ABOUT RED EYE THEATER

Red Eye Theater is a Minneapolis-based multidisciplinary creative laboratory dedicated to the creation and presentation of boundary-breaking performance work. Artist-run since 1983, Red Eye champions experimentation, collaboration, and critical discourse, igniting new connections between artists, audiences, and ideas. In fall 2021, Red Eye moved into its new long-term home, a performance space located on Dakota land, in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis. Red Eye continues to build out the ~3000 sq ft space into a flexible and fully accessible black box theater, inviting collaboration and artistic experimentation.

Red Eye Theater is a working artist collective consisting of four Artistic Directors: Theo Langason, Emily Gastineau, Valerie Oliveiro, and Rachel Jendrzejewski. These artists share all the work involved in the running of a small not-for-profit organization. We think we work in, or build towards, a horizontal leadership structure, but we also know that the many layers of systemic oppression create unending complexity. We like consensus, but that could also look like agreeing to allow just one of us to make all the decisions around a given project. Most of all, we want our beloved Minnesota arts ecology to thrive and we want to be kind, nimble, and thoughtful. 

Red Eye has, in its history, used the following language to describe the kind of performance work we support: experimental, risk-taking, contemporary, new, pioneering, boundary-breaking, collaborative, interdisciplinary. We have been unpacking the colonial, modernist, exclusionary implications of those words, and have not yet arrived at a term that fits. Perhaps we will never arrive. We understand that, through relationship with Red Eye, the Works-in-Progress artists will intersect with this history and conversation.

OVERVIEW OF WORKS-IN-PROGRESS

Works-in-Progress is a development opportunity for artists wanting to explore new performance ideas within an artistic community. Red Eye provides artistic developmental support over a six-month period for a cohort of four selected artists/artistic collaborations. A hallmark of the program is a series of critical response feedback sessions facilitated by Red Eye Artistic Directors. Artists selected are supported with rehearsal space, providing the opportunity to explore and experiment with conceptual and staging ideas over an extended timeframe. The program culminates in a weekend of shared work presented to the public. Each artist in the cohort presents 10-15 minutes of work as part of a shared evening in the first weekend of the celebrated Red Eye New Works 4 Weeks Festival. Works-in-Progress is linked to Red Eye’s Isolated Acts program; together they make up the New Works 4 Weeks Festival. Isolated Acts features half-evening length, full performances while Works-in-Progress is geared towards work in an earlier stage of development.

Works-in-Progress was created 40 years ago as a way to support experimental performance makers in dialogue with each other. It aims to create a community of disparate creators linked by a shared desire to investigate their process in critical discourse. The program provides a container for the process of developing an original piece for performance, primarily in terms of its conceptual development and staging. The series is designed to serve early career artists who are exploring new directions in pieces that would benefit from an extensive reflective process and are best suited for a shared evening in a professional performance space. The program places emphasis on both the development of your own work and supporting the work of other artists in the cohort through critical feedback and peer exchange.

PROGRAM DETAILS

Artists working in all performance disciplines are welcome to apply. Interdisciplinary, multimedia, and  collaborative artists are encouraged. Works-in-Progress seeks out applicants from a full range of aesthetics,  cultures, and approaches that represent contemporary performance in the world today, and encourages proposals  from artists of color, Indigenous artists, queer artists, artists with disabilities, and other groups that have been  historically underrepresented in the performing arts. 

Four projects will be selected this year by the Red Eye Co-Artistic Directors. 

One application information session will be offered at the space, where artists interested in applying to the program can learn more in real time, ask questions, and get feedback on draft proposals. 

Projects in which the primary artists are current students are not eligible for this program. 

Each selected project will present A MINIMUM OF 10 AND A MAXIMUM OF 15 MINUTES. Longer works may be accepted into the program, in which case an excerpt will be presented in the final show. 

Works-in-Progress 2024 will be presented for three public performances Thursday-Saturday, May 23-25, 2024. Performances will take place at Red Eye Theater, 2213 Snelling Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55404. These performances are not open to critical review. 

A direct stipend of $1000 is provided for each project to develop the work. 

Participants have access to Red Eye’s technical resources, including rehearsal space and limited lighting and sound capabilities throughout the rehearsal process. New Works 4 Weeks artists share the space with Red Eye performances and curated rentals during the course of the program. 

Red Eye provides a lighting designer and production manager for the public works-in-progress sharing, and promotion of the series. Participants are encouraged to consider how design elements may be incorporated into the development of the piece, but should keep technical requirements flexible and self-contained in the context of a shared evening. Participants are responsible for all elements of production, including casting, design (aside from lighting design), and direction. 

Participation is required in all group feedback sessions as listed above.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Proposals will be evaluated based on:

• the project’s connection to Red Eye’s core tenets (experimentation, collaboration, and critical discourse)

• the artist’s potential to contribute to peer exchange

• the program’s potential to make an impact on the artist at this point in their artistic development

• the artist’s thoughtfulness around artistic process

• the vision and/or initiative demonstrated in the work sample(s)

APPLICATION

CHECKLIST

1. Basic information: Your name, pronouns, project title (if applicable), email address, mailing address, phone number

2. Sharing your project, including: 

1) Which questions are you raising in your work and this project? (1-2 paragraphs)

2) Describe the practical and/or conceptual parameters of your process and how these might manifest in a work-in-progress performance. What do you envision the work to look, sound, or feel like? Do you imagine others (performers, designers, advisors, etc) being involved in the work? (1-3 paragraphs)

3) Red Eye’s core values are experimentation, collaboration, and critical discourse. Please describe how your project relates to one of these values. (1-2 paragraph)

4) Why are you motivated to participate in an intensive feedback process with a cohort? What do you hope to gain from ongoing exchange with peer artists? How do you incorporate feedback into your creative process? (1-2 paragraphs)

3. One-page resume or bio: Please submit either a resume OR bio of the primary artist submitting this proposal. If the primary artist is a collaboration, please include a resume OR bio for each member of the collaboration (max: 1 page per artist). 

4. List of Proposed Production/Artistic Personnel: Any lead artists, performers, directors, designers, etc. you are either planning or hope to involve in your project. You may also include a short statement detailing your relationship to any of these potential collaborators.

5. (optional) Production history of your proposed project, if you’ve had previous publicly shared iterations. For most applicants this is not applicable.

6. Work samples, including: titles, length of excerpts, your role in each, a brief description of how the work sample relates to your proposed project, and links to the work samples.

WORK SAMPLE(S)

For your work sample you can submit up to 5 “minutes” of material. Material will be weighted as follows:

> video sample, 1 minute = 1 minute         > audio sample, 1 minute = 1 minute

> visuals, 1 image = 30 seconds                  > performance text, 1 page = 1 minute

(For example: you could submit 5 minutes of video or 2 minutes of video, 2 pages of text, and 2 images, etc. The Google form includes spaces for up to 10 links.) 

Please include the link to your work sample on Vimeo, YouTube, Soundcloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, your artist website, etc. (i.e., no file uploads.) Include a password where applicable. Please double check the links and permissions of your digital files as the panel may not have the capacity to follow up with you if a link or password does not work.

SUBMISSION

Please apply through the Google form on or before Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 11:59 pm. To request application materials in an alternate format, please contact staff@redeyetheater.org.

ACCESSIBILITY

Red Eye is committed to cultivating and promoting an organizational culture of equity, accessibility, and inclusion. We will be happy to provide accommodations to ensure individuals with disabilities are able to be full participants in Works-in-Progress. To request accommodations for an info session, application materials in an alternate format, or a way to submit your application other than the Google form, please contact staff@redeyetheater.org or 612.870.7531.

CONTACT

Please contact staff@redeyetheater.org with any questions about the program or application process.