CALLOUT
The Shape of Things to Come 2025
THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME 2025
"THE ROOM"
NOW OPEN!
CALLOUT FOR APPLICATIONS
31 January 2025
Volcano is looking once again to commission five performers to make individual short performances (around 30 minutes) at our Swansea High Street venue in April and May. This is the fourth year of this freelance commission series, which began in 2022 as Solo Duets for the Future. The idea behind this initiative is to encourage performers to develop new performance modes in front of small, enthusiastic audiences.
We’ll be shaking up the brief a little this year – instead of asking you to choose from a smorgasbord of performance spaces, we’ll be introducing some formal constraints (or “obstructions” – think Lars Von Trier / Jørgen Leth, but less cruel and demanding).
Your performance must use THE ROOM.
THE ROOM will be an unadorned set built onstage, with four walls and various windows. It will measure approximately 4m x 4m. It will have access at several different points. It can be adapted to your performance idea, using set dressing, painting, lighting choices, and various audience configurations. You will have a menu of objects and furnishings to choose from.
We’ll be looking for five pieces that use the set in different and imaginative ways. The performance can be about anything you wish, but (as in previous seasons) we will be looking for work that looks outward rather than in, that communicates with audiences, and that points to the future rather than dissecting the past.
You may submit an idea at any time from 01 February 2025 onwards. We review and shortlist applications on a rolling basis, so please get your application in as soon as you are ready. The provisional deadline is 08 March. However, applications may remain open beyond the deadline at our discretion.
Below: A taste of the performances in last year’s programme, by Elin Phillips, Christopher Elson, Eric Ngalle Charles, Catherine Alexander, Luke Hereford and Akeim Toussaint Buck.
PREVIOUSLY COMMISSIONED
2022
BILLY MAXWELL TAYLOR – Rain Pours Like Coffee Drops
JAMES NASH – Automa
RHIANNON MAIR – Ar Lan y Môr
BURIED THUNDER THEATRE CO – Ibeji
REBECCA SMITH WILLIAMS – Chocolate Cake
FRANCESCA FARGION – The Singing Agony Aunt
2023
SEAN WAI-KEUNG – All We Knead
RUTH BERKOFF – The Beauty of Being Herd
SARA HARTEL – Strike Limited
REBECCA BATALA – Have You Seen This Girl
AASIYA SHAH – I Did Not Just Waste My Life
MARIANNE TUCKMAN – The Rising Damp and Other Tails
2024
CATHERINE ALEXANDER – Is That All There Is?
ERIC NGALLE CHARLES – Rituals of the Molikilikili
CHRISTOPHER ELSON – This Museum is a Spaceship
LUKE HEREFORD – Perfect Places
ELIN PHILLIPS – Nythu
AKEIM TOUSSAINT BUCK – Sanc