We’re delighted to introduce you to the next 10 artists and companies who will feature in our 2021 Open Call programme.

Designed to help artists survive and comeback stronger than ever after a year of restricted income streams and creative outlets, those featured in our Open Call Programme will receive a bursary of up to £1250 alongside creative, production and welfare support.

These next 10 artists join the 12 already on-sale here.

These artists have been funded thanks to the generosity of all who gave to our Crowdfunder campaign in February, raising over £10,000. Two places have also been supported by Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse.  You can read more about our Crowdfunder supporters in our brochure.

The artists in this second wave will perform at Unity from Autumn 2021. Tickets will go-on sale in the summer.

 

Meet The Artists:

  1. RAWD present Phone Home

    RAWD is a company dedicated to helping disabled people grow within the arts. We explore new and innovative ways to TURN UP disabled voices in the arts, with fun, inclusivity and empowerment at its heart. After a long year of shielding, the disabled artists of RAWD crash land at Unity Theatre with their comeback performance; Phone Home. Guaranteed fun, cosmic dancing and milky way madness, Phone Home is a devised whirlwind of physical theatre, spoken word and live music that explores our unique perspective of lockdown and navigating the return to normality.

  2. Rowena Gander presents Barely Visible

    Rowena Gander is a dance theatre artist who creates thought provoking solo performance works that question and negotiate themes of sexuality, power and objectification in women. Barely Visible is a 30-minute physical solo performance that offers an autobiographically charged response to the lack of lesbian identity in physical movement practices.

  3. Blackfest present Hip Hop Dance for All

    BlackFest is an annual grassroots Black combined arts festival founded in 2018.
    Working with artists and individuals who identify as d/Deaf or disabled, Hip Hop Dance for All is a performance piece that will explore movement, rap, beat boxing and poetry.

  4. FLOOD present Touch

    Flood Theatre is an emerging North West theatre company made up of Co-Artistic Directors Becky Downing and Jessica Meade. ‘Touch’ is a piece of verbatim theatre created with the people of Liverpool through a series of interviews on connection and belonging.

  5. Katy-Anne Bellis presents Over the Garden Wall

    Katy-Anne Bellis is a performer, puppeteer, theatre maker and community artist. She has worked as an associate artist with the Lantern Company for over ten years and is a core member of Headstrung Puppets. She is excited to be creating new work for the Unity Open Call Programme, collaborating with Metal, Focal Studios and the community residents of Toxteth and Granby

  6. The B Collective and Theatre Témoin present Routes

    The B Collective is a Liverpool based theatre company that creates bold, dynamic work that seeks to find ways of representing the world around us through a new lens. Theatre Témoin is a Colchester-based physical theatre company that creates socially relevant, visually compelling theatre to amplify marginalised voices.

  7. Marjorie Morgan presents More Than Blood

    Marjorie H Morgan is a multi-disciplinary artist with an ongoing passion for storytelling in all forms, focusing especially on the stories of those systemically marginalised in society.
    Her most recent work includes commissions for digital work from Heart of Glass, NHS Mersey Care, and Northern Broadsides Theatre. She has been featured on BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Merseyside, BBC Radio 4, and BBC Radio Northampton discussing and sharing her work and views. Marjorie is also a graduate of the Liverpool Everyman Playhouse Playwrights’ Programme (2019 -2020).

  8. Elaine Collins presents DDDivas

    After working as a professional singer, during the early part of her career, Elaine Collins is now an emerging theatre maker who is a neuro-divergent, disabled woman with a fascinating story to tell. DDDivas is the culmination of Elaine’s passion and commitment to telling her story.. This inspiring show speaks to those who have ever felt different, not good enough or ‘other’, and will resonant strongly with teenagers and young people. She aims to create a truly inclusive space where young audiences can explore who they are and who they want to be, and are encouraged to always follow their dreams.

  9. Alexis Maxwell presents Mixed Signals

    I am a multi-disciplinary storyteller who seeks to explore my lived experience of sexuality, mental health, and racial injustice. Self-taught animator and long-time fan of all things spoken word, I aim to blur the line between the digital and the physical through the use of projection mapping in live performance. Driven to make socially engaged work that draws from marginalised communities and translates those experiences into performance art. A founding member of Year of the Rat; an emerging theatre collective of former students, celebrating the challenges of establishing ourselves in the arts as youth.

  10. Tom Kinney presents A Heavenly Way to Die

    Tom Kinney is a writer from Liverpool. He was a member of the Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse Playwrights’ Programme as well as the Liverpool Royal Court’s Playwright Development Programme. He has recently been commissioned by the Oldham Coliseum to write a number of short plays and monologues. Tom worked as assistant script editor and development assistant at Liverpool-based TV production company LA Productions where he worked on Moving On and Jimmy McGovern’s Anthony. He is currently completing a placement within the story team at Coronation Street.