May

State of Origin Late May to late June

Out of The Box Festival 8-14 June

Pride Festival 1 – 27 June

Brisbane Cabaret Festival Wed 16 June 2010 - Sat 26 June2010

Adelaide Cabaret Festival June 11 to 26.

Inhabit Fiesta 10 – 27 June 2010

Queensland Music Festival July

Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival August

Edinburgh Fringe Festival 6 – 30 August 2010

Brisbane Writers Festival September

Brisbane Festival 4-25 September

Valley Fiesta October

Brisbane International Film Festival 4-14 November

Melbourne Fringe Festival 22 Sep – 10 October




Site Specific / Promenade Theatre

Theatre companies doing work outside of traditional theatre venues

• Dood Part• Forced Entertainment (www.forcedentertainment.com/)• Rimini Protokoll (www.rimini-protokoll.de/)• Blast Theory (www.blasttheory.co.uk ) “Kidnapped”• Tim Crouch (www.newsfromnowhere.com)• Dream Think Speak (http://www.dreamthinkspeak.com/home.htm)• Duncan Speakman (http://duncanspeakman.net/)• Zecora Ura (www.zecoraura.com/ )(U.K., Brasil)• shunt (www.shunt.co.uk/) (U.K)• Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble (Qld)• Zen Zen Zo (Qld)• Oenterend Goed “Smile off your face”• Dogtroep www.dogtroep.nl/ (Netherlands)• Walkabout Theater http://walkabouttheater.squarespace.com/ (Chicago, USA)• Supernatural Chicago (Chicago, USA)[8]• Scrap and Salvage (San Francisco, USA)• Wilson+Wilson (UK)• Back To Back Theater (Australia)• Skewed Visions (Minnesota, USA)[9]• Grid Iron (Scotland, UK)• Semper Fi (Ireland)• Forster & Heighes (England, UK)• Reial Companyia de Teatre de Catalunya (Barcelona, Catalonia)• The Sans Walk Project (London, UK)• Frantic Assembly 'Dirty Wonderland) (England, UK)• seven sisters group (England, UK)• in situ: (England, UK)

anywhere theatre festival information for producers

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