The Shape of Things to Come 2025
"The Room"
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: Performances from The Shape of Things to Come 2024 by Akeim Toussaint Buck, Christopher Elson, Elin Phillips, Luke Hereford, Catherine Alexander and Eric Ngalle Charles.
