RAPT – Resident Artist at Perishable Theatre, hence RAPTors!

Perishable Theatre, Rhode Island’s Research and Development Theatre is currently accepting applications for new Resident Artists at Perishable Theatre , an innovative artist residency program. RAPT is an artistic development program created by Perishable Theatre Executive Artistic Director Vanessa Gilbert that aims to support new performance work generated by mid-career Rhode Island and South Eastern Massachusetts artists. All RAPT applications must be post-marked or hand-delivered by 6 p.m. on June 8, 2009 as a new wave of residencies is slated to begin in July 2009. For more information on the Resident Artists at Perishable Theatre program visit the Perishable Theatre website.

“The RAPT program was born from the desire to create a community for performance artists and to create a venue for the creation of ground-breaking works for the stage,” Gilbert says. RAPT began in May of 2006, with a group of eight multi-disciplinary artists selected by Gilbert. In the second program year, 5 new artists were introduced making the total number 12 artists incubating 10 projects. Over two years, 13 projects have been incubated and shown to the public in various work-in-progress showings. To date, Perishable Theatre has fully produced four projects in the RAPT program, including Charlotte Meehan’s Sweet Disaster and Amy Lynn Budd’s The Thing That Ate My Brain…Almost. RAPT artists are dancers, writers, directors, dramaturges, performance artists, puppeteers and musicians, all of whom share the distinction of working in merged media. Current resident artists have received additional funding from RISCA, Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, and the Jim Henson Foundation to develop their work.

“RAPT intends to fill a specific void, that of artistic and administrative support for performing artists who are past “emerging,” Gilbert says. “In Rhode Island, a lack of support for artists already in the throes of developing their own work can cause talented artists, in the most fertile periods of their careers, to leave the field or to leave Rhode Island.”

“Being part of a community of artists helped me to stay focused on my project by offering me the constant reminder that I was not alone in exploring the unknown territory of the not-yet-made and I just had to keep going.” –Charlotte Meehan

A competitive application for the RAPT program will clearly outline a specific project that the artist or artist group would develop over 1-3 years of residency. Theatre companies are eligible to apply. Applications are critiqued on how clearly they articulate the process they will embark on to create their work. For a more comprehensive program description, go to www.perishable.org. Decisions will be made by the beginning of July, 2009.

To Apply for the RAPT program, please include: