Call for submissions - MayaTheatre

MayaTheatre presents the 5th Annual South Asian Theatre Festival, as part of ‘Rogers Masala Mehndi Masti’ at the Canadian National Exhibition Place, July 28th–30th, 2006. MayaTheatre is currently accepting submissions and proposals towards performances in the following showcase categories:

Outdoor and Gorilla Theatre – This presents an opportunity for artists to present their works, drawing in crowds from passerbyers. Gorilla Theatre means several things, all due to the pioneering influence of Christopher Carter Sanderson. It’s free. It’s outside. It’s high energy. The variety is enormous, everything from classics by Shakespeare, Tagore, and Moliere to post modern theatre work by Badal Sircar, Girish Karnad and Utpal Dutt. What’s consistent is the aesthetic, an opportunity to bring actors and audiences together in nature and under the stars, the way the Greeks or Ancient Indian Civilizations conceived of drama in the first place, where we share the passion and joy and spectacular heightened emotion that reminds us why theatre is so vital and necessary.

New Playwrights – We have created a category for emerging playwrights of all genres to present from their unpublished works, as a staged reading. This allows you to share your work with a diverse audience while it also offers a venue to meet and collaborate with both, established and emerging artists. A selected excerpt from the plays will be presented, however, with permission from playwrights we will have the full scripts available for those who wish to read or learn more about them at the festival.

Spoken Word – We are looking for innovative works from poets, performance artists, and those who wish to explore the fundamentals of communication with poetic zest. This is a platform of expression and a channel of communication between artists of the South Asian Diaspora and their communities. This year, in a special presentation of this always exciting and inspiring showcase we are looking for 60 artists to come and speak for just one minute each. Titled ‘Censure Clock’ this would showcase 60 voices from 60 artists in a one hour show.

Community Theatre – We encourage theatre groups to present short pieces or excerpts from plays for a staged production. The presentation can be of any language spoken within the South Asian Diaspora. Performers of various backgrounds will encourage viewers to expand their vision and recognize a vast cultural diversity within our Community.

Youth Workshop – This will be three week acting intensive (mon-fri) at the Equity Showcase Theatre that runs from July 10th-28th, 10am-5pm for young actors, 11-18yrs. The participants will explore movement, voice, improvisation, and scene study work. The focus will be on creating a fluid performance piece dealing with current events facing South Asian youth, to be presented at the Equity Showcase Theatre on July 27th and at the Theatre Festival on the 29th and 30th.

Story Telling and Clowning – As part of MayaTheatre’s Children’s Programming, we are looking for performers to submit creative ideas for pantomime, improvisation, and story telling geared towards children. We are open to ideas on various books, plays, stories, and mythologies. Please note all submissions are open to artists who wish to explore both issues dealing with the South Asian Diaspora as well as non-culture based works.

Submissions Deadline – June 31st

Please send all Submission Material to:
mayatheatre@hotmail.com and oporajito@hotmail.com Or:

South Asian Theatre Festival
c/o Oporajito Bhattacharjee
387 Sherbourne Street, Suite 111
Toronto, Ontario
M4X 1K4