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S C R A T C H (1) - ENCOUNTER

Spring 2020 - Vancouver, Canada

adj - assembled or made from whatever is possible. 

 

S C R A T C H (1) is a casual evening of contemporary, creation-based, works in progress from artists who are challenging the ways in which they make their theatre. Through careful curation, S C R A T C H events provide a platform to four artists or companies to share their process and start a conversation with an audience of theatre-goers and makers.

MAKE.

PROCESS.

ART.

LINE UP TBA

performances. 

 drinks.

talks.

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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

ARTIST FAQ

Our intention with this concept is to open a dialogue around models of making and producing. This is why we are designing this event and inviting other curious and creative risk takers in Vancouver to join us. 

For us, S C R A T C H takes two pillars of making theatre - form + process - and places them on a collision course. 

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Curation for each edition is focused around a provocation - for S C R A T C H (1) it is  ENCOUNTER  

Production // no comment. th(é)âtre

This concept was born from our time in the UK - making theatre there made it clear how vital the scratch night structure is to creation. Scratch Nights are integral to any making process in a wide range of practices. They challenge several key points in current producing models:

  1. No product approach – we are all about process here. We are looking for unfinished work, questions, starting points, or building blocks. 

  2. Complicit audience – we’re not hiding behind our process. Audiences come in knowing what they are in for but unlike a reading or a 10 minute product, they get to see creative decisions, they witness artistic risk, they play an active part in the creation process.

  3. Challenge of linear process + modern hierarchy of making – it doesn’t need to be the beginning of a piece, it doesn’t even have to be in your piece at all - we want to rethink the top to bottom structure and make it a much more horizontal process. 

  4. Exquisite time pressure – no scratch piece is longer than 25 minutes – we challenge you to distill what you want to say + how you are doing it – in 10 to 25 minutes – create, clarify, communicate.

These key concepts are deeply rooted in aspects of postmodern thinking and performance. We are interested in how elements of theatre comes into contact with each other and other art forms – how they wrestle, how they dance and how they function together.

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