The Theatre Project Award, an amalgamation of Projects New Work and Once Off, was instigated in 2010 to support theatre projects across three strands of work up to the amounts shown here:

• Theatre development - up to €25,000
• Theatre presentation - up to €50,000
• Theatre production - up to €100,000

Theatre development: The purpose of the development strand is to enable the development of ideas for new work in a collaborative and inter-disciplinary context. The emphasis of the award is on experimentation and innovation.

Theatre presentation: The purpose of the presentation strand is the presentation of new, collaborative and/or experimental work to audiences. The emphasis of the award is on presenting new types of theatre in a live performance context.

Theatre production: The purpose of the production strand is to allow for the presentation of professional theatre productions. The emphasis is on interpretations of pre-existing dramatic texts, (although new plays and non-text based projects will be considered).

In response to concerns raised by the theatre community, it was decided to affect decisions in as short a timeframe as possible in order to ensure the maximum availability of work for audiences in 2010. As a result, the deadline for applications was 1 April 2010, and decision letters were posted on 6 May 2010 – a turnaround of exactly five weeks.

To view the artists and organisations in receipt of funding - please go to the decisions database on the Arts Council website: select 'Theatre project award' from the 'Fund' menu; select the year '2010' and click on 'Search'.