Biennale College Teatro 2023

The Biennale Teatro intends to promote the call for Site-Specific Performances under 40 again in 2023, in order to give voice and visibility to those working in the theatrical scene, thus remaining faithful to its formative mission.

This is a call for an unpublished performance work outdoors, in Venetian "campi" - places of everyday life in the lagoon - that will be identified by the artistic direction.

In this need to construct a performative gesture in the social perimeters of everyday life, the theatrical fact will be placed in vital spaces, reviving the sense of collectivity that art must be able to bring to its citizens.

Given the great interest that performative authorship arouses today in the rest of the world, so profoundly connected with the Visual Arts, Music and Dance, La Biennale di Venezia believes it is important and necessary to invite international artists to confront themselves with a scenic writing, such as site-specific performative one, capable of narrating the instances of the Contemporary.

The call for projects is open to Italian and foreign performers (+18 and under 40 years of age). Those wishing to participate must not be older than 40 years of age on the closing date of the call (11 January 2023). The Call is open to performers proposing one of their own creations (in any language/no language) that has never premiered either in studio or full-length form. It is not possible to apply with a project already presented in previous editions of the Call.

The theme, in line with the concept of the 2023 event, will be Green as:

Emerald is the imaginary realm, the magical landing place of those who ponder the conquest of existence: the green spell, the inexplicable prodigy of man in relation to a caged world that guards him in his sleep; Emerald is, at last, the spell of a moral luxuriance.

A lush tornado that, after its passage, will leave nothing to immutability in terms of identity, permanence and artifice.

The number of people involved in the project (artistic and technical staff) may vary from 1 to a maximum of 4.

The performance must be suitable and conceived for daytime in an outdoor, "campo" setting, attended by both volunteer spectators and occasional passers-by, and may only involve the use of audio technique, costumes, and small props; the use of video projections is excluded.

Stage 1
An initial selection - based on the projects and materials submitted by the candidates – where Artistic Directors Stefano Ricci and Gianni Forte will select a limited number of artists (up to a maximum of 15) by the end of January 2023.

Stage 2
The selected artists will be met by the Artistic Direction in Venice (in the second half of February) to illustrate the tools, materials and dynamics of the creative process and to present a first study of the performance in scenic form, with a duration of no less than 15 and no more than 20 minutes.

The modalities of the performance will, in the event of selection, be the subject of analysis and fine-tuning with the Artistic Direction and the Biennale's production staff in order to identify points of crisis and adaptability.

At the sole discretion of the Directors, two projects will be selected and considered winners.

Following notification of their admission, the two selected projects will be asked to pay the secretarial fees (€ 80.00 including VAT, non-refundable) exclusively by credit card.  

Participation in phase 2 is at the full expense of the participants.

Final stage
The two winning artistic projects will be defined and developed in all their aspects with the support of the Artistic Directors of the Theatre Sector who have selected and chosen them. They will guarantee their tutorship to arrive at the final realisation that will be presented in completed form directly site-specific in Venice in the 2023 edition of the Biennale Teatro. Rehearsals will take place in Venice starting 15 days after the debut.

The performances, lasting a maximum of 30/40 minutes, will become a city appointment during the Festival.

To this end, La Biennale di Venezia will provide:
· support and assistance for the setting up of the technical form;
· coverage of production costs up to a maximum total amount of € 25,000 including the cachet of the people involved, travel and accommodation expenses, rehearsal space, costume making and/or rental costs, technical set-up costs, and any other expenses necessary for the realisation of the project.

The documents - which must be submitted by 11 January 2023 by means of an application form - consist of:

· curriculum vitae
· photo
· video of the performance of minimum 7 maximum 10 minutes. The video must show an extract of the unpublished performance submitted to the call and be a single sequence plan, not reworked with post-production editing.
· any videos of previously performed performances
· artistic dossier of the project for Venice 2023 (minimum 4 pages) containing artistic/technical cast, concept, materials, images, technique, etc.

In the case of co-creation, a contact person from the group of artists/performers must fill in the application form with their personal details and: single word/pdf file containing CVs of the co-creators/creators plus artistic dossier of the project and the videos requested.

Incomplete applications will be automatically excluded.

It is possible to apply to only one of the three Biennale College Teatro 2023 calls:
Direction under 35, or Dramaturgy under 40 (Italian calls)
or Site-specific Performance under 40 (International call).

college-teatro@labiennale.org