2026-27 Submissions

Outside the March is pleased to participate in the Recommender Grants for Theatre Creators Program thanks to the support of the Ontario Arts Council. We welcome your wildest theatrical ideas: puppets at an aquarium, the circus in a closet, or whatever out-of-this-world dreams you’re cooking up. We support projects that align with our company core values of curiosity, connection, care, thrills, and immersion.

Our priorities for support are: diverse voices interested in immersive theatre, innovation in the form, and strong script-based materials.

We prioritize artists from OAC Priority Groups as well as other equity-seeking communities. Though we work in unexpected spaces and invite our audiences to participate in our shows in unexpected ways, our company often focuses on narrative-driven work. We are open to all theatrical ideas, but character and story are both strong areas of interest. Typically we award several micro-grants of $1000.

The application asks you to include:

  • Information about you and your project
  • A CV
  • Support material:
    This can be in a text document and/or as video or audio    . Please focus on giving us as clear a picture of your proposed project as possible. One of the best ways to do this is through a script sample, but it could also be through a written proposal or through a video, an audio recording, a game—whatever will most effectively give us a feel for your piece.

    If you don’t have any support material for your current project, and/or if it will help us understand your practice and your project, you may also include examples of past work.

    The OAC Nova Portal allows you to submit a single document (usually a script sample, maximum of 15 pages in 1 PDF document—we strongly suggest limiting yourself to 10 pages) and/or a single video/audio piece (maximum 5 minutes).

Deadline: January 8, 2027, 1 p.m. EST

For more information about the RGTC grants across the province and further information about
submitting through NOVA, please visit the OAC website.

We have a strong history of crafting application supports and accommodations for applicants for whom the above requirements are a barrier to being able to fully express themselves. We’re also happy to chat if it’s your first time applying and you’re finding the application process unclear or challenging. For these or any other questions, please contact Associate Artistic Director Sébastien Heins at sebastien@outsidethemarch.ca

Application Help
OtM Associate AD Sébastien Heins and Creative Producer Griffin McInnes hosted an information session on our RGTC program on November 25, 2024. Watch the captioned session below:

00:00 – Intros.
12:30 – Program overview.
21:40 – Applicant question (support material): “Can I send an HTML file for a game you can play?”
26:46 – Applicant question (support material): “Should I send a recording of a script reading? The script itself? Both?”
29:28 – Applicant question (support material): “How should I choose my script excerpt?”
31:00 – Applicant question (background section): “How should I approach writing about myself, my practice, my context?”
33:05 – Applicant question (background section): “Who do we select as the applicant? The lead artist? Our collective? Does it matter?”
37:00 – OAC Nova online portal tutorial walkthrough + writing tips.
48:00 – Applicant question (support material): “Can I include my artistic portfolio with my support material?”
49:35 – Applicant question (support material): timecodes in support material videos.
51:15 – Writing tips for projects early in their development and for early-in-craft artists.

Application Tips

  • The support material limits are maximums. Include as much material as you think will help us understand your project, but don’t include anything for the sake of reaching a page/minute limit. We suggest limiting yourself to 10 pages.
  • The time you spend writing grants isn’t paid, and we totally get that you may submit to several Recommenders with pretty much the same application. That’s fine. But if you can, do tell us why Outside the March. Our successful RGTC-supported projects are usually able to articulate why their project is inspired by, an answer to, or in dialogue with OtM’s work, values and practice.
  • On the flip side of that coin, don’t assume we love site-specificity or immersivity for their own sake. Answer the “WHY” about every aspect of your project. Why is it immersive? (Or: why is it important that it’s NOT immersive?) Why is it artistically imperative that audience members wear little helicopter beanies during the show? And especially: why is your project urgent/important? The best applications we read have a strong internal logic for what they’re doing and why. If you’re early in your process and you haven’t fully fleshed this out, tell us what questions you’re asking, why you’re asking them, and how you’re going to answer them.
  • If you’re a younger or less experienced artist, don’t pretend to be more experienced than you are. We support lots of artists at the start of their journeys. Be honest about what you don’t know and want to learn, and tell us about how your project is going to help you do that. An effective way of telling us about yourself and your project—for any level of experience—is: “Right now I’m at X place in my practice. I want to get to Z. I believe Y (this project) will help me do that for these reasons: A, B, C.”

Supported by The Ontario Arts Council