Young Vic Continues Support And Development Of Theatre-makers Through Spring 2022 Announcements

The Young Vic today continues its commitment to supporting and developing early- and mid-career theatre-makers, as well as its mission of demystifying areas of the sector that appear most opaque, through the announcement of:

· The official launch of the Young Vic's Creators Program - formerly the Directors Program - as a home for supporting and nurturing multi and anti-disciplinary artists through free events, workshops and paid opportunities

· A new process for the Young Vic's artistic team to receive script submissions that better reflects the different ways theatre work is generated, allowing creators to share work in ways best fitting to their voice and vision

· A new series of YV:IDemystify events: free public discussions in partnership with industry experts aimed at catalysing debate in and about the theatre sector, with free tickets available from 12noon today

Creators Program Launch

Following over two decades of supporting early-career and experienced artists, the Young Vic Directors Program is today reimagined as the Creators Program, which aims to celebrate multi and anti-disciplinary artists and processes, challenge and re-imagine future practice, and support a wider range of opportunities for creating work.

Sue Emmas, Associate Artistic Director of the Young Vic and Creators Program lead, said: "We are expanding the scope of the existing program to match the breadth of skills of our members, of our Genesis Network and the ambitions they have for the future of theatre-making. The Creators Program is inviting artists to cross art forms, and to take on a variety of roles within those forms. We are continuing to equip artists for the reality of today and the future."

Through the Creators Program, the Young Vic will continue to support nearly 2,000 artists with creative workshops, assistantships and career-changing opportunities to make and share work.

One such upcoming project is Creative Headspace #2 a paid opportunity for up to 50 members of the Genesis Network to create for the Young Vic's TikTok channel while also receiving support and workshops for working in the medium.

Another project is Exploring Co-Leading & Multidisciplinary Making facilitated by Genesis Fellow and Associate Director Jennifer Tang, which explores how theatre work can be made outside of traditional theatre structures.

Next month, with Introduction to Making the Young Vic will explore multi-disciplinary theatre making with 18- to 25-year-olds who are Black or from the Global Majority, LGBTQIA+ / Queer and/or self-identify as working class.

The Creators Program builds on and extends the legacy of our partnership with the Genesis Foundation who have provided leadership support for our talent development program over the past twenty years. The three vital offerings of the Genesis Network, the Genesis Fellowship and the Genesis Future Directors Awards will continue to provide opportunities for artists to develop their craft.

The Young Vic also welcomes Esmée Fairbairn Foundation as a lead supporter of the Creators Program. All year-round creative activity - from workshops to public forums and discussions - will be made possible with their generous support.

New Ideas & Submission Process

Tying in with the launch of the Creators Program, the Young Vic will reach out to a wider range of artists by opening up new ways for them to introduce their work to the Young Vic's Artistic Team.

Ways in which scripts have been assessed traditionally or how plays have been developed in the past did not always reflect how the Young Vic wants to make work, and may not be true to how theatre-makers create their work or define their artistic identity.

The Young Vic will now invite artists to share proposals for a range of forms and in a range of formats. From today, creators of work for the stage are invited to submit projects, proposals or plans in ways best fitting their voice and vision-whether that's through visuals, video, audio or in writing.

Creative Associate Teunkie Van Der Sluijs, who looks after the development of new work, said: "We want to make it easier for artists to reach out to us, share their work, and inspire us with their ambitions and ideas. We also recognize that great theatre doesn't always need to start from a script. Traditional processes of assessing plays alone can be both lengthy and narrowly focussed. It doesn't always help the artist or the art to place that much emphasis on writing. We want to shake up what theatre is and where it starts from."

Information for artists on submitting their work can be found here.

YV:IDemystify 2022 Events

With its first event series in 2020, YV:IDemystify was created to discuss establishing supportive environments for creators, storytellers and makers that reveal and challenge the mechanisms at play in making work for the stage while also presenting innovative pathways for the creative journey of theatre makers.

For Spring 2022, the YV:IDemystify events are:

Challenging Eurocentric Dramaturgy

Wednesday 16 March 2022, on Zoom

In Partnership with and chaired by the What If Experiment

Speakers include Dermot Daly, Reginald Edmund, Tommo Fowler & Teunkie Van Der Sluijs

In March 2021, over 100 Black playwrights and writers from the Global Majority signed "We Need To Talk About Dramaturgy," an open letter to the theatre industry challenging Eurocentric perspectives on play development and dramaturgy. This event hopes to bring together signatories of the letter and theatre-makers with dramaturges and script developers to discuss changes made so far, changes still to be made, changes to perspectives and practices in the sector, and challenges to gazes, standards and traditions.

The Ethics of New Technologies

Wednesday 13 April 2022, on Zoom

In Partnership with the Young Vic's Creators Program

Speakers to be announced

New technologies have seen accelerated adoption by theatre makers during the theatre closures of 2020/21 - from Augmented, Virtual and Extended Reality to Artificial Intelligence, Immersive and Haptic Technology and Binaural and other forms of audio. But whose experience(s) do we simulate or augment, where does ableism meet technology, and how do we keep experiences accessible and inclusive? And how do we deal with pervasive technology, user data and the moral implications of simulating or faking reality to almost imperceptible veracity? This event brings together creators at the forefront of innovation with thinkers in techno-ethics.

Theatre as Defiance

Wednesday 25 May 2022, on Zoom

Speakers: Sophie Kayes and Amrou al-Kadhi

Among the many functions of theatre are its power to platform voices of dissent and to amplify perspectives that challenge the status quo hold enduring attraction. Through activist art and artistic activism, theatre is a medium where those who are side-lined elsewhere can take centre stage and assert themselves. But what does that mean for the 2020s, a decade marked so far by global health crises, growing inequality and global protest? By bringing together artists who combine in their stage work advocacy, activism and art, this event sheds light on theatre as a means of defiance and galvanization.

Tickets are free and available from 12noon today. All events will be BSL translated and have auto-generated captioning. For more information, click here.

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