Launchpad

A 10 month developing and showcase scheme for 4 performers/companies.

Launchpad is a celebration of disabled artists and makers, removed from the pressures and oppressions of being defined by non-disabled people. A world outside narratives of diagnosis and medicalisation. A world in which we can imagine crip pasts and crip futures, in which we can joyfully bring our whole selves, as storytellers, dancers, musicians, magicians, and more.

Who we’re looking for

Launchpad is a development and staging scheme for four UK-based disabled* writers/performers to further develop an existing work-in-progress piece. It culminates in a showcase in November 2025, where artists will stage a fully realised 20-minute excerpt of the work they develop with Launchpad. We’re looking for people who have a draft script ready for development; you may have had development opportunities before and are ready to step up and take your work to the next level.

We’re looking for works that celebrate what it is to be alive in the face of death, joyful in the face of emptiness, present in the face of absence, and taking up space in the face of exclusion. Performances that conjure up worlds as they were, are, or could be. Performances that are vulnerable, satirical, bold, silly, biographical, mythical: there’s no limit.

The piece can be a solo show or an ensemble piece (for up to three performers) and we’re open to applications from theatremakers and creatives and those who just want to write/devise/create.

*When we talk about disabled people, we mean “people who face disableist [including audist] barriers”, or “people who identify themselves as deaf or disabled – or are identified by others as deaf or disabled in society”. To find out more about what we mean by this, please look at our website.

What the programme involves

The Launchpad cohort will take part in a 10-month programme including mentoring, development, group writer sessions, 1:1 dramaturgy, and a performance residential, with the programme culminating in a public staging.

Critical feedback sessions and workshops will take place online, with captions, rest breaks, and BSL interpretation where required, and we aim to meet other access requirements across the programme as far as possible. As an access requirement, we can also create a hybrid offering for the residential.

When staged, each piece will have approximately 20 minutes. CRIPtic Arts will direct the four pieces as a cohort. They will be directed by Jamie Hale (Artistic Director), and designed by a team of professional disabled designers tasked with building a unifying vision across the work.

Payment

Launchpad artists will receive a total of £1,200 for their participation on the development programme, and an additional £1,075 for the rehearsals and showcase in November 2025. Hotel, travel and per diems for the show rehearsals and performance will be provided by CRIPtic Arts as required.

More information

If you want to hear more about this opportunity, we are hosting a drop-in to discuss the project with Artistic Director Jamie Hale on DATE 2025. Book your space for the drop-in here.

Please also read our FAQs below, which contain more information about the programme and what we’re looking for.

Apply to become a Launchpad artist

To apply, please fill in the below forms by 5pm on DATE 2025:

Application form (with BSL)
Diversity & monitoring form

You can also submit an audio or video file in spoken English or BSL (7 minutes max), or download and send the questions as a Word document to team@cripticarts.org. Please find the Word versions of these forms below:

Word version of application form
Word version of diversity & monitoring form

If you need access support to input answers into the form, we can help out – just email team@cripticarts.org. We’re able to support applicants with transcribing answers on a 1:1 Zoom, but cannot provide or fund individualised access support for applications beyond this. If you have any queries about this, please contact us on team@cripticarts.org to discuss.