We are now accepting submissions for
Fresh Meat 14!

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Fresh Meat Fest for emerging artists?

I’ve never written a play before, can I still apply?

Do you only accept plays?

How do I know if my idea is right for Fresh Meat?

My idea is bigger/smaller than 20 minutes… What do I do?

I have a great 10-minute play I’d like to produce, can I apply?

My idea will involve a lot of tech, is that ok?

How do you decide who gets programmed?

I’ve applied in the past but wasn’t selected, can I reapply?

Fresh Meat Fest is a new works festival and our artists range from emerging to established and everywhere in between. We believe in the value and importance of emerging artists being programmed alongside more experienced theatre creators and we ensure that each festival has a least one (if not more!) emerging artists in the lineup.

Absolutely!! Many of our alumni had never created any performance of any kind prior to taking the stage at Fresh Meat. We provide you numerous resources to create and build your show, including dramaturgy, rehearsal space, and any other help that our Festival staff and/or board can offer to help bring your idea to life.

Not at all! Over the years we’ve had plays, musicals, storytellers, dance pieces, clown pieces, standup sets, improv, sketch comedy, music performances, game shows, immersive experiences, genre-defying performance art, and more! If it’s a new, original idea (that fits on our small, little stage), we will consider it.

It’s all there in our name! We take the concept of “fresh” and run with it. We consider the following:

• Is the idea new and/or novel? In general, in Ottawa, in Canada?

  • We don’t typically program adaptations or reimaginings of already established works, but if you’re taking something in a totally new direction or picking up an old project in a totally new way, we will consider it!

• Is the medium new to the artist? Ex. an actor trying standup, a dancer trying clown, a playwright trying an immersive work.

• Have we seen an idea like this at the festival before? (But don’t worry, you don’t need to know all 112 shows that have participated in the festival!)

You only have 20 minutes on stage (if you’re a Mainstage artist) and those 20 minutes are yours to do with as you please. Here are some general tips to putting together an application:

Bigger than 20 Minutes: If the idea you’re pitching is a full-length show, we’ll want to know how you will use your 20 minutes. Maybe you want to write the first twenty minutes of a show, maybe you want to experiment with the climax, as long as you can articulate how you will use your time, it’s ok if your show will one day be a full-length play — in fact, we really hope that it will be — but if we feel like you’re trying to do too much, we will be nervous about what’s feasible!

Smaller than 20 Minutes: Ideally, all Mainstage shows will be as close to 20 minutes as possible (without going over — Price is Right rules), but we get it, sometimes you write a fantastic start to your show and stretching it to fit 20 minutes wouldn’t be helpful at this stage, that’s a-ok! As long as you have more than, say, 12 minutes, that’s fine with us. Hopefully working with your complimentary dramaturge will help you get to that finish line, though ;)

Freah Meat Fest is an incubator for new works that hope to have long lives as future full-length shows. As such, we’re unable to program previously written 10-minute (or short) plays. You are, however, welcome to apply with an idea for a short play that you want to expand upon later but need some help figuring out at this early stage. As mentioned above, it’s ok if your show comes in under 20 minutes.

Each show has a maximum of 20 minutes of stage time to perform, plus just 5 minutes to set up and strike your show, and only 90 minutes of technical rehearsal to pull it all together. We are only able to provide basic sound and lighting equipment and that’s about it… Anything else you may need you would need to provide, but at Fresh Meat, when it comes to tech, less is very often more! We want your idea to speak for itself.

At Fresh Meat, we program blind. Once the submission period ends, a member of our Board of Directors scrubs all applications of identifiers (names, company names, etc.) before our jurors have access to the submission materials. We do this because we believe in the ideas speaking for themselves — sometimes the freshest ideas come from those who’ve never stepped foot on a stage! This mean’s there’s no pressure if you don’t have a degree or years of theatre making experience behind you, we’re only looking at the idea you present.

This blind jurying process was implemented in 2016 in response to feedback amassed during a Digital Town Hall held by the producers and Board of Directors of the festival, in conversation with artists and community members. This process has allowed us to create and foster not only a diverse and inclusive space but a just and equitable one for artists, patrons, volunteers, and all those who participate in the festival

Yes you can! We’re unfortunately limited to just 5 Mainstage slots and 1 Ancillary slot per festival so programming can be soooo tricky — even if you weren’t selected last year doesn’t mean you had a bad idea! In fact, maybe you’ve refined your idea since last intake, let us know if that’s the case when you apply!