Frequently Asked Questions

What’s Neo-Futurism?

Great question! A fabulous primer on what the form entails (from our friends in the New York and San Francisco Neo-Futurists) can be found here, and we have some examples of work we made during lockdown available on our YouTube page.

It’s experimental, messy, honest theatre without artifice or illusion. No suspension of disbelief, no characters, no pretending. In fact, the core tenets of Neo-Futurism are:

• We are who we are

• We are where we are

• We’re doing what we’re doing

• The time is now

We highly recommend seeing the show to get a real grip on what can be done with the form!

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What’s the minimum criteria you’re looking for from auditionees?

We ask that anyone looking to audition meet at least one of these two criteria:

• One year’s experience as a writer (for performance, prose, poetry, journalism) - this can be self-defined

• A minimum of one performance credit (theatre, music, dance, film, performance art) - a performance credit does not necessarily need to be in a professional production

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Who are you looking to cast?

We are looking to cast people who’ll not just perform in The Dirty Thirty, but will become members of a working ensemble who will be artistic partners and collaborators for the foreseeable future. This means being in conversation with other company members, creating art collectively, and making decisions together.

We’re seeking artists from a range of personal and professional backgrounds and life experiences - it doesn’t matter if you haven’t got a degree in theatre, a wealth of experience on stage or have ever even considered yourself a performer. All we ask is that you’re interested in making work that is honest and experimental and feel excited by what Neo-Futurism has to offer as a form.

We want our company to reflect the city we live in, so we especially want to hear from people who identify as working class, LGBTQ+, disabled, d/Deaf, longterm sick, Global Majority and/or migrant. We are committed to offering an audition to all applicants meeting our basic hiring criteria who identify as such, and have provided space for applicants to indicate this at the end of the application form.

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I auditioned before and wasn’t cast. Can I audition again?

Abso-freaking-lutely! We’d love to have you back - it’s really not unusual for people to audition more than once before getting cast, especially as the form isn’t one that’s widely known!

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What if I just want to write/perform/direct?

As a company, we all do all of the above, along with the general admin of running a company: marketing, networking, production. That doesn’t mean we expect you to feel like you excel at every single element, but you should expect to be writing, performing and directing work in The Dirty Thirty - with the support of your fellow artists and an understanding of the core tenets of Neo-Futurism.

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How does pay work?

We work on a box office split basis. However, we know this simply doesn’t the costs of running a company in London and are actively looking at ways to make our work more financially sustainable, through funding applications, providing workshops and offering private shows.

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What sort of commitment are you looking for?

On show weeks, you’ll be expected to attend for the following:

• Tuesday night: pitching & rehearsal

• Friday night: rehearsals & performance

• Saturday night: notes & performance

As of right now, we work in show ‘sprints’ of 6-8 weeks of weekly shows. If you’re in, we’d expect you to be able to be part of at least 3 consecutive shows - but are happy to have you for longer!

When you’re part of a show sprint, it’s a pretty rigorous cycle of writing, pitching, rehearsing and performing - scary as that might sound, we’ve found it’s actually a great exercise in creativity and you really do find your flow in it.

Plenty of people in the company make other work at the same time as working on the show, or take time out from being active ensemble members to focus on other projects - this is all very much encouraged! However, onboarding in your first year in the company does take time, effort, and capacity, so you may want to make that a priority in your first year with us.

We also have regular business meetings, to discuss the running of the company and make decisions by consensus. All active company members are expected to be involved in the behind-the-scenes admin work.