Swedish Arts Council - Support for Translation of Swedish Drama for Stage Performance

What the grant covers

You will receive funding to cover the full translation fee of a Swedish play that you will be staging abroad. There is no fixed amount. You must apply for the exact fee specified in your signed contract with the translator, and you must pay this full fee to the translator, regardless of the amount granted. The grant comes from the Swedish Arts Council (Kulturrådet) as part of its ‘Swedish Literary Exchange’ programme. It is intended to help ensure that more Swedish plays can be performed in other languages. Once approved, the funding is available for one year. It covers the translation only. Costs relating to adaptation, staging, production and copyright are not included.

Who can apply

• Who you are: You apply as an organisation, not as a private person. You must be the director or producer of a theatre or production company that will stage the translated play. Publishers responsible for the performance can also apply.
• The play: This is an original play written in Swedish or in one of Sweden’s national minority languages, and first published or performed in Sweden.
• The translation: The translation must be done directly from Swedish (or the minority language), not via a third language. Exceptions may be made for languages for which there are no professional translators from Swedish, but only with the written consent of the rights holder.
• Timing: You apply before the play is performed. It cannot be staged until you have received the result.
• Where it is performed: The performance is taking place abroad, outside Sweden.
• Language and country: You can translate into any language and apply from any country.

How to apply

Applications must be submitted online via the Swedish Arts Council’s application portal. Applications can be submitted throughout the year; the current round closes on 31 December at 24:00. An external panel of experts assesses all applications for a given round collectively, evaluating their literary quality. You will receive a decision approximately eight weeks after the deadline.

How realistic are your chances?

This grant is very narrowly defined. You must be a theatre company or a producer with a signed translation contract and a concrete plan to stage a Swedish play abroad; therefore, only organisations that have already committed to a production may apply. If you clearly meet these conditions, your chances are good, as the grant amount simply covers the translator’s fee and there is no competition for a fixed total sum. Priority is given to contemporary plays and languages for which there are currently few translations from Swedish; therefore, a recent work translated into an underserved language stands out the most.