Next Stage 2025 Applications

Presented by Performing Arts Forum in partnership with Dublin Theatre Festival, the Next Stage is the artist development strand of Dublin Theatre Festival. Over the 18 days of the festival, participants meet festival artists in a packed schedule of talks, interviews, group time and workshops. 

“The Next Stage is an invigorating and dedicated programme – the time spent watching, discussing and engaging with such a variety and amount of work sets the creative mind hard at work, and gives you space to understand who you are, and what you want to create!”

-Next Stage Alumni 2024

The Next Stage is an intense practice-based immersion for artists at all career levels at a moment of change in their work, who seek exposure to world-class theatre and an opportunity to meet and engage with the artists who have made it amongst a group of their peers. See past alumni’s of Next Stage here

This year’s edition offers artists a unique opportunity to meet and engage with the practice of extraordinary international artists whose work is featured in this year’s festival. Past workshop leaders and speakers include Tim Crouch, Garry Hynes, Ruth Little, Anne Bogart, Thomas Ostermeier, Vivi Tellas, Inua Elams, Onetroerend Goed and many more. The Next Stage also creates valuable opportunities for enriching engagement with other participants, with past programmes sparking successful artistic collaborations.

Participation in the Next Stage is by application only.
Applications close at 5pm Monday 11th August sharp.

PLEASE FILL IN THE ONLINE FORM HERE

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Programme Outline

Incorporating the feedback of previous Next Stage participants, we will offer flexibility in the schedule in this year’s edition, along with a contribution to the expenses of those participating.

• The 2025 Next Stage programme will start on Thursday 25th September and run to Sunday 12th October.
• Dee Roycroft will be the Next Stage facilitator.
• Programme participants are encouraged to attend all sessions as well as performances most evenings.
• Mondays will be completely free, with Tuesdays reserved for shows only. Wednesday to Sunday there will be a mix of group sessions, workshops and talks during the day, as well as shows.
• The Wednesday to Sunday schedule varies but most days start at 11am and the day sessions will take place at iD8 Studio @ The Digital Hub, Thomas Street, Dublin 8, which is fully accessible
• Applications close at 5pm Monday 11th August sharp.
• Places will be offered to successful applicants by Thursday 21st August.
• Successful applicants are expected to be available for all dates for the Next Stage Programme

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Contribution & Support

• A contribution of €400 will be offered to each participant towards expenses incurred while participating.
• If you are based outside of Dublin, you can apply for an additional support of €600 towards accommodation/travel expenses. There are a limited number of these available, and they will be awarded on a discretionary basis. Applicants may still be offered a place on the Next Stage regardless of where they live, but due to finite resources, may not be offered this additional support.
• Both Dublin Theatre Festival & Performing Arts Forum recognises that there maybe significant barriers to participation—particularly for parents/carers and those with accessibility requirements working in the arts. We are pleased to offer a limited support payment as part of this programme to those who need it. This support is capped at a nominal amount of €150 and is intended to help ease access for those who may otherwise face difficulties attending
• As in previous years, there will be a Dance Ireland Wildcard and Dublin Fringe Wildcard awarded to two artists. This year there will also be a dlrMill Theatre Evolution playwrights residency place.

Programme of Activities

The programme of activities of The Next Stage includes:

• Seeing over 25 shows in the Festival (ticket value of approx. €550)
• Attending events
• Participation in daytime group workshops and talks with artists/companies in the festival (International/Irish)
• Access to industry Works in Progress first looks

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Eligibility

Applications are invited from anyone working professionally in theatre and the performing arts. Theatre artists and makers at an early career stage as well as more established and experienced professionals are invited to apply. It’s important that each group is a diverse one for participants to get the most of the programme. Next Stage would like to encourage applications from candidates coming from a diversity of national, ethnic or cultural groups (including, but not limited to) Asian, Black, Traveller and minority ethnic, refugees, people with disabilities, working-class and LGBTQI+ artists.

Selection

Each year, participants are selected by a panel made up of Dublin Theatre Festival and Performing Arts Forum representatives as well as one external theatre practitioner. This year the selection process and deliberation will begin on Tuesday August 12th through to Tuesday August 19th and applicants will be notified of their outcome on Thursday August 21st. The panel reviews all applications received and the following selection criteria are applied:

• Applicant’s artistic ethos and goals
• Applicant’s artistic output to date
• Applicant’s likely role and fit with the group
• The overall group dynamic and its diversity
• The potential for future collaboration within the group

If you have any questions, please email Paul on paul@performingartsforum.ie.

Next Stage Facilitator

Dee Roycroft

Dee is a neurodivergent writer and performer living in Dublin. She is a Next Wave Playwright at the Abbey Theatre, and an alumnus of ITI’s Attic/Virtual Attic and the Mill Theatre’s Mavens Programme.

Her play amelia debuted as part of the 2024 Dublin Theatre Festival; an offgrid solarpunk performance about birds, migration and leaving home, directed by Claire O’Reilly and presented with the support of the Arts Council, Dublin City Council, Fishamble’s New Play Clinic, Irish Theatre Institute and the Pavilion Theatre. It received a 5-star review in the Irish Times and was listed in Best of 2024.

Dee regularly mentors and teaches for organisations including the NTAA, Creative Skillnet, IWC, and Cartoon Saloon -including courses specifically for blind/VI, disabled, and neurodivergent writers. She has been a speaker at X-pollinator and recently co-designed and facilitated a week-long cross-disciplinary residency for neurodivergent artists at IMMA with the support of DCC, Creative Skillnet and ADHD Ireland.

In 2023 she set up The Pit Collective, a community of professional artists exploring creative exchange supported by an Arts Council Theatre Bursary.

 

Other work includes her short play an angel in centra which won Scripts Ireland 2024 and is currently being developed into a full-length piece. Her first film The Colonist is being produced as a Screen Ireland Focus Short with Promenade Films, she has been shortlisted for Druid Debuts and her RTEjr radio series for children ‘Mr. Wall’ was nominated for an IMRO award for Best Radio Drama.

For many years Dee was a member of the award-winning Loose Canon Theatre Company. Performances include The Seagull, Phaedra’s Love, The Maids, Duchess of Malfi, and Macbeth. Acting experience also includes Not I for Bedrock Productions, Julius Caesar, Comedy of Errors, Brothers and Sisters, At-Swim-Two-Birds at the Abbey/Peacock Theatres, Amanda Coogan’s Yellow at both Dublin Theatre Festival and Dublin Film Festival, and Singlehood by Una McKevitt (Vicar St., Olympia and National Tour).

Dee also writes/script edits for children’s animation. Companies/broadcasters she has worked with include Turnip & Duck, Daily Madness, Cartoon Saloon, RTÉ, BBC/CBBC, JAM Media, Amazon Studios, Ink & Light, TG4, Telegael, and SLR.