The Institute will host a theatre lab in Marrakech in May 2016, where up to eight projects will be selected to participate. Taking place at the Fellah Hotel, in collaboration with Dar al-Ma'mûn, Sundance will provide transportation, rehearsal space, dramaturgical support and an acting company for artists to experiment and develop their work.
Previously hosted in Utah, the lab has provided support and development to such acclaimed Broadway musicals as Fun Home and A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, as well as new works Circle Mirror Transformation, ToasT, Appropriate and many more.
Theatre artists in the U.S. and from the Middle East and North Africa can submit their work for consideration in this lab through Oct. 15 by visiting Sundance.
"With a spirit of experimentation and exchange at the core of our work, we hope our support for artists in the Middle East and North Africa will help the most interesting voices reach a global audience," said actor, director and producer Robert Redford, also the president and founder of Sundance Institute, in a press statement.
"We hope this new initiative will challenge the American theatre community to embrace a broader definition of identity and creativity," added theatre program artistic director Philip Himberg. "In the same way, we’re looking to support the voices of MENA [Middle East and North Africa] artists creating innovative and risktaking work and connect them to their artistic peers in the U.S." In addition to the Morocco lab, the Institute will offer six artists the opportunity for early development at the new Theatre-Makers residency at the Sundance Resort in Utah in June 2016. The program joins other theatre initiatives such as the theatre directors retreat in Arles, France, and the writers playwrights studio at Flying Point. For more information on all initiatives and the Sundance Institute Theatre program, visit Sundance/Theatre.
