Performer Call-Out: How to Build the City

state of the [art] is looking to meet performers for How to Build the City, a large-scale participatory performance project taking place between late August and late September 2026.

We are hosting a full-day casting workshop during the week commencing Monday 1 June 2026, 10am-6pm. Exact date/location confirmed by Monday 18 May.

This is not a traditional audition: no monologue or prepared material needed. The day will involve games, movement, devising, improvisation, audience interaction and public-space exercises.

We are looking for performers with emotional physicality, social nerve, a game/play instinct, strong world-building presence, an appetite for chaos, and the ability to keep a room alive.

The final production will include performers working both inside the venue and outside in public space. The work may involve dance, physical performance, game-show structures, endurance tasks, comedy, hosting, improvisation and audience interaction.

Selected performers will be invited into paid freelance roles between £1,000-£1,500, depending on role, schedule and contracted days. Performers should expect approximately 4 full working days a week, usually around 8 hours per day, across rehearsals, technical rehearsals and performances.

The casting workshop itself is unpaid, but lunch will be provided and reasonable travel reimbursed within an agreed cap.

Applications will be screened and limited places offered so we can meet everyone fairly.