Road Work is a consortium of regional venues established to develop opportunities for regional audiences to engage with a broad spectrum of original, creative work, and to encourage dialogue and debate about performance and culture. It does this by touring two adventurous works each year – one dance and one theatre production to participating venues across Australia.
Tours are on average 8–12 weeks long. We negotiate performance fees to cover the company’s costs, and we seek touring funds from federal and state touring programs to cover the travel and freight costs. Road Work can also contribute to the costs of remounting the work.
Selection criteria
The Road Work consortium members consider all proposals and they decide on a short list of work for which we will seek further information such as video documentation, detailed technical specifications and budgets. The final decision will be made in time to allow us to submit Playing Australia applications in June and December each year in order to cover the touring costs.
Selection is made by the Directors of the participating venues, according to the following curatorial principles. The productions chosen will be:
- Adventurous in concept and form
- Considered to be accessible to the Road Work members’ audience base
- A contribution to current cultural and/or artform developments
- Dramaturgically coherent
- Able to be staged with a bump-in day one and performance day two schedule
- Positively critiqued in the press and by peers
How to apply
Send us a two-page proposal for consideration. There are two cut-off points for proposals: around January/February and July of each year (dictated by the deadlines of Playing Australia rounds). The proposal should include:
- a description of the work
- brief biographies for the company & key artists
- the number of people who would need to tour
- performance history (for works that have already been presented)
- press reviews
- production images
If the show is still in development, include information about when the first performance is planned. Note that while we are interested in works-in-development, Road Work does not commission or invest in the first presentation of work: we can however support the remounting of work.
Links
Road Work consortium
Current and past Road Work tours
Contact us for more information
