APPLICATIONS OPEN
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New AUD$50,000 award offers young artists the chance to turn their bold idea into reality. |
| The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is proud to launch the AUD$50,000 Jim Sharman Future Award through the NIDA Future Centre. The Award is for a bold idea or project with the potential to transform the arts for generations to come.
Open to artists and dreamers aged 16-30 from Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, this new triennial Award offers substantial funding alongside tailored NIDA support to help turn a radical idea or project into reality. Legendary director and NIDA alum Jim Sharman (Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Rocky Horror Show) has established the Award to encourage bold new talent with big ideas. Whether the concept or project is an uncharted performance style, groundbreaking technology, or a bold new artistic movement, applications will be judged on genuinely game-changing ideas. About the Award The application for the Award can be in any form – a video of up to 5 minutes, a written pitch of up to 1500 words, or any form of engagement that best suits the idea or project. Finalists will be invited to a live pitch presentation at NIDA in front of a judging panel on the 29th or 30th April 2025. Please help us spread the word and share this with anyone you think has the vision to lead the arts into a new era. NIDA welcomes applications from all genders, backgrounds, abilities, and identities, and strongly encourage submissions from historically excluded communities, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culturally and linguistically diverse individuals, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and people with disabilities. All applications will be evaluated solely on the strength, feasibility, and potential impact of the idea or project, with reasonable accommodations available to ensure equitable participation. |
About Jim Sharman
NIDA alum, (Production, 1965) Jim Sharman has created over 80 productions, many of which had a transformative effect in Australia and internationally. His groundbreaking work has traversed stage and screen, including opera and musicals. His productions include three era-defining musicals – Hair (Sydney, Tokyo, Boston), Jesus Christ Superstar (Australia, and 9 years in London’s West End) and The Rocky Horror Show (UK, USA, Australia) – as well as countless premieres and radical interpretations of classics, including works by Shakespeare, Mozart, Strindberg and Brecht. Jim was Artistic Director of the influential Lighthouse (State Theatre of South Australia) and the 1982 Adelaide Festival, bringing Pina Bausch to Australia. Jim revived and premiered plays by Patrick White and directed the premiere of Richard Meale’s opera Voss, based on White’s novel. Among his film work, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the longest running film in the history of cinema. He is the recipient of the JC Williamson Centenary Lifetime Achievement Award and the Sydney Theatre Awards Lifetime Achievement Award. His memoir, Blood and Tinsel, was published in 2008.