News & Activities

European Theatre Matters !    

This week the European Parliament’s culture committee will host a public hearing on the new EU Culture Programme ‘Creative Europe’(1), the only EU instrument dedicated to the cultural and creative sectors. On the eve of this event, the European Theatre Convention (ETC) organised a Breakfast Meeting in Brussels to present decision makers and key opinion leaders with its political demands and ensuring that the impact of public theatres is taken into consideration within the European cultural policy.  
Although ETC welcomes the Commission’s proposal, it calls for an improved recognition of the social dimension of culture and the importance of risk taking and experimentation in particular for the performing arts and theatre.

As the leading pan-European network of public theatres, ETC promotes contemporary European theatre creation, artistic education and multilingualism. As member of the platforms “Access to Culture”, “Creative and Cultural Industries” and consortium partner of Politglotti4.eu, the ETC established a structured dialogue between the European civil society in the cultural sector and the Commission, it presented pragmatic proposals that correspond to the theatrical reality in Europe today and hope they will be taken into consideration by EU decision makers.

The next ETC conference entitled “European Theatre Today and National Myths” (May 24-27) is organised in Hungary by the National Theatre of Miskolc and will be opening the dialogue with our Hungarian partners about the specific political situation and artistic consequences of this situation. The conference topic will research and investigate the interrelation of both concepts in today’s theatre creation in presence of renowned theatre makers such as Arpad Schilling and Krysztof Warlikowski, both known to question social issues in their performances and create on the stage artistic dialogue with our time.  

Finally, in the framework of the European artistic education flagship project "Young Europe"(2), we also put international theatre programmes under the spotlight, and unveiled our events and projects for 2012. Central to ETC’s work is the support and international promotion of young European theatre talents, the mobility of artists through exchange programmes, the creation of a platform for theatre education and drama schools as well as the initiation of new audience development strategies . Today’s breakfast briefing marks the opening of ETC’s 2012 campaign –European theatre matters! A creative and innovative source in Europe’s cities and regions!

Mrs Dubravka Vrgoc, ETC new President (Croatia), said:
“In our transition time in which theatre faces with many problems considering consequences of  recession as well as different political issues, ETC is one of the strongest platform for meetings of various artists, different theatres, different languages and thus different culture in specific European context and makes this meeting as rich and as exciting as possible. It is the guarantee for the development of the artistic creation, also making it accessible to as many people as possible - on the local, regional, national and international level. In this way, ETC becomes gathering place for the whole European theatrical profession, with both artists and audiences, for them to decide on the future of the theatre together, that is, the future of the art in the given social framework.”

END.

(1) “Creative Europe” is the new EU Programme proposed by the European Commission for the budgetary period 2014-2020 dedicated to the cultural and creative sectors. The hearing in the EP will take place on 26th of April.

(2) The ambitious and energetic European artistic education flagship project, launched in 2008, creates plays with a true European resonance and makes them come alive for young people in schools and theatres showing a genuine cross-border co-operation in action with original, engaging theatre that transcends national, cultural and even language barriers.

Note to the editors

The European Theatre Convention (ETC) founded in 1988, is a non-profit-making membership organisation representing the publicly funded theatre sector in over 20 countries whose aims are: to create, protect and promote the art of theatre and its linguistic diversity in Europe and beyond; to act as transnational theatre collaboration network to foster cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue; to act as platform for professional exchange, development and capacity building of theatre makers in an international context; and to act as representation and advocacy network of the public theatre sector on EU, Member states and local level. Visit the ETC website for more information

The following members of the ETC were present in Brussels today to respond to media inquiries

Dubravka Vrgoc, president of the ETC, artistic director of Zagreb Youth Theatre (z/k/m), Croatia
Serge Rangoni, vice-president of the ETC, artistic director of Theâtre de la Place, Liège, Belgium
Jörg Bochow, vice-president of the ETC, vice artistic director of Staatstheater Stuttgart, Germany
Christa Müller, secretary of the ETC, dramaturge and international relations, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Germany
Bettina Pesch, treasurer of the ETC, general manager, Theater Dortmund, Germany
Imre Halasi, artistic director of the National Theatre Miskolc, Hungary
Heidi Wiley, general delegate of the ETC