Session Recordings

At the Young Europe project kick-off in 2018, we asked ourselves: What occupies the mind of the young generation today? How can we develop new research-based theatre experiences that meet the young people’s spirit and make theatre relevant for Europe’s youth? For the past year, the pandemic has shaken up our world and dominated young people’s lives. More than ever, we need to open perspectives, create visions and discuss how we can bring theatre (back) to the young people.  

Creating new theatre experiences and spaces to gather young people not only requires opening-up to their perspectives, but also adapting contemporary theatrical forms and languages in order to reflect new normality’s and the young people’s tone. Setting a focus on “New Formats & Spaces for Young Audiences” we want to discuss how we can make or reinvent theatre as a space where young people meet. How can we create sustainable access to culture in locked-down and reopened societies? And what new artistic forms and stories we need to (re)connect with the European youth of today? 
 

0:00 – 0:13 CET Conference Opening and Introduction 
with Serge Rangoni & Heidi Wiley

0:19 – 0:31 CET Mission Statements from the ‘Young Europe’ 
with Young Ambassadors from Austria, Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Netherlands 

0:31 – 0:55 CET Keynote Speeches 
by Anton Kurt Krause & Paulien Geerlings 

0:55 – 2:00 CET Panel Discussion: “New Formats & Spaces for Young  Audiences” followed by Q & A 
With Cristina Cazzola, Hannah Grainger-Clemson, Paulien Geerlings, Anton Kurt Krause, Laura Szabó  

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the restrictions most European countries have put in place to contain it, have hit our theatres particularly hard. Our stages have been silent for the better part of the last 15 months. Theatre halls are empty, while the online screen lights are flickering.

But these are not the only kind of interferences currently limiting freedom of artistic expression in Europe. We see nationalist cultural policies, intrusion from anti-liberal governments into artistic decision-making and the nomination processes for theatres’ artistic leaderships, financial pressure for publicly-funded houses… The COVID-19 pandemic has mostly revealed and exacerbated challenges that already existed.

How can theatre stay an open democratic space, reflecting the multiple stories of our contemporary, multi-faceted communities, when it is either made invisible and silent—or forced to comply with nationalist retellings of history and culture? Can international exchange show us the way out, or is international artistic cooperation in danger?

0:00 - 0:15 Welcome Speeches with Serge Rangoni, Heidi Wiley, & Iris Laufenberg

0:15 - 1:30 Silenced Theatres in 2021: Illiberal Democracies & Effects of COVID-19 with Simona Hamer, Niklas Nienaß, Marta Keil & András Dömötör. Moderation: Anette Gerlach.