TOTAL THEATRE AWARDS 2023

THE TOTAL THEATRE AWARDS AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE ARE CURRENTLY ON PAUSE.

2023 marks 26 years since the first Total Theatre Awards at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Post pandemic we had hoped to return to Edinburgh in 2023.  But realistically we knew this time last year we wouldn’t.

We’d spent over a decade leading the Total Theatre Awards voluntarily.  The Awards process was only possible through generosity from partners and vitally through significant in-kind support from the independent performance sector and artists.

We are grateful to the Artists, Producers, Critics, Academics, Teachers, Designers, Dramaturgs, Production Managers and Programmers who have so generously gifted their time as Assessors and Judges. We are immensely grateful to the Artists and Companies who have supported the process by providing free tickets for the Total Theatre Awards Assessors and Judges to see work across an average 1,200 viewings each year. We are grateful to partners who supported logistics costs and honorarium fees for some Assessors, Judges, and some of the independent team co-ordinating the process.

We made it through 3 pandemic years keeping our creative and producing heads above water. But finding the energy, capacity and resource needed to restart the Total Theatre Awards and most importantly to deliver the process fairly and inclusively going forwards was a bit overwhelming. 

In the context of a heady mix of post pandemic, post brexit, geopolitical turmoil; a cost-of-living crisis; a precarious UK funding landscape and with ever increasing accommodation and logistics costs impacting who could be in Edinburgh in August we knew we needed to take stock, to pause, to reflect. To plan.

Time to change…

The Total Theatre Awards process has offered a rare space in the UK performing arts landscape. It is an annual 3 week-long process for peer-to-peer critical discourse, dialogue, debate, exchange, reflection, review, learning, discovery, and professional development. Historically it has involved a team of 50 seeing an average 500 shows across an average 1,200 viewings and engaging in around 100 hours of collective discussion exploring creative practice. The annual Total Theatre Shortlist has given visibility to and brokered opportunities for brilliant artists creating exceptional work and helped programmers curate programmes in the UK and overseas.

It is an increasingly tough landscape for Makers. For Artists. For the Independent Sector. We need more celebration, championing and quite frankly visibility and opportunities for independent artists and makers. We also need spaces where makers and others in the sector come together to see new work, to engage is discourse around practice, approach, evolving forms, and audiences.

This is what the Total Theatre Awards process has always done.  So, we’d like to think the Total Theatre  Awards process will be back. Maybe in Edinburgh. Maybe elsewhere. Maybe there will be Awards. Maybe there won’t. But we’d like there to be a process. For work to be seen, for communities of peers to gather in discourse, dialogue, debate, and reflection. To explore with rigour, care, and sensitivity what it is to craft, to create, to connect; to work beyond the classical cannon, with skills and forms that stretch the boundaries of what performance is, could and might be. 

We feel a weight of responsibility, a drive of passion, a commitment to this. 

Looking to the Future…

So, let’s look to 2024. 

To deliver the awards process fairly and inclusively with logistical costs and everyone involved being paid baseline fees we have calculated that we would need c.£150,000. This includes paying for all tickets so artists themselves are also not out of pocket. This is a strong politic of a fair and inclusive process for us in the context of the Edinburgh Festivals. 

If through collaboration, partnership working and support we can find a way to secure this resource we will work with artists, funders, sponsors, cultural agencies, sector partners and others interested in the work Total Theatre Network does to relaunch the Total Theatre Awards process. 

We’ll be sharing more detail on our ideas and plans over the coming weeks and months. 

If you are interested in supporting or partnering with the Total Theatre Network on the Total Theatre Awards in 2024 please email Jo Crowley or Becki Haines.   

Jo will also be in Edinburgh 20-28 August seeing work, supporting artists. If you are a Venue, Festival, Promoter,  Artist, Funder, Cultural Agency, or any other interested party who would like to meet to discuss the future of the awards in person then please do do get in touch.                                     

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About the Total Theatre Awards

EACH YEAR 50 PEERS FROM ACROSS THE UK AND INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE COMMUNITY COME TOGETHER IN EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND FOR 3 WEEKS TO PARTICIPATE IN A PEER LED, PEER-TO-PEER PROCESS OF CRITICAL DIALOGUE AND DEBATE EXPLORING EXCELLENCE AND EVOLVING FORM IN CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE. THE PROCESS IS THE TOTAL THEATRE AWARDS.

Honouring work by professional artists and companies at various stages in their professional development, the Total Theatre Awards have an international reputation for rigour and excellence.  Cherished by artists and programmers alike, the Total Theatre Awards involve a rigorous two-stage peer to peer assessment and Judging process, bringing together artists, critics, presenters, producers and academics to debate and award excellence.

Exploring work by professional artists and companies at various stages in their professional development, the Total Theatre Awards process identifies emerging artistic talent and forms whilst noticing shifts and changes in contemporary performance. Through critical analysis, dialogue, discussion and debate two peer networks of Assessors and Judges spot game changing artists and play a vital role in identifying and celebrating excellence, innovation and creative talent in an ever-changing contemporary performance landscape.  The Total Theatre Awards process is the most established, carefully developed and significant peer to peer review processes undertaken annually in the UK

Resisting too narrow a definition of the term ‘total theatre’ the awards focus on artists and companies leading innovative work beyond the classical cannon and new writing – working within the fields of devised theatre, live art, visual performance, mime, puppetry, physical theatre, experimental theatre, dance, clown, circus, street, immersive, outdoor, site specific performance and more. The process also places a special emphasis on exploring difficult issues and the spaces in between established performance forms where innovative new creative practices, approaches and models are emerging. 

Total Theatre Network is a registered charity that is run across the year by a voluntary board and steering group of producers who oversee the delivery of the Awards in Edinburgh. The Total Theatre Awards are only possible through collaboration with key supporters.  Thank you to our supporters over the years. The supporters for the 2019 Total Theatre Awards were Barbican, Cambridge Junction, Colchester Arts Centre, The Empty Space, Farnham Maltings, HOME, Jacksons Lane, Mobius, National Theatre of Scotland, Oxford Playhouse, The Place, The Point, Puppet Animation Scotland, Roundhouse, Rose Bruford College, Take Me Somewhere, Theatre Deli and Theatre in the Mill.  

If you are an organisation, individual or funder that is interested in supporting the Total Theatre Awards please contact Co-Directors, Jo Crowley or Becki Haines.