Untapped Award Winners 2024

28 March 2024

NDT, Underbelly and Concord Theatricals are delighted to announce the three winners of their Untapped Award 2024 - all three companies are headed to the Fringe this summer.

Our Day: DRUM

“A civilization flourishes when men plant trees under which they themselves never sit. What you need to understand is, Ghana is home.”

As the afternoon sun hits London’s BBC Broadcasting House, photographer James Barnor encounters broadcaster Mike Eghan for the first time. Thrown together far from home, two rising Ghanaian creatives navigate their perception of identity, success, assimilation and home.

Inspired by real events, this joyful and poignant play fuses storytelling, music and dance; capturing a unique snapshot of the swinging sixties.

DRUM premiered with a critically acclaimed sold-out run at Omnibus Theatre in 2022.

Counterfactual: The Mosinee Project

Mosinee, Wisconsin, 1950. An idyllic Midwestern town wakes up to find themselves in a nightmare.

Armed Communist forces have taken over; imprisoning townspeople, cutting off communication, marching through the streets with nobody to oppose them. Prices are changed, barbed wire fences erected, and the Mayor is held at gunpoint.

Or so it appears. This is just how it begins.

Plunging into the dawn of the Cold War and back again, The Mosinee Project follows the true story of a fake invasion. A fevered, darkly funny retelling, interrogating why we fear, control and tell tales about the future.

piss / CARNATION: Ugly Sisters

Winner of the Untapped Award 2024, Ugly Sisters is a hallucinatory plunge through the circles of sisterhood. Who fits into a glass slipper, and who buys heels for drag queens?

The critically acclaimed and multi-award winning piss / CARNATION dance between performance art, alt-comedy and theatre. Ugly Sisters is their latest offering: a brutal ritual for a new kind of sisterhood forged from sleepover confessions, smashed toilets, and the death of Germaine Greer.*

(*Germaine Greer was not harmed in the making of this show).

About The Untapped Award:

The Untapped Award entitles the winners to:

£10,000 cash straight into your bank account
A prime venue and slot at Underbelly at the Fringe
A preferential 65/35 box office split - with no upfront venue fees or upfront deposit
Specialist marketing support at the Fringe, with access to Underbelly's flyering team and outdoor poster boards
Individual show press campaign
Show imagery designed by NDT's Art Director Guy J Sanders
Publishing and licensing deal with Concord Theatricals
Support & funding to present accessible performances, for example captioned and relaxed performances
Support, guidance and advice from a team with extensive experience of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Preview shows at New Diorama Theatre in London
Mentoring and well-being support throughout the process, tailored to the needs of the winning companies

Previous winners of the Untapped Award include:

Previous winners include ThisEgg's dressed., which won a Fringe First award and toured nationally, Burnt Lemon's Tokyo Rose, which toured extensively and transferred to Southwark Playhouse, and Max Percy + Friends' Fringe First-winning This is Not a Show About Hong Kong. Last year's winners Side eYe Productions and FlawBored have recently announced national and international touring plans, with Side eYe's smash-hit Dugsi Dayz winning the BBC Writersroom Popcorn Award.

Breach Theatre’s Fringe First and Stage Award-winning historical drama It’s True, It’s True, It’s True, which went on to tour nationally and internationally, was performed at the Barbican and was filmed for broadcast by the BBC.

And Nouveau Riche’s Stage Award-winning Queens of Sheba, which toured extensively, enjoyed four sold-out runs at Soho Theatre, and was recently presented at The Public Theater's prestigious Under the Radar Festival in NYC. Their latest show For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy, which was commissioned by New Diorama, went on to a historic West End transfer, after sold-out runs at NDT and the Royal Court.

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