Research Grant Allows Grummett to Playtest Homebuddies

S.E. Grummett was successful in applying for a Creative Saskatchewan Research Grant for playtesting and market research into an outdoor roving performance piece called Homebuddies at the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space in June 2023. Below are some highlights from their application.

Imagine six giant puppets roving through the crowd as anthropomorphised houses at the world’s largest performance scenography event. And you’re starting to imagine Homebodies.

“Prototyping Homebuddies allowed us to playtest this idea, with real audiences in real settings, which helped us further the life of the show and adapt the work for different performance contexts and markets,” said S.E. Grummett, one of the show’s conceptualizers.

A co-production between Scantily Glad Theatre and It’s Not A Box Theatre, Homebuddies is an absurdist, interactive performance commentary on the insecurity of both housing and bodily autonomy, through the use of six giant wearable-art puppets, a roving “property manager,” and a series of audience-interactive games whereby the audience engages in the moving intricacies of house hunting, maintaining and increasing property value, bidding wars, or keeping the houses from settling in place they shouldn’t. The Creative Saskatchewan Research Grant supported this Saskatchewan theatre collaboration to test the concept, do market research, and make valuable professional connections at one of the largest and oldest international stages in the world – PQ.

Established in 1967, the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space (PQ) is held in Prague, Czech Republic, every four years. PQ is one of the world’s top performance spaces for exploring the best of design for performance, scenography, and theatre architecture. It pushes the boundaries for contemporary and emerging artists and themes in a variety of performance disciplines. “PQ was an incredible opportunity to showcase Saskatchewan theatre on an international stage,” said Grummett.

The Research Grant helped the group do a test-run to lay the foundation for a larger European tour in 2024. Because the show is built around audience interaction and games, the production was able to test the piece for appropriate audience sizes, demographics, appeal, and most effective staging practices for site-specific performances at international multilingual festivals. Testing in this pre-eminent location and audience helped the company understand the future targeting for effective audience and commercial engagement, and appropriate selection of venues and audiences for touring successfully in the future.

Another commercial by-product of the assessment was being able to connect with international promenade performance artists and producers at the festival through PQ’s workshops, panels, and talks to promote the show beyond Prague. “This market research was a vital investment in the future of this work and its commercial viability to tour to other large-scale international festivals, and how it might best fit into other more traditional markets,” they added.

Scantily Glad Theatre is a queer independent theatre company from Treaty 6 Territory (Saskatoon). Founded in 2014, they strive to make work that empowers 2SLGBTQIA+ folks by telling stories often overlooked by mainstream theatre. The co-applicant, It’s Not A Box Theatre, is a queer-led immersive interdisciplinary performance company founded in 2015 in Treaty 6 Territory with work focused on exploring audience participation, non-linear storytelling, and mixed digital media.