About The Homecoming
The Homecoming is an award-winning, one-day outdoor event which sees circus and circus-inspired performance take over Newcastle-under-Lyme Town Centre (West Midlands) in celebration of the legacy of local-legend Philip Astley. Born in Newcastle in 1742, Philip Astley became famed for bringing together acrobats, clowns and trick riders to invent the 42-foot circus ring still used in circus today.
Growing since 2014, The Homecoming traditionally features a diverse programme of high-quality contemporary circus and circus-inspired performance created by UK and international artists performed in outdoor spaces throughout the town centre. The Homecoming 2020 will take place during the daytime on Saturday 27 June 2020.
Previous programmes have included: theatre, dance, circus, spoken word, photography and more.
The Homecoming is delivered by Appetite in partnership with Newcastle-under-Lyme BID (Business Improvement District) and Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council. It is supported by Arts Council England and the Without Walls Touring Network Partnership.
Watch The Homecoming 2018 video
The Brief
For the first time since its inception we are looking for submissions from artists and companies of their relevant existing work to be considered for our programme for 2020. We hope this will allow us to meet and consider work from a breadth of artists who might be new to us.
We are looking for submissions from artists from a range of backgrounds and practice. We are particularly interested in work from female-led, BAME-led (Black, Asian and minority ethnic), or disability-led companies and artists to form part of The Homecoming 2020 programme.
What we’re looking for:
- Existing relevant performance or other artwork available for our event
- High quality, contemporary circus or related artforms e.g. physical theatre, clowning, juggling
- We are also open to artforms inspired by circus e.g. theatre inspired by clowning, or as outlined in our previous programming choices
- Designed for presentation outdoors, daytime, in a town centre setting
- Impactful and engaging work with broad, family-friendly or universal appeal
- Finished work that has toured or had at least 2 previous presentations
- 15 – 30min duration and can be presented 2-3 times in a day
How to apply
To be considered please provide:
- Presentation costs
- Show details including tech spec, company rider (number of people on the road etc)
- Links to images and video
- Company CV, biog and links to work online
- Testimonials
Please send in an email headed ‘The Homecoming 2020 Submission’ to askus@appetitestoke.co.uk by Monday 13 January 2020.
If you have any queries please contact gemma@appetitestoke.co.uk or call 01782 381373.
Submissions will be considered by a panel including members of Appetite and Newcastle BID.
We will aim to notify you of the outcome by Thursday 30 January 2020.
Image: Roots by Highly Sprung Performance Company, The Homecoming 2019, Jenny Harper Photography.
