How to apply
The application window for the 2024 Summer Residency Lab has closed. Applicants will be notified by May 1. Please check back for more information on applications for 2025.
The Ground Floor Summer Residency Lab invites artists to apply with projects that would benefit from a residency at Berkeley Rep for 1–4 weeks.
Berkeley Rep will provide transportation and housing for out-of-town residents, rehearsal space, basic technical support, and a modest stipend. Previous applicants may reapply. We do accept applications from international artists.
Projects may be anywhere along their development path: from an idea without anything on paper yet, to a complete draft of a text. Whether you are a writer simply needing a room in which to write or an ensemble wanting intensive rehearsal time, we encourage you to apply. Artists from other disciplines interested in creating theatre pieces are also very welcome. If your project is ready for a small audience, we are happy to provide that, but there is no requirement for any kind of culminating event. Past participants have held events open to the public, no final presentation at all, small closed readings, and everything in between.
This is a developmental residency. There is not an opportunity within the lab for full production. If you are applying for an adaptation, please have the underlying rights already secured. Projects with a current draft of a script are invited to include an excerpt of up to 10 pages with the initial application. A work sample is not required if not applicable to where you are in your process.
Questions? Email us at groundfloor@berkeleyrep.org.
Special thanks
The Ground Floor is supported by Frances Hellman & Warren Breslau, with additional funding provided by Bank of America, The Maurer Family Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
What artists say about the Summer Residency Lab
Ground Floor was deeply transformative to our play. The workshop helped us feel empowered to break free of some of our (self-imposed) structural rigidity. Thanks for finding the money and the space and the energy to make it happen. Thanks to our time in Berkeley, our ensemble relationship is deeper and more filled with loving trust.
The Ground Floor is a rare program. It is a residency that allows their artists to pivot and potentially redefine how they will work on a project. There are not many programs that have both the infrastructural flexibility and the deep understanding of artistic process to shift that rapidly.