Djakarta International Theater Platform is pleased to invite Indonesian and Southeast Asian practitioners working across disciplines in theater and performing art to apply for BELALANG \\ CÀO CÀO: TRANSLOCAL PERFORMANCE LAB - a fully-funded regional creation Lab focusing on collective sharing, co-learning and collaborative experimenting with regional contemporary performances, taking place from 24 July - 13 August in Jakarta, Indonesia within the framework of DITP: Bumantara 2025 (DITP: Bumantara 2025) centering the theme of rumah | | panggung (house | | stage)
About The Lab
BELALANG \\ CÀO CÀO is a “sense” derived from the grasshoppers living through all the Southeast Asian landscapes, implying the impulse of hopping around grasslands, sensing new green, zooming in on others to come closer to oneself. The act of a grasshopper leaping up into thin air and holding its eyes/life in between above and below before landing the grass creates a perfect invisible weave of traces and memories. That weave in between is where the known is unlearned and the unknown is learned. That weave in between is where new narratives are emerging.
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In the process of reclaiming (our) narratives and finding senses of connection with the “others”, BELALANG \\ CÀO CÀO: TRANSLOCAL PERFORMANCE LAB (the Lab) proposes a “home-in-between”, a hands-on infrastructure that allows the artists to experiment with making a “theater within”*, as in finding the right “panggung” (stage) where their words can be spoken and heard truthfully. It’s an invitation to inhabit the in-between as a site of co-presence, friction, and collective emergence. It’s an inquiry to look around, to look within and explore the dramaturgy of everyday life.
Offering an intensive 3-weeks residency, from 24 July - 13 August (travel exclusive) in Jakarta, Indonesia, facilitated by contemporary theater and performance makers from the SEA region, the Lab aims at holding a space for exploring intercultural/collaborative frameworks and tools of seeing, sensing, thinking, sharing, and staging within as well as beyond the inter-Southeast Asia connection. The process-orientated collaboration strives for mapping various issues, discourses, needs, and current initiatives in theater and performance in the region, particularly regarding how different local elements and knowledge gaps intertwine and evolve in collaborative exchange practices.
Within the Lab, the participants will encounter various exchanges, conversation, co-learning, performance watching and experimentation which will lead to a performative open studio presented in the framework of DITP: Bumantara 2025, developed in conversation with the Lab’s facilitators, the festival’s curators and organising team.​
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* Quoting Trà Nguyá»…n, on “Verbatim Bodies” (her theater-making method), https://lxfactory.com/en/theatre-performance-art-workshop-verbatim-bodies-by-tra-nguyen-2/
Open Call and Application Information
We are looking for Southeast Asian theater makers and artists of all ages, working across disciplines in performance making, including but not limited to theater directors, performers, choreographers, playwrights, dramaturgs, scenographers, sound makers, visual artists, technologists,....with a strong interest in scrutinizing what makes contemporary Southeast of now through exploring the SEA social & political landscape in a translocal-togetherness condition.
Eight (8) participants will be selected through a board comprising DITP: Bumantara 2025’s curators, director and the Lab’s facilitators.
ELIGIBILITY
The Lab is open for theater makers and artists of diverse ages and experiences who:
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Have a nationality from one of the Southeast Asian countries (Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, Brunei, East Timor)
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Are interested in an open and equal exchange, in sharing and learning from each other
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Works across disciplines in theater and performing art, including but not limited to theater directors, performers, choreographers, playwrights, dramaturgs, scenographers, sound makers, visual artists, technologists,....
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Are interested in social-related, intercultural and interdisciplinary approaches to performances
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Are 18 years old or older
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Have an attempt to communicate in English
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Are an individual or duo (The Lab can accept applications from duo or small, artist groups but can only provide airfare, accommodation, artist grant, per diem for one (1) person.)
SUPPORT FOR PARTICIPANTS:
*The following supports are only applicable for one (1) person per successful application
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One (1) roundtrip airfare from any Southeast Asian countries to Jakarta, Indonesia
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One (1) artist grant of: $400 (~ 7,000,000 IDR)
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Per diem of: $180 (~ 3,150,000 IDR) for the whole stay
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Accommodation (sharing room)
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Shared studio space
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Mentorship/ dramaturgy support
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Presentation venue, production and tech support for the Lab Presentation within the framework of DITP2025
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Full-pass entrance to all programs of DITP 2025
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Networking opportunities with artists, producers, festival directors from the region.
APPLICATION REQUIREMENT:
*A complete application includes the following
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Artist bio (100-300 words)
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Current Headshot (JPG)
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CV detailing artistic experience (PDF):
*The CV must be saved in PDF format and titled as the following syntax: CV_FullName_DITP2025.pdf -
Portfolio (PDF) of selected works in theater or performing arts, including:
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general information (title-year-genre-premiere location);
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web/video links (if applicable)
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images
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etc.
*The Portfolio attachment must not exceed 20MB and must be saved in PDF format and titled as the following syntax: Portfolio_FullName_DITP2025.pdf
*We encourage you to include information of existing or in-progress international collaborative projects, if any.
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Other supporting materials of your choice to help us have a better understanding of your works (for example: reviews, interviews, etc.)
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Fill in the answer for two (2) questions:
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What are you looking to explore in this regional/collaborative Lab?
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What would you like to contribute to the program (for example: a workshop, working methods,....)?
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*Important Notes:
Please upload your Current headshot, CV, Portfolio, Supporting materials (item 2,3,4,5 mentioned above) to Google Drive in one single folder and include the link in the answer. Please set sharing settings as “anyone with the link” can “edit”.
SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
All required documents must be submitted in English through the online submission form by Monday, 26 May 2025, (11.59pm, GMT +7). All applicants will be notified of their selection results via registered email by Monday, 02 June, 2025.
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Please note that:
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Your answer needs to be in English but don't worry about grammar, as long as you can express what you think.
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Any submissions received after the deadline will not be considered.
For any questions or feedback, please email: belalanglab@ditp.web.id (Indonesian, English, Vietnamese)
ABOUT THE PLATFORM
The Djakarta International Theater Platform (DITP) is envisioned as a space for artistic experimentation and critical discourse on the conditions of theater and performance-making. More than a gathering of performances, DITP functions as an amorphous infrastructure of exchange, connecting ideas, practices, and artistic sensibilities across different contexts.
For its 2025–2028 edition, DITP adopts Bumantara as a critical compass for navigating connections, collaborations, and conviviality across artistic disciplines, national borders, and cultural imaginaries. Coined in 1975 by Indonesian intellectual Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana (STA), Bumantara is a futurist concept that combines bumi (land/earth) and antara (in-between) to reimagine Southeast Asia as a fluid geopolitical entity. STA envisioned the region as a site of mediation, shaped by histories of navigation, trade, and cultural flows. His perspective on Southeast Asia as an interrelated system—rather than a collection of atomized nations—can be understood as a form of infrastructural thinking, where connection, movement, and exchange shape the region’s dynamics.
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Djakarta International Theater Platform: Bumantara 2025 (DITP: Bumantara 2025) is happening from 05 to 13 August, 2025 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Stay tuned for our updates on the programs!
Website - ditp.web.id
Facebook - Djakarta Teater Platform
Instagram - @d_teaterplatform
Contact info - +62897 9127 324 (Indonesian, English)