2022 NTP Creation and Touring Grant Question and Answer Session

uh thank you derek so sharon's question was about is it the right time to apply because she's not sure yet about collaborators although she already has a committed presenter i my thoughts on that are two things um one it's good to go through the application to look at the questions anyway regardless because it will give you an idea of what kind of things we're looking for the biggest problem with applying too early is that the advisors will not have an idea of what it is you are proposing to do as an ensemble and if they're confused then it will not do well that being said if you decide to do it this year anyway there is nothing precluding you from applying again next year with the same project the benefit of that is the feedback that you will get on the project and and the experience of having gone through the process at least once [Music] i would add around the fact that you haven't identified the ensemble members i think will be also tricky for the advisors because particularly for the first round they're really looking at whether the work is devised and ensemble and in order to know if it's really ensemble they do want to know who are the people you're creating the work with and how is it you know um shared and ownership uh as an ensemble and so i think that that will make it a little difficult as well thank you yeah and this isn't directly answering your question but i'm sure other people will have questions about the other side of this which is is it too late to apply and i will just offer that the requirement we have around the deadline for whether it's too late is that there needs to be creation work in your project left to be done at the time that we award the grant which will be in september 2022 um so if the development period ends before that you won't be eligible if your development period ends kind of like right around september or october you are eligible but it's probably a good idea to show in your application that there is still significant development work left to be done because when the advisors look at the applications they're asking not only is this the right project but why now why is now the right time to fund this project um so showing that you know the creation portion of this grant will still be important for your project even though it's nearing the end of the development period and it looks like there was a follow-up question from isabel unless keita amino want to add more about that yeah i did have one thing to add um sharon you mentioned that you have presenting partners for the creation and touring the only requirement we have is that you have at least one development partner and the presenter presenting partner is great if you have it but it's not a requirement that's that's even more perfect for my question actually um i was i am sorry to say that i did not review the webinar and i will do so right after this but um if for the development partner can you talk about who uh what role that person has is it financial is it um somebody who is how deeply involved do they should they be in or what are you looking for um for that development partner we didn't decide who was going to do the order of the questions this is kita a development partner is someone outside of your organization another organization that provides significant development resources to your project now those resources can be money they can be residency space they can be promotional assistance they can be tour planning they can also be a non-profit organization that you're working with to reach a particular community and i use as an example sand glass theater when they applied for degenerations which is about dementia they worked with a lot of memory care facilities and they provided them with training um and access to stories through their working with the folks at the in their facilities and then also a follow-up network of other uh mental memory care facilities who were facing some of the same issues and uh and they then were later able to help them tour the project so it could be any number of those um it could be uh in the case of at least one project relationship with um a reservation right it it really depends on the needs of your project but it should be a strong project a strong relationship because they will look to see that but it's beyond just finances in fact mere financial investment is generally not considered a strong relationship yeah i don't have this is derek speaking i don't have too much to add to that i think it's really you know every project is different the needs of every project is different so i think it's about kind of looking at your application and questioning where are how can i make partnerships to make my project more successful where are the gaps in the experience of our team or what our team can accomplish and um using partners to kind of fill out your application in that way because the advisors are looking to see a project that is in a place to be as successful as possible and yeah partners are a great way to flesh out your application in that way i see two hands raised and a couple in the chat so i will read michael's then we'll go to a hand then go back to the chat and go to a hand from michael kennedy new question is a multimedia project that springs from and includes device theater appropriate for this proposal mina you want to take that one um yeah i would love to know a little more about what the project is i think being that it is a theater grant it does have to have a prominent theater component to it um i think that there could be multimedia kind of projects that surround that piece but i i feel like it does have to kind of center the device theater portion i don't know what the team thinks about that we have had projects this is kita sorry we have had projects that have combined multimedia and device theater but again like mina said the devising theater part is very prominent in what has happened is happening yeah and the other thing that i just like to share around this question is we do have a piece of criteria one of our criteria for making the grants that i had opened a second ago and just lost um but it's that we support work that contributes to the cultural and aesthetic diversities of today's theater so we are looking for work you know some of the work that we fund is pushing the boundaries of what theater is it doesn't need to be traditional theater but it needs to have some kind of theatrical element and we deliberately don't define theater because it's so dependent on the project and the culture and there are so many different definitions of what theater is and we do want to be receptive to your definitions of it but it needs to be theatrical would it be okay if i ask a quick follow-up question um so if we are looking at creating a device theater piece and then filming it which would allow a broader reach um and when it was shown in other areas there was also a live theater performance to go along with the filmed devised theater piece does that sound like it fits the grant okay yes it does okay thank you um lana hi this is lana uh so i am working with a a theater ensemble i'm not part of the ensemble uh but i am a death doula and i have a performing background as well so i'm i'm kind of coming we're coming together and creating something together that's about like death and the climate crisis and so the organization that i founded and it's not just me though i was going to be one of our development partners but because i'm kind of joining and really devising with the ensemble can that be does that make sense it's convoluted in my head that is a tough one i'm trying um i think probably we would need a lot more conversation about it um and i think for yours in particular you might want to sign up for an office hours so we can actually actually go through the details with you and make sure that you have what you need okay great i'll do that thank you um from caroline my organization is considering applying for the creation and touring grant the project we're focusing on has been created and previously presented but is not fully evolved yet there are still parts that need to be devised expanded on developed is expanding on a project continuing creation that will involve a new collaboration eligible any any of us could take that one i can take a first stab at it says derek um so i would say it depends um there are certain projects that we have supported that really are kind of reinventing themselves for each tour site or are the work is really growing and changing in a way where we recognize or the advisors who pick the panel who pick the grantees are recognizing that there is significant development work still to happen on this project the project is still growing into itself and changing in a significant way and we have funded projects like that that have already premiered we probably it would be harder to receive this grant if the work was finished and you were kind of just making little tweaks um for the performance you know for each performance but um really when the advisors are looking at this there's no criteria that says that the work can't have premiered already what they want to see is how you're going to be using the development portion of this grant and they want to see that again this is the right time to fund this project yeah this is mina just to add that yeah basically it just requires for you to write in the application that you still have substantial development work to be done on this work um and it will be really up to you to describe to the panelists what that means to you and why it's so relevant right now for the piece um i was gonna say one more thing but i don't remember so i will say it when i remember it is it beretta hi it's barrett um thank you so much for hosting this and i'm i'm i i just want to say i'm landing in a little um late so i'm sorry if i'm asking a question that you might have already answered um i'm i'm a curator and artist working on a project that i've commissioned a theater company and enlisted a number of co-collaborating developing um partners on a project um and i'm wondering about the definition of ensemble here in this question um if if that means that it's not an ensemble if it's lots of different kinds of collaborators happening um and if i'm if i'm functioning within the projects as a commissioning curator for for the population of people of this um project um and then i have a well i can get to the second part of my question after that if i could just kind of work through the definition of ensemble there and by the way the theater company um that is leading the theatrical part of it because there's a community engagement side that a lot of the partners in the project are doing um um are responsible for um to create conversation with community or organizers so the theater company that i'm working with is they are creating the theatrical part of the project um as a collaborating ensemble within the ensemble of the bigger projects god i hope that made sense so i can see that this is kita i can see that as an ensemble um i think the biggest question you're going to face around the ensembleness of it is going to be working together to create a body of work the community engagement part will be exciting i think the collaboration between and an already established theater ensemble and uh and you would be is also going to be really exciting um i think it's just that's really where um where there might be some confusion around the project but i think that um if have you if you have looked at the questions you'll see it'll help you frame that in a way that i think would be it sounds actually very exciting so i think um it would be worthwhile um and it also again just as i said before we do have office hours and we're really open to discussing mina uh yeah this is mina barrett and i have a call already so we'll talk through this together um thank you so much so that that that that's a little bit of a relief because we are actively developing the work ground up together so um so yeah that's that's really good to know and then the other half is another defining question of um about what how do you how you define tor um just because this is a project that deals with displacement and gentrification um as the broad brush stroke of what the work is and so where we already have um partners in in a couple of different states and when we do the work in one place it takes on um the characteristics and histories of that place and then when we do the work again in another place it becomes a long arc of development again relative to the locality of that new place so it's not creating this sort of um set theatrical performance and then representing it elsewhere it's a redevelopment each time we do it does that fit into your definition of tor or because we understand tor as you're you're picking it up and putting up the same thing elsewhere you know so just want to check that yeah this is mina um yes we consider that very much a tour um and we have supported work that that does that um and often oftentimes for those projects when they fill in the development timeline and the touring timeline um some of them overlap so like the end of the tour is like the end of their development period like that has happened as well because they are continuously developing their work in for each location that they go to um so that that process never ends like it's just integrated into the way that they tour so that is something that we have supported and we yeah yes that's a tour wonderful thank you very much um this is kita i'm going to piggyback on that because there is a question in the chat about um presenting a work in uh puerto rico and can can we consider touring to present it in another theater in another town on the island as a tour the answer to that is yes absolutely especially right now when travel is so very difficult we are we often refer to it as sharing versus touring and we recognize difficulties we there are places that we consider um a tour all unto itself you know if you are trying to do a show and do something in alaska you're traveling by plane to get anywhere so obviously that would be a tour um but also we are looking at what are the various ways that people are sharing their work now uh within the this next phase of the pandemic and um and i would say that would definitely be considered part a part of a tour i think uh denise you're next hi everybody hi my name is denise gray i just have a couple of uh questions one would be can a developing partner be a religious institution and uh the other part of that is can a developing partner is it acceptable if that say that developing partner is also a is a is a theater company that produces and but they can help you in some way with spaces and things like that but they may also be interested in this grant is enough independently of you is that acceptable that's and then i have one more after that i just want to lump them all up [Laughter] um i can give a very easy answer to all of those questions which is yes all of those things are totally fine and i think we have done all of those things before so okay yes thumbs up for all of it then very briefly my other question would be this is something a piece that uh i conceived a few years ago and it has been in a development process for a very long time the composer who passed away during covet a number of things happened we had to bring in another there's other writers that have come in uh but it's not necessarily being developed just by actors which is my traditional definition for our ensemble so i'm would like i spoke with someone earlier on your team a while back that that had thought that yes it was eligible but i'm here today to in to see if it is or not and maybe i haven't given all the details properly yes it would still be eligible it is we acknowledge very long periods of development and especially right now when things have been disrupted so much due to covid we know that everybody's development process has been um extended far beyond what they ever thought it would be yes so i would say yes it's still thank you thank you so much um i think i have lease next hi thanks um similar to barrett's uh project ours travels to a site and then investigates that place and we build a the project based on the interviews and the material that we're collecting in that place the question has to do with development versus um presenting partners in that there's a sort of blurry line and sometimes betw with with the with the presenter because they are both development partner and presenting partner and then we have secondary or tertiary partners in each place through which we conduct interviews so we might partner with a cultural center for example to host a site one of the interview sites so should we but but the but the presenter is often providing they i mean they are providing the rehearsal space housing when we're there a few months earlier doing the interviews would you prefer that we ca categorize the presenter developer partner as presenter and then just the the smaller local partners through which we interview and through which we offer workshops to bring community members into the project call them the the um sorry development partners i can go this is meena um you can list it in both places um so if there is a partner who is serving both as development partner and presenting partner you can list them in both sections that they are a development partner and then they are also the presenting partner and then you can list all the other development partners alongside the development partner section for the inquiry round there's limitation of number but for the final application you can add as many as you want of all the partners so there is no limitation okay thank you it looks like there's a question in the chat from michael kennedy does the theater ensemble have to be a group that has worked together multiple times or can it be an ensemble that's created for the project and i'll again refer to our definition of ensemble that we have on our website which is a group of two or more people committed to working together over time to develop a distinct practice and body of work so in order to be an ensemble there needs to be an intention of creating multiple pieces of work together so i would say most of the time it's an ensemble that has worked together on projects in the past but it can also be a project or an ensemble that has the intention to work with each other on future projects so if you're coming together just to create one piece of work it probably would not be eligible um but if you've worked together in the past or you have the intention to work keep working together in the future then it would be this is kita one of our very first grants was a new ensemble who they had committed to creating a trilogy together and we we funded the first one and did not actually fund the second two although they actually really didn't come back for funding but they but um yeah so we knew from the beginning the advisors knew that they had made this commitment to making this work together mina has dropped in the chat the link for scheduling office hours you can also find that on the national theater project creation and touring grant page okay see i don't see any raised hands or any other questions in the oh there uh rum ramen yes hi my name is rameen torkan so i have two questions to ask actually one is uh related to michael's or michael kennedy original question and that is how do you define more specifically what is the criteria for a theatrical component uh is if a story is told through a music dance and integrated multimedia and interactive technology would that define as long as we are telling a cohesive story a very specific story would that define as being a theatrical piece or does it need something more than that we don't define theater this is because we have a very broad view of what devising may be and we recognize that that may be different for a lot of folks as derek said we're looking at pushing you know at the different diversities of the theater field which means that in the past we have supported new musical new opera dance theater film theater collaboration we're really trying to um not pigeonhole people into a box of what is theater um because certainly within my culture an indigenous culture you would not separate theater from dance and music and so we're trying to be as abroad but what you would have to say is what is the theatrical experience of this piece i think that's really what they would be looking for wonderful i have another question again he said it's a kind of a follow-up question so for the original for the first initial proposition that we are sending uh aside from some sort of a um kind of a intent from a developing partner is there something else is required to be provided like a much more kind of a structured uh kind of a financial or exchange that it is needs to be submitted along with the application for the proposition we're all looking for our unmute buttons um no this is um the initial the preliminary application the inquiry phase we might require more specific information at the next round the final stage and that that's in part because we don't want you to have to do too much work uh at this point when you may not know what that is um and so but at the final application we can ask you to be more specific absolutely well thank you um and this is nina to add um we don't really kind of manage or regulate how you are in relationship with your development partner so you don't have to submit like agreement or anything um that is up to you as artists to have that relationship with the development partner and of course we're here the team is here to support you if you have any questions around that relationship but we don't like manage that relationship looks like we have another question in the chat is it okay to have collaborators who are non-us-based and not american citizens and the answer is yes that is absolutely okay the ensemble needs to be based in the united states which gets complicated i think especially right now where people are kind of collaborating from all over the place in a way that wasn't happening as much a couple years ago not that it wasn't happening but you know we don't have like us i don't think we have a strict definition of what constitutes being based in the united states but um yeah maybe keita or mina have more insight on that as far as partners we do require having at least one u.s based partner but if you have one partner that's based in the u.s you could have three others that are based elsewhere you just one of them needs to be u.s based and this grant is to support u.s touring so when

actually we're giving out the taurian subsidies of touring allocations those all do need to go to u.s based organizations um this is mina to add to that i think the ensemble though um i'm sorry my internet's not great um the ensemble do the majority or more than half do need to be u.s based is a hard thing to describe i think because you can still apply to this grant if you're a permanent resident if you have legal status in the u.s you don't have to be american um i am not um and i'll be you know i can apply too but i think when it becomes that there have been in the past applications where the ensembl makeup was majority i think i don't remember keta irish or scottish peoples and then there were some um american-based us-based artists that got a little tricky because it is still a us-based ensemble which means kind of majority or more so um and i am adding the complexity that with the pandemic and the use of the internet this is becoming a lot more difficult to identify but that's kind of how we have been looking at this requirement and i would just add that if you have questions about that if you're not sure i would definitely recommend signing up for an office hour so that we can talk about your specific situation okay i'm i'm seeing sarah's question in the chat um can you elaborate on the eligibility as it relates to projects that have educational elements and will tour for student audiences at performing arts centers is the project eligible as long as there are performances for general audiences as well one of the things that we are we have to because we have such limited funds we don't support work that is created primarily for children and youth theater that being said it is okay to have the educational component that is absolutely fine but your primary focus cannot be youth and family theater um and that that is in part a restriction that was placed on us by the funder uh for this um if again you know feel free to email us feel free to sign up for office hours um because a lot depends on how you perceive the work and how you explain the work if it is primarily youth and theater family work then it's probably not going to be eligible but if that is a component and i'm thinking of a project that we had we supported a few years ago that was around bullying in schools and it there was an educational component to this but it was primarily aimed at adults who were not understanding what the issues were and so there while there was some school work there was a lot of work outside in the community and so that um again that balance is very uh individual and um and i would encourage you to talk to us and figure which side of the balance you're on and it looks like we have another question in the chat from carly and it's going back to the question of how you define touring would you consider a virtual showing of the production as part of the tour if kobe were to prohibit an in-person show and the answer is yes um in the last couple years we've changed all of our criteria and questions to clarify that the performances can be virtual or in person um yeah uh ketermina do you have anything to add to that i've seen some really great virtual performances and i have seen some really bad virtual performances but they all still are performances and so we're trying again trying to be generous in this time of covid to be as generous as we possibly can it doesn't look like there are any other questions we'll give you a couple more minutes to think of things but while we're while you all are thinking of questions i just want to reiterate that we are super receptive to office hour conversations or um if none of the times that we have listed for office hours work for you please email kidri and we are happy to find time outside of the listed times we are easy to get in touch with and we also respond to email our phone numbers are on the nika website as well we still have if this is keto we still have a few minutes um if there's anything else we could also give you back 15 minutes of your day which is thank you lena okay i guess we can end a few minutes early ben thank you all so much for calling in and yeah definitely hoping to see some of you in office hours and excited to read your applications there is one question that just came up which actually derek i'm going to toss to you it's about the videos uh yes the video samples so with the application we do require that you submit one to two work samples the work samples the combined time should be no longer than three minutes so if you have you can have a one minute clip and a two minute clip but you can't have two three minute clips and with those we're pretty open-ended about what we will allow the one thing that we will not accept is video montages um and the reason is we just honestly have found that it's not a great way to demonstrate what the work is going to look and feel like most of the time and it when people have submitted those it has historically not benefited the applications that submit samples like that i think with the work samples um it's a really good place to fill in gaps in the application so if there are things that you think might not translate into words it's a place that you can fill that in and there's kind of different approaches so there are lots of ensembles that will provide work samples that show previous work and then people will also submit you know work in progress showing from the work that they are currently creating and both of those are fine both of those are helpful in different circumstances if you're submitting work previous work samples or samples of previous works i should say um we do ask i think it's that it's within the last four years the exact time frame is on our website but um and it's good to question you know how why are you showing this how does this connect to the work that you're trying to get funded because when the advisors are watching the work samples they're trying to get an idea of what the work is what the work is going to be so if it's a clip from a previous work it should reflect on that it should reflect the new work in some way and we have there's a field also for you to give a description of the work sample and why you're submitting it so you can include that information um and this is mina for some of you the advisors have never seen your work before this so this is the opportunity for them to see your work so it is they do look at the work sample very um intentionally and there's many questions about this is it problematic if it cuts from one part of the video to a litter later in the scene derek um i think that's okay i wouldn't i wouldn't have that happen five times you know um it should feel like you're watching a cohesive performance i think one kind of rule of thumb would be if you have kind of like audio that is like a song and then you have video that's just cut from different parts of the show and put behind the audio that would definitely be a montage i think in general it's good to have the original audio with the video um you know we definitely have had work samples that show different parts of a performance but i would not recommend having something where it's like 30 seconds and then skips to later and then skips to later that's just not going to give the advisors the context that they need to really understand what they're looking at thanks derek sarah asks similarly is dance on camera considered a montage because it's edited together would you prefer footage from a live stage work live stage work yes is preferred yes next is denise do you accept mp3 or music or excerpt of script so i know this is derek we have definitely accepted mp3s in the past um and that is okay i would say it is probably preferable to use a video if you have one but if you don't have one and you think an mp3 is the best way to communicate what the work or whatever you're trying to communicate about the work we will accept that we would not accept the script though it should be a time-based medium that's three minutes or less um this is mina the script can be shared in the final round as like an additional like material document if you if you choose to submit that um but for the work sample it does need to be some kind of media um if you are submitting music though for the work sample it is highly recommended that you submit something that is video as well um so a video work sample and uh mp3 which we some folks have done who are doing work that is music based um and they wanted to show the theatrical side but also wanted to show some of those song samples that they've been working on so then they have sent in the mp3 but it should be both if you are submitting the mp3s and just i see this follow-up question is a video sample for this first segment or of the applications and we do it for both so for the first segment we have a three minute limit for the final round there's a five minute limit um but yes we do require work samples at both stages this is kita sarah your hand is up is that a separate question or have we already answered hi sorry um it's sort of a follow up of the question about the dance on camera work so the company that i'm working with we just did a virtual experience of a piece that we were creating so it was a dance on camera version of the piece but we're now extending it into a full evening length of work for a live performance so we've been submitting like if we were to submit we would probably want to include part of the dance on camera portion since it will be expanded on for the future tour um but we should also give i'm assuming like a previous live work sample so you can see the continuation of a piece is that ideal i think think of it as a way to show the advisors what it is you intend to do okay so by the dance on camera i'm assuming if it had been in a you know if it were a film it would be like a three camera cut so that it is one continuous piece yeah the dance on camera wasn't specifically like one continuous piece shot from different angles it was a bunch of movement phrases from different angles that were then edited together so it's not necessarily one like you know six minute movement phrase that's continuous but it does show kind of where we're going with the overall piece if that makes sense i think i i think we would have to like have a conversation all right thank you also for folks who are really who are hung up on the work sample if you want to feel free to email me and if you have the work sample you can even send it to me and i can take a look and say this seems okay this doesn't seem okay and i can put my email address in the chat this is kita also in the recorded webinar um we do talk about um you know the the i was gonna say the methods the ways of uploading and all of that and i encourage you to take a look at that it's also in the application because we do the reason for the three minute work sample was because the advisors were searching out work online when they were unfamiliar with an artist and this is the opportunity for you to show them what you want them to see and not what they might find on the web so take please take a look at those things especially remembering things like the advisors will be looking at the samples on their own devices right so lighting counts you know visibility count all of that counts um if they so that they can see what it is you want them to see okay and we are coming up right on three o'clock and we do have a three o'clock hard ending time unfortunately um but you know like we said it's easy to get in touch with us if you have more questions and we would be happy to talk to you so feel free to email call sign up for office hours whatever works best for you okay thank you all so much have a great rest of your day thank you brandon thank you sherry thank you again thank you thank you all wonderful informational session take care thank you

2022-02-16 23:27

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