Obsidian Theatre Company

Recommender Grants for Theatre Creators (RGTC)

SUBMISSIONS OPEN!

Deadline to submit is Thursday, December 14th, 2023

Recommender Grants for Theatre Creators (RGTC) is a fantastic opportunity for Obsidian to fund new theatrical works in development by artists at any stage in their careers who have a direct intersection with Blackness. Generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), this program provides successful applicants with funding between $1000 and $3000 dollars to be put towards the creation and development of new Black Canadian work. Please note that this money cannot be used towards a production of a play.

WHO DO WE SUPPORT?

Obsidian places no limits on the content of work that is submitted. Through this program, we seek to support new works in development that uplift the Black voice in Canadian theatre while supporting Black-identifying artists as they hone their craft.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply for a Recommender Grant you must submit the application through the OAC’s online system, Nova. For a step-by-step guide on how to register and submit an application please CLICK HERE. Application requirements and guidelines are found there as well.

RGTC RSOURCES


22/23 RGTC RECIPIENTS

Showcased from left to right; top to bottom.

isi bhakhomen (they/them)

Project Title – QUINCE

Project Description – QUINCE follows the journey of Gabriella, an Afro-Peruvian, gender non-comforming teen who is about to celebrate their quince in front of the entire family. But instead of becoming a woman, they are haunted by a loss that prevents them from undergoing the celebration all-together.

KayGeni

Project Title – Mami Wata

Project Description – In the Bahamas Mami Wata spirits are said to dwell in blue holes. Their descriptions tend to match what the average person would categorize as a mermaid, being half fish, and half human. Mami wata stories tend to be more cautionary tales than ones that only emphasize their beauty. I’d like to write a play that borrows from these stories of warning, but also amplifies the complex relationships between mermaids and the locals of the Bahamas.

Christene Browne

Project Title – Attention Au Feu (Risk of Fire)

Project Description – Attention Au Feu (Risk of Fire), inspired by Sartre’s Huis Clos (No Exit), the play is an existential contemplation on mortality, marginalization, race, gender and love. It centers around, Pearl, an elderly Caribbean woman who contemplates her life as she lays dying in a hospice bed.

Bria Brown

Project Title – 23

Project Description – An experimental comedy; through the lens of a 20-something-year-old immigrant attempting to escape her turbulent circumstances in an uncompromising fight for joy as she pursues her dreams. My highest goal is to explore the relationship between dreams and systemic barriers. In a system built on the oppression of Black and Brown lives, our protagonist explores what it means to dare to dream, regardless.

Alicia Plummer

Project Title – It Just Bugs Me

Project Description – It Just Bugs Me is a comedic, absurd play about two women who meet for a swimming class that never begins. Though they are strangers who are a decade apart in age, they find that they have unusual similarities that they cannot explain.

Under A Grove – Chantal Forde & Jewelle Blackman

Project Title – Boy Boy and the Magic Drum

Project Description – The factory’s shut down, the Peace Parade cancelled, and all seems lost… until Boy Boy stumbles upon a magic drum. A celebration of Trinidadian culture, this is the story of a child digging deep within himself in order to save the day, with the help of the magical rainbow brew…

Natalie Morgan

Project Title – Jessie and Me

Project Description – Jessie and Me is an exploration of womanhood, motherhood, and growing into the person you are versus the person you thought you would be. It is a one-woman show about a thirty-something black woman whose childhood doll comes to life to break her isolation & loneliness during the lockdown.

Adaora Asidianya

Project Title – The Afflictions Of The Abara Family

Project Description – In a Suburban Toronto family room, the Abara’s — a first-generation Nigerian family — navigate the intertwining afflictions that plague them.

Jahnelle Jones

Project Title – Reunited

Project Description – Reunited follows two old friends as they reconnect in the third-floor girls’ washroom at their ten-year high school reunion. As the women reminisce, moments from their Prom Day, the last day they spent with their friend Alex before she died, weave into the present bringing up unresolved feelings.

Jo Güstin (Jessie Wamal)

Project Title – Life Is Too Short to Be Straight

Project Description – The project centers on the playwright’s move to Canada, in 2019, to boost her career and be closer to her cousin Yann, who had been begging her to join him there for years. But while she was on the plane from Paris to Toronto, Yann unexpectedly passed away. Billed as a “dead serious comedy”, Life Is Too Short to Be Straight is a comedic approach to grief, mortality, anxiety and the fear of failure of an artist relocating on the eve of a global pandemic. 

Cassandre Mentor

Project Title – Monestime: Where Rivers Meet


Please contact Fatima Adam if you have any questions at op@obsidiantheatre.com

Image: Venus’ Daughter by Meghan Swaby 2016, Photographed by Lyon Smith

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