Festival Opera Prima: call for entries 2021

Selection of performances for Opera Prima Festival XVII Rovigo, 05 / 12 september 2021

CALL FOR ENTRIES “OPERA PRIMA 2021”

The call is opened to single artists or emerging and independent professional companies that work with professional purposes in the field of contemporary theatre, dance and performing arts.

DEADLINE: 28th MARCH 2021

PREMISES

In 2018, nine years after its last edition, Opera Prima Festival was realized once again in Rovigo.
The Festival is organized by Association Festival Opera Prima ets in collaboration with Teatro del Lemming and the Culture Department of the Municipality of Rovigo and with the support of Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo Foundation and of the Italian Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Born in Rovigo in 1994 under the artistic direction of Teatro del Lemming, Festival Opera Prima became immediately an event able to lead to critical attention a new theatrical generation that, in the 90s, was completely excluded from the Italian theatre scene. OPERA PRIMA became an "home" and a reference point for this generation, that soon proclaimed itself “Generation of the Invisible Theatres”. The Festival was really important to support those artists stand out. In recognition of this activity, in 1996 the Festival was the winner of the UBU "Giuseppe Bartolucci" prize, awarded by a jury led by the critic Franco Quadri.
Coherently with its history, this new edition of Opera Prima wants to host and enhance the multiplicity of trends and researches in the contemporary theatre scene.
It also wants to become a bridge between different theatrical generations: in addition to the performances selected by this call, every year there will be four important artists or European historical theatre groups, that have to invited to the festival an unknown young artist or an unknown young group.

OBJECT OF THE CALL

This call for entries is opened to national and international groups or artists that practice experimental theatre.
EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE is the proposal of a work that really experiments with the dramaturgy (interpreted as scenic composition), the actor, the spectator and the scenic space.
In other words, experimental theatre is all that unconventional theatre pursuing:
the autonomy of scenic language from a written play; the redefinition of the scenic space; the reformulation of the role and the gaze of the spectator; an original actors' training; a link that connects the actors to the project of the company.

PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS

The call is opened to Italian and international individuals or groups of professional theatre and performing arts, structured in any legal form that allows them to fulfill the administrative and bureaucratic practices necessary to realize their performance.
Only artistic projects that realize an experimentation with scenic languages, according to the points mentioned above, are eligible for selection. Amateur works, drama theater and performances of entertainment won’t be selected.

The Festival commission selects both original works that have not been yet performed, as well as works that have already debut, but which have not had an adequate circulation and / or visibility. It is advisable to submit works no longer than 60 minutes.

CONDITIONS

The selected performances are going to be included in the 2021 edition of Festival Opera Prima.
All expenses and practices concerning organization, communication, staff, promotion of the event will be in charge of the organization of the Festival.
At each selected company will be paid, after the presentation of an invoice, a fee that has to be agreed and will be guaranteed the possibility of lodging at an affiliated guest house (just for the people working in the performance).

CALENDAR AND PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

All the performances are going to be realized in Rovigo inside the venues used by the Festival from the 05th to the 12th September 2021. It is possible to realize performances also in unconventional locations and outdoor. The artistic direction can ask to the selected company to realize more replies of the performance.

OBLIGATIONS

Selected candidates commit to:

• support the promotion of FESTIVAL OPERA PRIMA throughout their channels (web site, social, press office...);
• respect Festival praxis regarding set-up times and rules;
• perform the selected work on the agreed day or days.
•comply with the mesaures prescribed for the containment of Covid-19 infection, in force during the company’s stay at the festival.
Participation in the announcement implies full acceptance of this regulation.
The organization reserves the right to decide on issues not expected by this regulation.