Bric a brac logo

Artist callout:

The Curiosities Collective

Associate Company Bric à Brac Theatre are launching a new programme at St Margaret’s House - the Curiosities Collective! Building on their successful programming at the Pleasance Futures Fest and regular cabaret nights, Bric à Brac are now turning their passion for performance and artist development into an 8-week peer-led scheme, supporting emerging artists to have dedicated time and space to prepare a new act for the stage! The programme will include 7 workshops led by members of the company and guest facilitators, and a cabaret showcase that will take place at St Margaret’s House in Bethnal Green. Artists will also receive mentoring in the form of two 1-hour long Zoom sessions with members of Bric à Brac and a £50 contribution towards their act (to be spent however the artist sees fit!) As a team who are often applying to schemes ourselves we wanted to make the application process as straightforward as possible so we will be using a lottery system to decide who is in the collective. More information on that below. There are 6 spaces in the collective, for either solo performers or double acts to fill.

A person in a yellow costume and pink wig sitting on a chair next to a pink and yellow swan. model.

About Bric à Brac

Bric à Brac Theatre are a Lecoq-trained devising collective who have been making work together since 2014. We focus on making feminist theatre shows and live experiences, using sound and multimedia, to create productions which ask provocative questions. We work collaboratively to push boundaries and to champion stories we do not see onstage. Our most recent show, Glass Ceiling Beneath the Stars, premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe 2023 at the Pleasance. We have been Associate Company at the New Diorama (18/19) and the Pleasance (19/21). You can see more of our work here: https://www.bricabractheatre.com/

What you get by being part of Curiosities Collective

  • 7 tailored workshops run by theatre makers and performers 

  • £50 bursary towards your act

  • Any reasonable costs for additional access support

  • Rehearsal space at St Margaret’s House (availability tbc)

  • One to One mentoring sessions with Bric à Brac Theatre who will support and champion you throughout the scheme

  • One free ticket (per act) to the cabaret for a guest

  • A chance to create a new piece of work for the stage in a safe and supportive environment with other artists 

  • A 10-minute slot at a cabaret night at St Margaret’s House

  • Producing advice and industry connections to take your act further

Who is this opportunity for?

This opportunity is open to any SOLO PERFORMERS or DOUBLE ACTS who want to make a 10-minute piece of performance to go onstage at the end of the process. We really believe in the benefits of working collaboratively and to a deadline so we hope that this process will allow all the participants to not only have a fixed date to perform a new piece of work, but also to form a community of artists during the workshops. You do not need to have made a similar piece before, it might be your first foray into a new performance style or it might be that you just want some time to hone a new idea. We welcome applications from any kind of performance that would work on a cabaret bill; be that clown, character, drag, performance art, musical comedy…anything weird and wonderful is welcome! If you have an idea and the desire to make it into a stage-ready piece then this is the right space for you!

Our aim is that this programme feeds into the work happening across the sector to address underrepresentation. This means that we particularly encourage applications from creatives who are from Global Majority or from working-class backgrounds, are D/deaf or disabled or who experience mental ill-health or neurodivergence. 

Why are we using a lottery system to select participants?

We have experienced forms that take hours to complete and understand that in the current climate the amount of free work required to fill out applications is unsustainable. We also know from curating in the past the amount of applications that are brilliant far outweigh the amount of slots we’re given. This makes giving feedback very difficult as there’s often nothing wrong with the applications! We have therefore decided to make this process as simple as possible through a lottery process from those that fit the criteria. Applicants will only have to answer a few tick box questions to determine eligibility and have a baseline of what is expected from the programme (dates required, willingness to perform) then once we have received all applications we will use a lottery system to randomly pick the 6 successful candidates. We believe this will give us an exciting mix of artists and also by making the application process simpler it will not require a lot of time to complete it. This programme is for anyone who wants to make a 10-minute piece of work, and thus we feel the writing of an application shouldn’t determine who gets to take part.

When is the deadline for applications?

Applications are now closed - thank you to everyone who applied! We will be in contact week commencing 15th January.