Jobs - Global Majority Performers

Award-winning interactive/gaming theatre company Hidden Track are looking for an experienced performer from the global majority to collaborate on the creation of our brand new show ‘The Price of Everything’ over an R&D process between January and April 2022.

Hidden Track create original interactive and gaming theatre which puts the audience – and irreverent, political play – at the heart of everything we do.

Our shows often have a lot of moving parts – branching storylines based on audience decisions, live gameplay with uncertain outcomes, and things going wrong because oh god making art is hard.

We are looking for performers with experience and interest in interactive work, storytelling, and live game design – people who are used to thinking on their feet, playing with audiences, adapting to uncertain surroundings, and knowing when to just laugh through it because oh no someone just fell over and an important prop has now broken oh god.

We don’t have a specific casting in mind, but as we want our on-stage cast to properly reflect the world around us, we will only be seeing performers from the global majority for this role. Within this, we also actively encourage applications from performers living with disabilities, from low-income backgrounds, and who identify as LGBTQ+.

Please note that applicants must have a base to stay at an accessible distance from Manchester.
Rehearsals will take place mainly in Manchester, leading to a public work-in-progress performance at The Dukes, Lancaster.

The show:

The Price of Everything will be an interactive performance/gameshow for simultaneous live and online audiences that explores how life and the cost of living have changed over recent decades, and invites participants to play through ideas about how their city could change in the future. Online audiences will play the role of ‘remote workers’, making live decisions on how their city should change, while our live audience will be our ‘key workers’ carrying out the required labour through games played live on stage.

If the remote workers want to increase the level of affordable housing, or boost the local manufacturing industry, the key workers will build houses live on stage, or simulate a warehouse. If online audiences need everyone to work harder, faster, or for less pay, live audiences must live with the consequences. Our new city must come together, collaborate, and compromise, as we explore the consequences of our actions on the future. Can we make a city that works for everyone?

Through this R&D process, we will be focused on developing the games and systems that will form the core of that show, culminating in a work-in-progress sharing at The Dukes, Lancaster in April 2022. As a performer and collaborator, you will help us devise and playtest those games in rehearsal, and facilitate them with live audiences in our final performances.

After this stage of the project is over, we will be looking to develop the piece into a larger touring show, which will adapt to each new city it visits.

This work will be contracted separately, but we will be looking for our chosen performers to be part of those future tour plans, working within reasonable availability and prior planning.

The schedule:

Activity is currently planned across these four weeks:

  • 31st January-4th February 2022 – Five-day development week in Manchester
  • 28th-30th March 2022 – Three days rehearsal in Manchester
  • 4th-6th April 2022 – Three days rehearsal in Manchester
  • 11th-14th April 2022 – Four days rehearsal at The Dukes, Lancaster, with one public work-in-progress performance on 14th April.

In the event of COVID restrictions/lockdown, some of this work may have to take place online.

Once selected for this role, we are committed to paying our performers for this work whether or not the final performance goes ahead.

The fee:

Our Director, Writer, and Performers will all receive the same fee of £100 per day, and £125 per performance day.

Performers will be employed on a freelance contract and are responsible for their own Tax and NI. We are able to provide reasonable travel expenses around the North West, and will be arranging travel from Manchester to Lancaster in the final week. Unfortunately we are not able to provide accommodation or subsistence allowances for this stage of the project.

To apply, please send a CV and a Cover Letter to hiya@hiddentrack.org.uk

In your Cover Letter, please tell us a little bit about your experience with interactive theatre, why you would like to work on this project, and anything else you think it would be useful for us to know. (Note: we recieve a lot of applications, so your cover letter is a really useful way for us to get an idea of your approach and personality. Don’t be afraid to go into detail!) If you prefer, you can send this in the form of a short audio or video (up to 3 mins).

The deadline for applications is 5pm, Monday 10th January 2022.

Auditions will be held in Manchester in the week commencing Monday 17th January 2022.
Applicants invited to audition will be offered travel costs within the North West. For those who cannot attend in person, we will be offering online auditions. If COVID-19 restrictions are in place at this time, all auditions will happen online.

If you would like to become more familiar with Hidden Track’s work, videos of some of our past shows can be found at https://hiddentrack.org.uk/videos, and our online game ‘How to Win’ can be played at https://hiddentrack.org.uk/howtowinaccess

If you have any questions about the role or the application/audition process, please just drop us a message on hiya@hiddentrack.org.uk