Digitality
ETC's DIGITAL THEATRE PROGRAMME
Support for ETC members to develop cutting-edge digital productions together, or experiment with the latest digital theatre tools. Exclusive workshops and webinars will be available and accompanied by advocacy and policy activities.
Embracing digital tools enables us to make cultural experiences more accessible in a post-Covid world, and reach diverse audiences, breaking down barriers of cost, personal responsibilities, and disabilities.
Discover our projects that embrace the power of emerging technology and foster new forms of cultural collaboration and competence development.
► What is ETC’s Digital Theatre Programme?
To accompany European theatres as they experiment with new digital projects, disseminate learning from professional development activities, and ensure a human-centred digital transformation, ETC has created ETC’s Digital Theatre Programme.
This includes support for ETC members to either develop new productions with digital tools together (“Research & Development Sprints”) or dedicate time to experiment with the latest digital theatre tools (“Laboratory Retreats”). Exclusive workshops and webinars, as well as ETC Conferences on digital theatre, will be available to ETC members and will be accompanied by bespoke advocacy and policy activities.
The Programme is supported by a pioneering partnership with the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund/Germany, helping to guide ETC members through this process and to mainstream knowledge about and access to digital theatre. It is one of five key programmes in ETC’s four-year plan of activities, co-funded by the European Union, called European Theatre: BREAK THE MOULD (2024-2028).
Learn more about ETC's Digital Theatre Programme
Open Call: ETC Research & Development Sprints (ETC members only)
Digital Theatre Open Call: ETC Research & Development Sprints
Apply for funding to support a digital co-production between two ETC Member Theatres with the consultancy of the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund (Germany).
► As part of ETC’s Digital Theatre Programme, the first round of the ETC Research & Development Sprints is now open for application. In this round, three grants of 3.000 € will be awarded to teams of two ETC member theatres.
What do the Research & Development Sprints include?
A development grant of 3.000€, shared between two ETC partners, to travel to the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund, Germany.
Guidance and consultancy from the Academy regarding the digital aspects and dramaturgy of your co-production. Together we will find out what expertise is missing in your team and will devise an open call for a Digital Expert in Residence.
In addition, ETC will contribute to travel, accommodation, and subsistence of up to 2.860 € for the selected Digital Expert’s residency of up to 42 days at the Academy for Theatre and Digitality to devise the digital aspects for your co-production, before rehearsals start at your venue.
The call for the second round of the ETC Research & Development Sprint will be published in November 2025.
The call for the ETC Laboratory Retreats will be published in April and November 2025.
READ THE FULL CALL & APPLY BY 15 JANUARY 2025
ETC Professional Development Scheme
ETC Professional Development Webinar: Introduction to Digital Theatre
As part of our Professional Development scheme, aimed at organising training and events to share best practices on the latest trends in theatre, we are thrilled to invite ETC Member Theatres to the webinar 'Introduction to Digital Theatre,' in collaboration with the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund.
Wednesday 05 March 2025 - 11:00-12:30 CET (online)
Learn more and register (ETC Member Theatres only)
2024
ETC Member De Toneelmakerij Wins Prestigious Ars Electronica Award for Digital Humanity 2024
The performance Patchwork Girl has won the Ars Electronica Award for Digital Humanity 2024: the grand prize of the prestigious Ars Electronica Festival, one of the world's biggest art and media events. The international expert jury was full of praise for ETC Member Theatre De Toneelmakerij's performance. Patchwork Girl was chosen from 3,000 international entries from over 80 countries and, in addition to the Golden Nica, wins 10,000 euros.
March 2024
ETC Webinar: Im/Material Theatre Spaces
Theatre has always been a pioneer for the development and application of new technologies, it is a place for artistic and technical innovation, experimentation and research.
How can immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality unfold their potential in front of, behind and on stage - as a creative design tool, as a construction aid for virtual building rehearsals, as a teaching and learning space, or as an extended stage for the arts?
In an ETC webinar held on 27 March 2024, expert Franziska Ritter showcases different approaches and possibilities based on the research project “Im/material Theatre Spaces” by digital.DTHG, the digital competence centre of the Deutsche Theatertechnische Gesellschaft.
Useful Links
European Theatre Lab
The European Theatre Lab is Europe’s first think tank devoted to researching a digital strategy for theatre. As part of the project, seven leading European state theatres stretching from Tbilisi to Oslo come together for a new way of international coproduction and research under the leadership of the European Theatre Convention.
ACuTe - Culture Testbeds for Performing Arts and New Technology
June 2023
New ETC Study on Digital Theatre Practices and Business Models
Digital Theatre – Digital Strategies and Business Models in European Theatre analyses artistic production, digital dissemination, strategies and digital business models in ETC member theatres.
How can we as a theatre sector use the lessons learned during the pandemic to continue this digital artistic and audience development? What digital strategies do we already have in place, and what can we learn from partner theatres around Europe? And can we find a way to articulate our collective needs to funders so that we secure the necessary resources to remain open to experimental digital theatre formats?
The study has been developed in partnership with the Akademie für Theater und Digitalitat in Dortmund/Germany, and digital theatre researcher Katie Hawthorne.
Read Dr. Katie Hawthorne's interview with The Theatre Times
ACuTe - Culture Testbeds for Performing Arts and New Technology
ETC is one of the partner organisations in ACuTe, a cutting-edge digital theatre project across Europe.
ACuTe is a trend-setting, large-scale European innovation project aiming to revolutionise the way theatre and performing arts are produced and performed with emerging technology and new forms of cultural collaboration and competence development.
Sign up to the ACuTe newsletter - Sent out on the 22nd of every month!
October 2022
Good Digital Practices Born During the Pandemic
On October 24, 2022, the Belgian channel RTBF brought together senior Belgian officials and key representatives of the European audiovisual and cultural sector in the Theatre of Namur for the 8th Culture & RTBF Meeting: Co-Construction in the age of digitalization.
As part of the programme of the day, Heidi Wiley, Executive Director of the European Theatre Convention, was invited to present an overview of the good practices that have emerged during the pandemic and reflect on those that should be continued. Her presentation covered how the theatre and performing arts sector has adapted, and what it wants to develop in the future.
7-9 June 2021
Young Europe III - Festival To:Gather
Young Europe Festival To:gather was an online festival to showcase new work made for and with young people.
It covered 5 countries, 7 new plays, and 9 original productions.
The festival was the result of a four-year international collaboration project and was transformed online in order to present the work in the midst of coronavirus lockdowns.
The festival was hosted in a digital, immersive version of Schauspielhaus Graz.
May - June 2021
Renaissance
22 Theatres. 18 European Countries. 250 Artists.
Renaissance, a project coordinated by the European Theatre Convention, saw 22 theatres from 18 European countries each write and produce a five-minute short film that responded to the dramatic prompt of ‘Renaissance’.
The films - beautiful, haunting, satirical, comedic, dramatic, historical - reached 130,000 people and were showcased in major theatre festivals online and around Europe.
September 2020 - August 2021
ETC Digital Grants
In the 2020/21 season, ETC supported 14 digital theatre projects with 1000 EUR in funding.
These included:
- A mini musical in Cyprus
- A 360-degree game walk in Germany
- An online/offline journey between two worlds of gods and mythology in Ukraine
- An online theatre festival in Albania
- An innovative audio performance in Czech Republic
- Zoom theatre inspired by Russian avant garde artists in Slovenia
See all of the funded projects
September 2018
Digital Theatre Casebook
The first ETC casebook 'Digital Theatre. A Casebook' is about sharing knowledge with the creative community; it is an invitation for artists, scientists, theatre professionals, and cultural and societal decision makers to learn from our experiences.
Attached, the white paper Drama goes digital vs Theatre invades digital presents recommendations that have been identified for publicly funded theatres, policymakers and funders on the local, national and European level to tackle challenges for theatres while addressing the digital transformation.
September 2018
European Theatre Lab: Digital Theatre, a Documentary
The two-year applied research project European Theatre Lab: Drama Goes Digital set out to research a digital strategy for the major state-funded theatrical institutions of continental Europe with the goal of expanding access to the arts via new technology. Under the leadership of the European Theatre Convention (ETC), the cross-sectoral project united artists and public theatres from seven countries with research institutions and researchers from the fields of technology, science, media and the performing arts.
"Digital Theatre, a Documentary" is about sharing knowledge with the creative community; it is an invitation for artists, scientists, theatre professionals, and cultural and societal decision makers to learn from our experiences.
