Sydney Theatre Company (STC) is now accepting applications for the 2015 Patrick White Playwrights’ Award (PWPA) and Patrick White Playwrights’ Fellowship (PWPF). The AUD32,500 (€20,350) prize fund supports up-and-coming as well as established writers. The PWPA AUD7,500 cash prize is for a full-length unproduced play, while the PWPF winner receives AUD12,500 based on work staged over the past four years and an STC commission. Established in 2000, the awards honour Patrick White, an Australian novelist who won the 1973 Nobel Prize for Literature. Past winners include Hilary Bell, Patricia Cornelius and Raimondo Cortese. Entries must be received by 6 November. Find full details at sydneytheatre.com.au.
UK-based DanceEast is offering six bursaries worth GBP6,000 (€8,100) each for dancers seeking to explore new perspectives in their work. Through a self-directed and self-managed programme participants can explore new horizons, both cultural and artistic. For example, participants might partner with a charity or work in a creative field other than dance. In addition, DanceEast has announced two rural retreat programmes for young dancers: Young Rural Retreat (YRT) 2016 and Rural Retreat 2017. Applicants for the bursary do not have to take part in a retreat. YRT will be held at Ipswich’s Waterfront from 25 to 28 August 2016. Funding is provided by Arts Council England and The Rayne Foundation. Applications close on 2 November. For information on how to apply visit danceeast.co.uk.
The Sundance Institute Theatre Program (SITP), based in the US, has launched a pilot 21-day programme to engage Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) theatremakers writing in Arabic, as well as other languages. Held at the luxurious Fellah Hotel in Marrakech, Morocco, Theatre Lab in MENA 2016 will give eight MENA and US theatremakers the opportunity to develop and experiment with their work in an intensive lab environment (8-29 May). SITP president and founder Robert Redford said: ‘We hope our support for artists in the Middle East and North Africa will help the most interesting voices reach a global audience.’ Applicants can submit their work at sundance.org/theatre until 15 October. A new 10-day US residential scheme has also been launched, and will take place at the Sundance Resort in Utah for two- person collaborative teams of artists or solo artists generating new work. Find out more at sundance.org.