OPEN CALL

Dear Members,

So OK, there’s not going to be a Conference this year, but we are planning an exciting online celebration as an alternative: the inaugural FEAST Festival. (FEAST FEST).

We invite you – YES YOU! – to participate as a contributing performer.

Dates of Festival:  15-31 October 2021

DEADLINE to submit proposals : 12th March 2021

OUR FESTIVAL OBJECTIVES

• To Celebrate the ‘FEASTINESS’ OF FEAST

• Promote Asian tales

• Multi-national nature of our membership

• To encourage cross-cultural collaboration

•      Showcase telling in Mother Tongue

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

FORMAT                                                                

• Live zoom sessions (between 30 – 60 minutes long)
• Live stream of event (eg at library, if Covid allows)
•  Pre-recorded sessions (any length from a single story to a 90 minute programme) and available on our website/youtube                                       

ORGANISATION

The content will be grouped into different STREAMS 

• Mother Tongue
• Country specific (eg India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea) stories told by anyone, not only nationals of each country
• Sessions for kids (live)
• Sessions for adults (live)
• Traditional story forms (eg pansori, kamishibai, wayang kulit)
• Story Theatre (puppet, mask, mime, tandem-telling, street) 
• 4th Book Launch and programme of tellers telling from it. (details to follow) 

IDEAS you might like to explore:

• Programmes celebrating a particular character such as Nasruddin, Sang Kanchil, Birbal, Tenali Raman, Judge Oka
• A themed session of tales (eg healing, harmony, or true stories of eg Asian heroines)
• Ramayana across different cultures  (a project for the FIC?)
• Getting kids from different cultures telling to each other.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

We hope to receive a range of proposals :

1. Individuals offering to do an individual tale/programme
2. Proposals submitted by individuals hoping to be part of a group event
3. Group offering to put together a group session (eg Best of Birbal)

FEAST will be responsible for scheduling and promoting the Festival .

Your job is to deliver the content: pre-recorded by end August; live sessions to demo a run-through by early September. Please note, we will only accept proposals from FEAST members. All tellers are expected to be – or become – members*. However collaborating artists are not required to become members!

* a child under the age of 16 telling with their parent in a programme for kids does not have to become a member.

FINALLY

This is not a top-down Festival led by the four directors. This Festival can only succeed if you, our members, contribute your stories. We certainly don’t want to micro-manage your work. It is a chance for you to be part of an international festival that will be marketed globally. If you are telling tales of your home country, this could be an opportunity to connect with your diaspora, But, more than anything, it is a wonderful opportunity to curate a programme with old and new friends.