Abstract:
In 1995 Wellington’s BATS Theatre, which had established itself as a home for emerging and artistically adventurous theatre-makers, introduced a commission named STAB (BATS spelt backwards), which aimed specifically at encouraging innovation. The annual commission (ongoing) is funded by Creative New Zealand (CNZ) and administered by the theatre. This means that artists are able to bypass the CNZ funding application process and apply directly to the theatre for money to develop a production premiere. The coupling of the purpose of the commission and a more approachable (though still highly competitive) process of securing funds has resulted in a history of theatrically daring projects, motivated by experimentation and risk. This article does not attempt a comprehensive project-by-project description, but rather seeks to focus on some of the commissioned project’s key characteristics. I am interested in the broader benefits that the genealogy of works has accrued – what Heike Roms calls the ‘immaterial affects and material infrastructures’ of performance histories . As such I consider how STAB has contributed to the development of local artistic processes, a collective and multivalent undertaking, spanning different projects and years.