Information for interested applicants Just Hearing: 15 June 2022
Callout for Actors and/or Writers with lived experience of mental ill-health to create and perform interactive theatre to help educate the legal community. These are paid positions.
Just Hearing is a project of Rebus Theatre that uses the Forum Theatre model of interactive theatre. It is a commission from Canberra Community Law in partnership with Legal Aid ACT, to help lawyers work better with people who are experiencing mental distress. It is a three-year project with short performance seasons around October and March each year, until March 2025.
Rebus is looking to employ a writer and two actors with lived experience of mental ill-health to work with Rebus Artistic Director Robin Davidson to write, rehearse and perform the play/s.
The writer will be employed for approximately 40 hours spread over 2-4 weeks. Commencing late June 2022. Actors will be employed for approximately one-week full-time equivalent rehearsals spread over two to three weeks in July 2022. Performance seasons will be in October and March each year until 2025. There will be approximately 2 days to ‘re-rehearse’ and 3-5 performances in each season. Some performance times are fixed and some are subject to negotiation over actors’ availability.
Rates are based on MEAA awards.
Job descriptions and selection criteria
WRITER Selection Criteria:
Essential:
- Experience of writing for performance, not necessarily professional;
- An understanding of the difficulties that might be faced by someone who is mentally unwell in an interaction with a lawyer, based on your own lived experience of mental ill-health;
- To be sufficiently robust and resilient to work on the creation of scripts that may be disturbing or triggering;
Desirable:
- Flexibility in hours of availability.
WRITER Job Description:
With the Artistic Director:
- To attend meetings with representatives of Canberra Community Law and Legal Aid to garner key issues and stories from their point of view.
- To do additional background reading.
- To create scene outlines for three single scene plays showing different scenarios in which things go wrong in interactions between someone experiencing mental illness and a lawyer
- To present these scenes to the actors and take notes during the first day of rehearsals
- To assist in developing these scenes based on initial rehearsals.
Register your interest here
Expressions of Interest due by Sunday 26th June
ACTORS Selection Criteria:
Essential:
- Some acting experience and/or training, not necessarily with professional experience.
- An understanding of the difficulties that might be faced by someone who is mentally unwell in an interaction with a lawyer, based on your own lived experience of mental ill-health.
- To be sufficiently robust and resilient to play a character who is treated in ways that are insensitive, including to improvise as that character with members of the audience.
- An expectation to be available for initial rehearsals, the October 2022 season and the March 2023 seasons.
Desirable:
- Experience in Forum Theatre and/or improvisation.
- Flexibility in times.
- Willingness to tour for one night in March 2023.
ACTORS Job Description:
- To attend rehearsals and performances.
- Learn lines outside of rehearsals
Register your interest here
Expressions of Interest due by Sunday 26th June
