The attendees, drawn from 37 countries across Europe and Asia, met at a crucial moment for European culture: Glenn Micallef was confirmed as the new European Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport on the 4th November; and the results of the US Presidential election emerged the following day.
In this context the event served as a strong reminder of the relevance of theatre to society, through inputs from senior representatives from the European Commission; investigative journalism outfit Correctiv; Austrian playwright Elfriede Jelinek; European cultural networks Pearle* and Opera Europa; and a condensed insight into the sobering State of Culture Report by Culture Action Europe.
It was also a chance for discussions on the biggest issues of our time, including the applications and impact of Artificial Intelligence and virtual reality on the creation of theatre through interventions from choreographer and director Blanca Li; and composer Martin Hennecke. The ETC event took place alongside Theatre de Liège’s renowned IMPACT Forum of art-science-technology performances and Asia-Europe networking; and the ACuTe – Culture Testbeds for Performing Arts and New Technologies Symposium.
“The ETC International Theatre Conference and collaboration with IMPACT Forum and the ACuTe Symposium created a major international platform for meeting and exchanging with artists, colleagues and professionals across Europe and Asia, the likes of which we’ve not had in Europe on such a scale,” commented Heidi Wiley, Executive Director of the European Theatre Convention (ETC).
“But importantly, it was a shocking wake-up call about the realities of political interference facing European theatres. The insights from all the speakers and attendees are deeply concerning, but it is so encouraging to remember that as a sector we can come together, quickly, and build an open, forward-looking world that values democracy, in which everyone has a chance to freely choose how to live. Together, with our creative power, we can resist these growing threats to artistic freedom.
“At ETC we are very grateful for the ability to keep European exchange alive, and for the continued support from the European Union to help multiply our impact across the continent, particularly in backing our new BREAK THE MOULD project from 2024-2028.”
Free Culture – Resisting Political Interference
Audiences were invited to the flagship event during the conference, ‘The European Theatre Talks: Free Culture – Resisting Political Interference’. Recognising the rise of far-right governments around Europe – who have dismissed theatre directors that they see as too challenging and replaced them with more deferential candidates – the session was a chance to receive more input on the realities across Europe and identify potential solutions.
Intervening from the audience was Mladen Aleksiev, Head of International Relations at National Theatre Ivan Vazov in Sofia/Bulgaria, who detailed a troubling campaign of intimidation surrounding the upcoming production of ‘Arms and the Man’, directed by the acclaimed artist John Malkovich, which premieres on 7th November. You can read a detailed comment from the theatre on the ETC website.
Speakers at the European Theatre Talks included:
- Georg Häusler, Director for Culture, Creativity and Sport in the European Commission (DG EAC) [online]
- Gabrielle Bernoville, Representative of the Education, Youth, Sport and Culture department at the European Commission (DG EAC)
- Jean Peters, Senior Reporter at Correctiv
- Elena Polivtseva, Co-Founder of Culture Policy Room
- Miriam Kičiňová, Artistic Director of Drama at Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava
- Fariba Mosleh, Curator and Cultural Manager / Council Member of the Free Republic of Vienna / Vienna Festival | Wiener Festwochen
- Elfriede Jelinek, Playwright and novelist
- Kay Voges, Artistic Director of Volkstheater Vienna
- Anita Debaere, Director of Pearle* - Live Performance Europe
- Audrey Jungers, Managing Director at Opera Europa
- Cláudia Belchior, President of European Theatre Convention and Executive General Coordinator at the Centro Cultural de Belém
- Moderated by Marina Maleni, ETC Board Member and Theatre Development Officer at Cyprus Theatre Organisation (THOC)
A video recording will be made available on the ETC website in the coming weeks.
Concluding the session with a clear commitment to artistic freedom, Georg Häusler, Director for Culture, Creativity and Sport at the European Commission, said: “We need to make sure that you are listened to in this debate, that you have a strong voice, that you occupy the territory and don’t leave it to those who have some very wild objectives when they use culture and cultural policy in portraying their political priorities. “
European Theatre: BREAK THE MOULD
The conference marked a defining moment for ETC with the official launch of ‘European Theatre: BREAK THE MOULD’ a major new initiative co-funded by the European Union.
This ambitious project, which runs from 2024-2028, offers five key programmes: ETC’s Digital Theatre programme, ETC’s Sustainable Theatre programme, ETC’s Diverse Theatre programme, ETC’s Next Theatre Generation programme, and ETC’s European Theatre programme. It builds on ETC’s unrivalled knowledge and leading cultural partnerships across Europe to implement essential change in European Theatres on the topics of diversity, sustainability and digitality.
To this end, the conference marked the start of ETC’s new collaboration with the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund as part of ETC’s Digital Theatre Programme. This aims to mainstream expertise in embedding technology in digital performances. A programme of exclusive workshops and webinars will be available and accompanied by advocacy and policy activities.
ACuTe Symposium
From 04 – 05 November attendees joined the ACuTe Symposium, to learn from the productions, workshops and tools created as part of the ACuTe – Culture Testbeds for Performing Arts and New Technologies project, which is co-funded by the European Union.
The programme included a Design Thinking Toolkit workshop, to introduce attendees to the iterative approach to creating better productions by focusing on user needs; and ACuTe Symposium: Synergies, which offered a deep dive into the experimental productions created during the project. In particular, NetNordic Norway’s Pål Mørk Hansen delivered a keynote speech on artificial intelligence.
New ETC Member Theatres
Seven new theatres joined the ETC network, taking from the European Theatre Convention (ETC) network of 70 theatres in 33 countries:
- Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers – Centre dramatique national (France)
- GRRRANIT Scène nationale - Belfort (France)
- Teatro Stabile del Veneto (Italy)
- Serbian National Theatre Novi Sad (Serbia)
- Turkish State Theatres (Turkey)
- Teatrul de Stat Constanta (Romania)
- Bühnen der Stadt Köln - Schauspiel Köln (Germany)
Speaking about the conference, Claudia Belchior, ETC President and Executive General Coordinator at Centro Cultural de Belem/Portugal, said: “We’re at a crucial juncture for culture and freedom in Europe. So many artists across the continent are facing hostile governments or direct threats to their autonomy, with attempts to control what they create -- and limit what we, the public, can experience. This ETC International Theatre Conference put a voice to these concerns and made it clear that there is real strength in our network to find shared solutions and build resilient, vibrant, democratic cultural spaces for future generations.”
Serge Rangoni, Artistic Director and General Manager of Theatre de Liège/Belgium, added: “It has been a pleasure to welcome all our colleagues from across Europe and Asia to Theatre de Liège for the ETC International Theatre Conference & Be.Welcome Wallonia: Liège. It was also a real benefit to introduce audiences to art-science-technology performances through our IMPACT Forum 2024. As cultural institutions, it is our duty to build bridges, to open up to others and never resist interconnection. This is exactly the focus of these events and this fruitful collaboration with ETC and our international partners.”
Contact: communication@europeantheatre.eu
The European Theatre Talks are a high-profile theatre and policy event that emerged following the European Theatre Forum event in 2023, which collected the shared needs and desires of the European Theatre sector in a resulting policy document, called the Opole Recommendations. The goal of these talks is to implement the recommendations in this document through consistent dialogue with policymakers.
