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 Dirty Thirty?

The Dirty Thirty is our signature show, where we make a valiant attempt to perform 30 short (~2 min) original Neo-Futurist plays in one hour, against the clock, with the audience deciding the order they are performed through a sophisticated system of shouting and jumping (NB: they shout, we jump).

It’s controlled chaos; a living newspaper of bang up-to-date stories that only we can tell; and, in the words of one of our founders, Desiree Burch, “wild fun, radical honesty and utter destruction.”

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Is it improvised?

Believe it or not, we write and rehearse every one of these plays. Of course, there’s room for randomness - audience interaction, the order the plays are performed, challenge, chance, the risk of failure, the thrill of success - but the structure around said randomness is carefully crafted. We have improvisers in our midst, and experience of improv is no bad thing to have, but this is theatre, baybeeee.

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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, so trust us, you’re in good company.

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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 for shows. However, we know this simply doesn’t cover the costs of running a company and are actively looking at ways to make our work more financially sustainable, through applying for grants, 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, play selection & 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.

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.

So I should quit my day job/not take on other work?

Not at all - all the current company members have other work which we do alongside DF - both money jobs, creative jobs and creative money jobs.

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, as you can become an ‘inactive’ member of the ensemble, focus on other things for a time, and be welcomed back with open arms when you’re free to become active again and get stuck back in.

Do be aware, however, that onboarding in your first six months to a year in the company does take time, effort and capacity, so you will likely want to make that an artistic priority in your first year with us.