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Travel Grants to Theatre Artists

Deadline

You may submit your application at any time (one per fiscal year – 1 April to 31 March). Be sure to allow ample time to obtain and complete the application form, and to organize your support material.

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Program Description

The Travel Grants to Theatre Artists program assists with travel costs for professional Canadian theatre artists and arts professionals. It assists them to travel in response to invitations to:

  • accept prizes
  • attend Canadian or foreign professional productions of their work (including staged readings abroad), or
  • participate as workshop leaders or guest speakers at conventions or conferences.
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Eligibility

Eligible Applicants

Applicants must be Canadian citizens or have permanent resident status, as defined by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Canadian citizens need not be living in Canada when they apply.

Applicants must be professional theatre artists or arts professionals. The Canada Council for the Arts defines a professional artist as someone who:

  • has specialized training in the field (not necessarily in teaching establishments)
  • is recognized by their peers (artists in the same artistic tradition)
  • is committed to devoting as much time as possible to their artistic practice, considering their financial situation, and
  • has a history of public presentation.

Playwrights must have had at least one work produced professionally on stage or published professionally.

Other theatre artists must have practiced with professional companies or independent professional productions for at least two years.

Scriptwriters who wish to write a stage play must have had at least one dramatic work produced professionally on radio, television or film.

Composers must have written music for at least one professional theatre production.

You may apply for only one Travel Grant each fiscal year (1 April to 31 March). Applicants may also apply once per fiscal year to the Grants to Theatre Artists program.

Full-time students at school, college or university are not eligible to apply.

This Canada Council for the Arts program is accessible to Aboriginal artists and artists of diverse cultural and regional communities of Canada.

In order to be eligible, your date of travel must occur after the Council receives your application. The Canada Council does not provide retroactive funding.

Eligible Travel

Within the activities eligible to receive support, the Theatre Section has established the following priorities. They are listed in descending priority order.

  • travel to receive a prize
  • travel to the professional production (either nationally or internationally) of the artist’s work, including staged readings abroad
  • travel for the purpose of leading workshops or panel discussions, or giving keynote addresses at national or international theatre conferences, conventions or festivals
  • travel for the purpose of leading workshops or panel discussions, or giving keynote addresses at national and international conferences that are non-theatre in nature, and
  • travel for theatre critics, professors and other theatre professionals who are full-time employees of a training institution and have access to travel budgets. Should funding not be available through those sources, they are eligible for travel support only to lead workshops or panel discussions or give keynote addresses at national and international theatre conferences, conventions or festivals.

Applicants should note that repeat appearances at the same event from year to year will be given lower priority.

Ineligible Activities

The following activities are not eligible for support through this program:

  • travel to participate in annual general meetings of Canadian arts service organizations and associations.
  • travel by individuals who are executive or board members of national or international organizations to lead panel discussions and workshops or give keynote addresses at national or international conferences or conventions convened by these organizations.
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Grant Amount

Fixed amounts of $500, $750, $1,000, $1,500, $2,000 or $2,500 are available as a contribution toward applicants’ travel costs, based on excursion fares. However, the amounts of $2,000 and $2,500 are available only to applicants who are travelling to or from northern Canada or to international destinations other than the United States and Europe. Applications may include more than one destination, and applicants must justify the amount requested.

Retroactive funding is not available.

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Application Form

Or

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Further Information

Robert Allen, Nancy Guertin, Kim Selody or Bruce Sinclair
Program Officers
Theatre Section
Canada Council for the Arts
350 Albert Street, P.O. Box 1047
Ottawa ON  K1P 5V8

Telephone: 1-800-263-5588 (toll-free) or 613-566-4414 (Pascale Julien or Linda Nickolson,
Program Assistants, ext 4483 or 4186)

TTY (TDD) machine, for hearing-impaired callers: 613 565-5194

Fax: 613 566-4410

January 2009