Lunchbox Theatre

Lunchbox Theatre, Verb Theatre, and Chromatic Theatre will be holding joint General Auditions for the 2026 Season. Auditions will be held in-person, March 24th, 26th and 28th, at Lunchbox Theatre’s rehearsal hall (Calgary Tower Centre) with representatives from each company in attendance. The audition space is accessible by elevator.

General auditions are an exciting opportunity for these companies' artistic directors and associate artists to meet members of our local theatre community who we have not yet had the chance to meet or see work from recently. We aim to make each audition experience comfortable, inviting, and artistically meaningful. We particularly encourage submissions from local theatre artists who have NOT had the chance to audition for Lunchbox, Verb, or Chromatic in the past two years—either at show-specific auditions or at the 2024 combined general auditions.

Selected actors will be sent an audition invitation and asked to prepare up to 4 minutes of material that best showcases their talents (monologue(s), song, dance.) Please also be prepared to chat a bit with the team in attendance and know that you may or may not be redirected on your audition material. 

Please note that Lunchbox is not currently auditioning for musicals at this time. If you choose to prepare a song as part of your audition, we are unable to provide accompaniment. We ask that you come prepared with your own accompaniment track, we will provide a bluetooth speaker that you can connect to in order to play your track. 

To Submit:

Please submit using this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Q97ynuqRAU6hfebCLlzCBBNB_j1bUqa9GPmQ7X6k5A8/edit 

Agents: please do not send bulk submissions. If submitting for your clients, submit them individually, using the google form.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 9th, 2024

If you have questions regarding auditions, please send us an email at artassociate@lunchboxtheatre.com.

Access and inclusion are important to us. If you have barriers to access to any part of our process, please don't hesitate to reach out to us and we will work with you to find the best way for us to get to know you and your work. 

Artists that are currently out of town and Artists who we have worked with since 2021: feel free to send an email to express your continued interest in being in our casting pool and send an updated resume, but please understand that our priority is getting to see as many new local people as possible. 

Out of town artists (who do not have a meaningful relationship to Calgary): we are only seeing local actors at this time. But we wish you all the best!

At open call auditions, Equity members will be given the opportunity to be seen prior to non-members. Please bring your membership number to the audition.

For scheduled auditions, priority will be given to Equity members for scheduling audition times.

Schedule:

Tuesday March 24th - 9:30am - 5:30pm 

Thursday March 26th - 9:30am - 5:30pm

Saturday March 28th - 10am - 5pm - OPEN CALL (in-person ‘first come, first served' registration opens at 10:00 am for 10:30 am - 5:00 pm 10-minute timeslots)

Thank you for your interest in our work at Lunchbox Theatre! Each season at Lunchbox, we produce a season of four or five one-act plays. Please first take a look at our vision, mission and values here https://www.lunchboxtheatre.com/our-story (note the emphasis on meaningful and uplifting entertainment), and familiarize yourself with our latest programming before submitting any scripts for our consideration.

Eligibility

• One-act plays must be 45-60 minutes in length.

• Small cast (4 or fewer performers, including musicians for musicals).

• We prioritize stories by playwrights living in Canada, but we occasionally produce non-Canadians if the material feels relevant to Calgarian audiences.

• Note that certain complex technical requirements and excessive use of foul language or nudity may limit a project’s viability at Lunchbox.

Many of our productions are developed through our Stage One Festival of New Canadian Work. If you have a script in development that you would like to propose for Stage One, please look out for our call for submissions in the fall.

Submission Guidelines

If after familiarizing yourself with our work, you feel your script is a perfect fit and ready for production at Lunchbox now, then please email Artistic Director Bronwyn Steinberg at ad@lunchboxtheatre.com with the subject as "SCRIPT SUBMISSION - play title", and include the following in your message:

• A short synopsis

• Cast breakdown

• Development or production history

• Why you think this piece is a great fit for Lunchbox

• Please note if you live in Calgary or have a connection that enables you to work here as a local

After we receive your submission, we will send you an email letting you know that we got it. If your proposal sounds like what we're looking for, then you'll be invited to send along the script and your CV. 

Please understand that we are a tiny staff with very limited reading time, so...

• We do not know how soon we will be able to read your script after submission.

• Playwrights will only be contacted again if we are interested in moving forward with your script.

• We do not provide dramaturgical feedback unless the script is accepted for further development or production. 

• We thank you for your understanding and patience!

Lunchbox Theatre is committed to being a caregiver conscious working environment. We are proud to be a Balancing Act Partner.

We are eager to engage in open conversations surrounding caregiver needs; we strive to create a flexible working environment whenever possible, to acknowledge the costs and other considerations required by caregivers working in theatre, and to always remember the vital importance of asking artists what we at Lunchbox can do to support them in doing their best work.