Harbourfront Centre - HATCH Submissions

Call for Proposals | HATCH 2012

The call for HATCH 2013 submissions is now over. Thanks to all of the artists who applied! The upcoming season will be announced shortly.

Now heading into its ninth year, HATCH is designed to incubate and foster invention and innovation in the local performance scene. The programme has quickly become an important element in the ecology of local performance development. Harbourfront Centre invites projects from emerging creators as well as established artists engaging in new collaborations or entering into new artistic territory. We encourage performance proposals from artists working across all disciplines, including, but not limited to, dance, theatre, performance art, music, etc.

Of particular interest are proposals that can demonstrate how HATCH will benefit the project or the artist during this stage of development. HATCH is not about an opportunity for staging a fully finished piece but about using the week to develop a new or existing piece of work. The week itself is about exploring the process of development, with the showing of work being only part of this process.

Harbourfront Centre is an innovative non profit cultural organization which creates events and activities of excellence that enliven, educate and entertain a diverse public. Since its inception, Harbourfront Centre has been introducing Toronto audiences to artists and art forms, exploring new and bold frontiers in the arts and creative expression.

Companies and artists selected to participate in HATCH will receive a one-week residency in the Studio Theatre, located at Harbourfront Centre. The Studio Theatre is an intimate, 196-seat proscenium venue featuring a full lighting grid, raked seating and sprung stage floor. Use of the residency period is at the discretion of the artist and needs of the project (i.e. workshop, rehearsals, performance, etc.) but there must be at least one presentation of the work for the public and/or invited audience at some point in the week.

For more information on HATCH and how to apply, please contact us at 416-973-4237 or by email.

You can download the full application and call for submissions forms below:

> Application Form

> Call for Proposals

> The Studio Theatre

About guest curator Trevor Schwellnus:

Trevor Schwellnus is a Toronto-based scenographer, designing sets, lighting, and video for performance with independent artists. He is Artistic Producer of Aluna Theatre, and in 2009-10 was Designer-in-Residence at the Theatre Centre. He directed, designed, and dramaturged Nohayquiensepa (No one knows) for Aluna (initiated at HATCH in 2009), and designed La Comunión, Madre, and For Sale. He is currently developing his work on the integration of artistic disciplines and intercultural practices, with a focus on the dramaturgy of design, through a Chalmer’s Fellowship. He has collaborated in theatre and dance with: The Theatre Centre, Modern Times, Jumblies, Fixtpoint, Alameda, Cahoots, Buddies in Bad Times, Obsidian, Tarragon, Small Wooden Shoe, One Reed,

Independent Aunties, Liza Balkan, Marie-Josée Chartier, Ame Henderson’s publicrecordings, Susie Burpee, Sasha Ivanochko, Meagan O’Shea, and others. He has three Doras (of 11 career nominations), a Harold, and a Childrens' Choice Award. His most recent work was Ajax & Little Iliad by Frank Cox-O'Connell and Evan Webber at Harbourfront Centre's World Stage. Upcoming: a remount of Nohayquiensepa (No one knows) as part of Aluna's Panamerican Routes Festival at Theatre Passe Muraille in May 2012. In workshop: The Architecture of Terrorism (from a Theatre Centre Residency), After Pirandello (working title) with Juliet Palmer and Guillaume Bernardi. Learn more about Trevor here.

Testimonials from HATCH participants

"The studio time and all the conversations before and after have been profound in helping us to flourish as artists. I think it really made us come together as collaborators and gain clarity of how to move forward. It was such a positive transformative experience for me. I'm eternally grateful for this opportunity!"

John Caffery
Pantheon
HATCH 2012

"HATCH, for me, was about experiencing the fear of risk, but working through it to attain a fearlessness in expression. By its very construct, it pushed me past so many preconceived ideas of creation and rehearsal and presentation, and further forced me out of any comfort zones into a new place, where the merit of the work lies in the willingness to lay it bare in its wonderfully incomplete state. A place where you invite an audience into your collective process, and encourage them to experience with you; a Polaroid photograph only beginning to develop. HATCH was a vital reminder of the invitation of trust in creation.

Salvatore Antonio
THE SHEETS, THE...
HATCH 2012

"HATCH allowed my collaborators and I the opportunity to flesh out our ideas and to expand our collective vision. It was a crucial growing experience for me as an artist, and I would do it again in a heartbeat!"

Maggie MacDonald
Paper Laced with Gold
HATCH 2012

"HATCH gave us (Mortified) the push and support to take our collaboration to the stage for the first time. We worked with a great team at Harbourfront Centre who were 'yes' people and wanted to help our vision come to life. It was a great experience."

Jenn Goodwin
Mortified
HATCH 2012

"I can't believe I made something so beautiful, I can't believe it pulled together in a week! A wild ride, this is what HATCH is here for isn't it? To give an artist the opportunity to realize/manifest an experiment, like in a lab, where a scientist for one week gets access to the equipment s/he needs for a critical experiment and they make a break through, that's really what happened for us, we breathed life into the Mrtvolka."

Daniela Sneppova
Mrtvolka
HATCH 2011

"At the very least, HATCH was a wonderful opportunity to work with a premier institution filled with amazing staff & visionaries who provided us the creative guidance and technical support we needed to elevate our process and, ultimately, work. Given our members' geographical distances, we wouldn't have achieved such scale & scope otherwise.

"But perhaps more importantly, HATCH is a uniquely creative environment that fosters a sense of community among its participants. Under Ame Henderson & Jo Hunter's gracious care, we felt like family. And exchanged ideas accordingly during gatherings. So it isn't so outlandish to compare HATCH to The Cool Parent. You know, the one who casually leaves out Playboy/girl mags for you to discover. And when you mention things like, 'Can I have a Duran Duran haircut,' they say, 'Yes, but please listen to this Motorhead record first.' Then later on in life, you find yourself joyfully recounting this very story to a complete stranger in an effort to explain why you've seen Slayer 13 times. Yeah, baby."

Arthur Yeung, Looking Sea Collective
Passages
HATCH 2011

"The deceptively simple notion of being able to actually create and rehearse new work in the theatre the work was to be performed in – with every effort made by Harbourfront Centre staff to provide all the support and resources they could – was nothing short of a revolution for our project and our company. Through our HATCH residency we discovered an immediate, active way of working that I hope will inform our creation and rehearsal methods for years to come."

Brendan Gall, co-artistic director, The Room
Red Machine: Under the Knife
HATCH 2010

"There are few opportunities in this city that give emerging artists and performers a chance to get together with their collaborators and just create. The fact that this happens in a fully equipped theatre with expert staff able to assist with everything from press releases to technical questions makes it an amazing opportunity for any company. Even just being associated with the Harbourfront Centre has opened up doors for our company."

Erin Brandenburg, Kitchen Band Productions
Petrichor
HATCH 2009