Mission
Dixon Place is a non-profit organization founded in 1986 to provide a space for literary and performing artists to create and develop new works in front of a live audience. Our mission to support and nurture the development of new work from diverse artists and to build new audiences for the work is carried out through five main programming objectives:

-- to present and encourage new and experimental work in performance art, literature, dance, and music by providing a venue for emerging and established artists to develop this new work in a safe, supportive environment
-- to discover the needs and interests of artists of color by providing a venue in which cultural, personal, and societal issues may be explored and addressed
-- to furnish gay and lesbian writers and performing artists with the opportunity to present their work in a supportive and non-homophobic atmosphere
-- to give writers of poetry, prose, nonfiction and science fiction the chance to read and/or speak before an audience
-- and to contribute to the community by making Dixon Place available as a meeting place for social change organizations.

All the work at Dixon Place is selected and presented (we do not rent out the space for shows), and the artists are remunerated. Dixon Place has performances 5-7 nights a week, and performers are generally allotted one shared evening. Most of the presented work is new and developing. Dixon Place is committed to maintaining an intimate yet relaxed environment, while providing a serious laboratory for performing and literary artists.

To Submit

Please Note: We accept submissions only from artists based in the NYC area. WE ARE NO LONGER ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS FOR CONSIDERATION IN OUR FALL 09 SEASON. All incoming submissions will be directed towards early Spring 2010.

To help us be more efficient in the reviewing of submissions, please read about our ongoing series below and submit proposals directly to the series you think is the "best fit". Keep in mind that you are sending an idea or proposal for a performance. Your proposal does not need to be a polished piece when you submit the work, and if selected, it should still be in a 'work-in-progress' stage when you perform it.
If you would like your submission materials returned, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. We will not return submission materials without a self-addressed stamped envelope.
Works chosen are provided an honorarium, rehearsal time, inclusion in our season brochures, website presence, and technical assistance. If you have any questions, please email submissions@dixonplace.org.

Send submissions to Dixon Place, 161 Chrystie Street, Ground Floor, New York, NY 10002

Submission Materials

NOTE: Please keep in mind that we are a laboratory theater devoted to works-in-progress, we do not program full-scale productions (except for our commissions of NEW work), nor do we program work that has already been produced.

All work is selected based upon the specific submission materials listed below. We do not consider resumes, reels or press kits, so there's no need to send all those papers, photographs and folders.

All submissions, please include the following information (which we understand is subject to change) on a separate sheet of paper:
Your Name, current address, phone number, email address and website (if applicable) and a short bio
Description of Proposed Project (please include the specific series you are submitting to, if any, and how you would 'classify the work - ie. dance theater, performance art, puppetry, fiction, multi-media, or any combination of genres)
The approximate length of your proposed performance.
The number of performers & specific collaborators you intend to engage.
Technical requirements.
How long have you been working on this piece & has the piece been publicly presented as a reading, workshop, or full performance previously? As a whole? In parts? If so, where & when? And do you currently have any future bookings of this new work?
Your ideal time frame (month) for presentation.
Do you have a mailing list or email list that you plan to reach out to for this performance? (If you are hoping to present your proposed work on more than one night at DP, do you have ideas that could help us generate an audience?)

Please list the work sample(s) that accompany your submission. (We encourage you to include a DVD/CD or VHS of past work and a description or script of the proposed work.)

Thank you for your interest in DP! We look forward to seeing your work!

Performance & Dance
Since most of the performance and dance programming is works-in-progress, we ask for a videotape or DVD of recent, original performance work (this may be a previous performance, a rehearsal or a reading) and a short written proposal for the new work you wish to present.
We do not present stand-up comedy.

Literature (Plays, Fiction, Poetry, Science Fiction)
Send a manuscript of the work you would like read, and it will be forwarded to the appropriate curator. For play readings, only send work that has not yet had a public reading.

Music
Dixon Place occasionally presents original, primarily acoustic music that functions within a theatrical performance context. Send us an audio cassette or CD of the work you would like to perform. *We are not yet equipped to accommodate bands or concert events. (We'll keep you posted when we get our new sound equipment!)

All Genres

7 AT 7 (formerly Open Performance Night, Formerly 7 People/7 Minutes)
On the first Wednesday of every month, (except when it's not) artists working in theatre, performance art, puppetry, clown, corporeal mime, dance, music, film (16mm, or bring your own projector), video (DVD or VHS), poetry and fiction can sign up to present 7 minutes of their newest work to an adventurous audience. 7 AT 7 brings together artists and audiences by encouraging public participation - anyone is welcome, no experience is necessary. New and emerging artists who have some performance experience use this forum to test new pieces or begin working in a new discipline. It gives these emerging artists exposure to an audience at a stage where feedback is vital to the development of the work and to their development as artists. 7 at 7 is now hosted by the audacious Lucy Alibar and Paige Collette. Sorry, no stand up. Clothing required. Sponsored by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

Dance Series
The Dixon Place dance programs seek to encourage discovery of new ways of moving for both new, emerging and established choreographers. Choreographers and dancers can test their new ideas and get immediate feedback from an audience, which is so important to the development of new work. All four of the current curators are working choreographers and performers who draw from their own wealth of experience as artists, their expertise in their field, and their cultural backgrounds when they choose dancers to present work. This ensures a diversity of programming that no single person could offer. Over 40% of the choreographers and dancers that present work in the series are representative of minority constituencies.

Artists interested in submitting to one of the dance or literary series should indicate in their proposal which series they are submitting to, and then send the proposal to Dixon Place.  We will then forward it along to the appropriate curator.

Under Exposed
This series provides an opportunity for choreographers who are either beginning or evolving in their careers. Recently established as a semi-annual festival, twelve new works over three nights are shown in development from choreographers who are not often given the opportunity to show work in the larger venues which demand more "finished" visions. Choreographer Jack Ferver curates.

Crossing Boundaries
This series features work by 4 choreographers. Curator Marcia Monroe mixes different forms of expression and promotes artists taking risks within their own art form. The boundaries crossed may be national, with dance artists from South America, Denmark, Germany, Israel, Japan and the U.S.; or within disciplines, as "legitimate" artists travel "downtown" for the first time.

Body Blend
This dance series focuses on collaborative works using mixed media as the core of its mission. Each choreographer must collaborate with an artist of a genre, outside of dance, in order to be a part of this series. Body Blend is currently curated by Isabel Lewis.

Moving Men
The mission of the series is to present work made by male choreographers, featuring male and/or female dancers, and work by female choreographers featuring all male dancers.  Moving Men is curated by Michael Cross Burke.

Brink
Brink offers dance artists the opportunity to present longer works-in-progres over two evenings, with more technical, rehearsal and administrative support.
Michael Helland curates.

Literary Series
Currently, three programs are dedicated to literary events: reading new works of poetry, prose, fiction and nonfiction. Our literary events are presented in the same manner as our performance events: to amaze, inform, and entertain the audience.

Belladonna
Belladonna is a reading series that promotes the work of women writers who are adventurous, experimental, politically involved, multi-form, multi-cultural, multi-gendered, impossible to define, delicious to talk about, unpredictable, dangerous with language. To submit work to this series, please go to the Belladonna Blog or email belladonna (at) yahoo.com

QT (formerly Homotext)
This series focuses on new literary work by gay and lesbian writers. QT is curated by Sara Marcus.

Experiments & Disorders: New Poetic Forms
With this series, curators R. A. Villanueva and Brian Kalkbrenner present a wide cultural and stylistic range of emerging and established writers who break the boundaries between fiction, poetry, and plays. By bringing audiences a cross-section of risk-taking writers distinguished by their highly individual use of language, the series curators aim to involve a diverse audience in the flux of new poetic forms.

Performance/Theatre Programs and Series

Performance Works-in-Progress
As Dixon Place's signature activity, Performance Works-In-Progress is one of our most successful ongoing programs. Presented several nights each month, as schedule permits, this series focuses on new theatre, performance art, puppetry, dance, music and interdisciplinary collaborations from today's most innovative artists. We typically select 2-3 performers or groups, with new works 20-45 minutes in length, for each scheduled event. The goal of the series is to feature a diversity of disciplines and perspectives, and to encourage artistic risk-taking in a supportive, intimate and professional environment. The projects presented are in varying stages of completion; some artists or groups use the program to put the finishing touches on their work before they take it to a larger venue, while others are presenting their projects to an audience for the first time.

Puppet BloK
Puppet BloK! features new works of puppetry, animation, music, and other innovative styles of performance by emerging and established artists from the NYC area. Branching out of Dixon Place’s own mission statement to focus on experimental works, Puppet BloK provides an all-encompassing venue for alternative modes of storytelling. Puppet BloK is a commune for installation art, animation, traditional and non-traditional puppetry, mask, music, film, commedia, and other extraordinary art forms. Puppet BloK provides a haven for work that is uncomfortable and wonderful, work that is sculpted not polished, reactionary not static. Biting, not perfect. Initiated by Director of Programming Leslie Strongwater in the Fall of 06 and proud recipient of a Jim Henson Foundation Grant.

Page to Stage
Dixon Place is a laboratory environment that supports the development of new works and works-in-progress which challenge and expand creative forms of expression. Dixon Place has instituted a series called Page to Stage. A forum for plays in development, Page to Stage is in essence a "spiffed-up, tricked out" staged reading series (with basic added admin and tech support.) Writers are encouraged to submit 20-40* minute excerpts of their pieces to present on a shared bill with two to three other artists, cultivating more audience and feedback.

HOT: The NYC Celebration of Queer Culture
One of our more significant programs, initiated in 1992, is HOT! THE NYC CELEBRATION OF QUEER CULTURE, a month long festival of lesbian and gay performance art, theatre, literature, music and dance. This very successful festival, which presents queer artists six nights a week, usually takes place in July.   Submissions are accepted year round. This summer's festival is curated by downtown impressario Earl Dax. Please see our home page for more details.

Artist-in-Residence
Dixon Place announces its new artist-in-residence program. We offer this unique opportunity on a case by case basis to exceptional artists or theater companies. The program is designed to serve emerging and established artists with rehearsal space and technical support which culminates in the presentation of workshop performances.

Mondo Cane! Commissioning Series
With this acclaimed series, Dixon Place commissions theatre, performance and dance artists to develop and present new works. Mondo Cane! allows Dixon Place to support artists by providing them with 1-3 months of workshop time, plus a month-long run of performances where they can get audience feedback and continue the work's development. Each year, six to seven artists or groups are commissioned for this series, more than half of whom represent minority perspectives. We pay artists a fee and provide free workshop, rehearsal and performance space; technical assistance; and marketing and publicity support. Artists invited to submit for commission are usually those with whom Dixon Place has established an existing relationship through previous work in a series or the performance works-in-progress.

For more information on our programming, Click Here

If you have questions about submitting work to Dixon Place click here.

Send submissions to:
Dixon Place
161 Chrystie Street, Ground Floor
New York,, NY 10002

Tel: (212) 219 0736
Fax: (212) 219 0761

» Back To Top