Formation | 1988 |
---|---|
Location |
|
Leader | Heidi Wiley |
Website | Official website |
The European Theatre Convention (ETC) is a European theatre association founded in 1988.[1][2]
The ETC is funded partly by the Creative Europe programme of its strategic partner, the European Commission.[3] It is based in Berlin. As a "network of public theatres in Europe", it has 63 members in 31 European countries (As of November 2023[update]).[4] The ETC organizes projects which promote European theatre as a "platform for dialogue, democracy and interaction",[4] and offers the possibility of international networking for theatre professionals.[5] The executive director is Heidi Wiley.[6]
Daniel BenoinJean-Claude Drouot and Heribert Sasse founded the ETC in 1988.[7] The statutes were laid down in November 1987.[8] Initially three theatres in France, Belgium and Germany collaborated.[9]
,It aims at promoting contemporary theatrical creation, supporting the mobility of emerging artists, and the exchange of activities, ideas and artistic concepts in Europe.[10][11][9]
The ETC has organised annual conferences on a variety of topics for theatre professionals, and has provided financial and organizational support for international artistic exchange.[12] It has hosted a range of programmes.
"ENGAGE – Empowering today's audience through challenging theatre" was a four-year programme from 2017 to 2021,[13][14][15] focused on the topics of participatory theatre, youth theatre and theatre in the digital age.[16]
"Theatre is Dialogue – Dialogue of Cultures" is a program that has supported theatre makers in the Ukraine and other Eastern European countries since 2014.[17][18] The focus is on the exchange of the theatre makers, such as artist residencies, guest performances and getting to know each other in the theatre scene.[17][18]
Young Europe is a project of artistic cooperation, in which ETC member theatres have staged new theatre texts on the subjects of identity and integration, aiming at a young international audience. In 2015, Young Europe was recognized as a "European Success Story" by the EU.[14][19]
Nadia is an international theatre project, funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation[20][21][22]
, that investigates reasons for the radicalization of young people in Europe, using artistic means, in exchange with young people.European Theatre Lab: Drama goes Digital was a project, between 2016 and 2018, to researched the future of theatre in the digital age.[23][24] It won the Pearle award "Spotlight on Heritage in Culture and the Arts".[25]
The Art of Ageing was a project highlighting in four productions the challenges of a demographically changing society.[26][27][28]
Renaissance was a 2021 programme which produced an original series of 22 short drama films.[29][30]
Trans-Formations is a project to energize and revive European theatres and audiences in a post-COVID world. The activities include conferences, artistic programmes and workshops from 2021 to 2024.[3]
In 2023, the European Theatre Convention curated the second edition of the European Theatre Forum organised by the European Commission, which led to the publication of the policy document, the Opole Recommendations.[31][32]