Jobs - Global Majority Performers

We would love to hear from actors from the global majority who feel like this is a project they would like to take on.

Award-winning interactive/gaming theatre company Hidden Track are looking for actors 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 2022 and April 2022.

Hidden Track creates 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 an interest in interactive work, storytelling, and live game design – you don’t need to have a background in interactive work specifically, but we are looking for people who feel comfortable 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. 

Please note applicants must have a base to stay at an accessible distance from Manchester.

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.

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:

  • w/c 31st January 2022 – Development week in Manchester
  • w/c 21st or 28th March 2022 – Three days rehearsal in Manchester
  • w/c 4th April 2022 – Three days rehearsal in Manchester
  • w/c 11th April 2022, – Final week of rehearsal in Lancaster, including one public work-in-progress performances at The Dukes.

Specific rehearsal/development dates may be subject to slight change, and at this early stage, we are happy to be flexible and work around performer availability as much as we possibly can within our control. However, once this schedule is finalised, we expect performers to be available for dates without interruption.

The fee:

Our Director, Writer, and Performers will all receive the same fee of £500 per week.

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, especially if you have experience in interactive, why you would like to work on this project, and anything else you think it would be useful for us to know. (Note: we receive 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 5 pm Monday 10th January 2022.

Auditions will be held in Manchester in the week commencing Monday 17th January 2022. If COVID restrictions are enforced, the auditions will be held online.

Applicants invited to audition will be offered travel costs within the North West.

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