SFUMATO WILL HOST the GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2019 of the UNION of THEATRES of EUROPE

SFUMATO WILL HOST the GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2019 of the UNION of THEATRES of EUROPE

On May 26 this year Sfumato Theatrå Laboratory will host the General Assembly 2019 of the Union of Théâtres de l’Europe.  

. The Assembly will be attended by 22 directors and other representatives of 15 theaters - members of the Union. Important creative issues related to the general program as well as future joint projects will be discussed.
The General Assembly coincides with the 30th anniversary of Sfumato Theatrå Laboratory, which has prepared for the participants a special program of performances: "Crazy Grass", directed by Margarita Mladenova, "Demons", directed by Ivan Dobchev, "How Is It", a theatre action by Elena Dimitrova, "The Wound Philoctetes" directed by Boris Krastev and the film about Sfumato "The Black Fugitives", directed by Lyubomir Mladenov.
The Union des Théâtres de l’Europe (UTE) is an alliance of European theatres, legally headquartered in France and operating out of an executive office in Germany.

Regarded as one of the most influential theatre associations in Europe, the Union des Théâtres de l’Europe is also deeply rooted in the history of European theatre. Its origin goes back more than thirty years, when three theatres in Italy, France and Spain decided to form an international alliance called “Théâtres de l’Europe/Teatri d’Europa”. More and more theatres became interested in this exchange, and in 1990 the French Minister of Culture, Jack Lang, and the director of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Giorgio Strehler, founded the “Union des Théâtres de l’Europe” on this basis. First centred on a programme of regular festivals with the aim to unite East and West, the union has developed into an alliance of European theatres combining artistic and political goals, and using existing artistic platforms in order to strengthen professional exchange and to promote an open Europe of culture.
 
Today, the Union des Théâtres de l’Europe unites 34 members, amongst which 17 major theatres with national and international influence from all over Europe and beyond. The theatres from Porto, Moscow, Athens, Cluj, Reims, Vienna, Belgrade, Bucharest, Cologne, Luxemburg, Sofia, Milan, Prague, Thessaloniki, Rome, and Budapest completed with independent and associated members from France, Hungary, Poland and Georgia are represented in 16 countries. Their goal is to collaborate on an international level and strengthen the role and value of European public theatres. Together they represent an area that increasingly encompasses the entire European continent and even transcends it with members in Israel, Palestine and partner-artists in various Arab countries.

 With more than 10,000 performances and 3 million spectators a year, UTE member theatres offer a wide range of events, including productions, world premieres of new drama; projects on current political issues; cooperation between various international festivals; conferences on important political and artistic topics; roundtables with artists, managers and politicians intended to attract and include a broader audience; projects with young artists and young audiences; masterclasses; literary and academic publications; and think tanks for the development of new working strategies.
 
Elected Cultural Ambassador by the European Commission in 2012, head of a project on different forms of terrorism, including Israeli, Norwegian, German, French and Serbian theatres, and elected as one of the most significant theatre network to be supported by the European Commission (CONFLICT ZONES | ZONES DE CONFLIT), the UTE sees its mission in an artistic, political and societal sphere. Its activities go along three major axes: the development of international and transnational collaborations; the maintenance and transmission of Europe’s cultural heritage, focusing on its appropriation by young artists; and the questioning, development and renewal of this heritage through ground-breaking artistic projects, but also political projects, all of which offer a critical reflection on today’s society.
 
Sfumato Theatrå Laboratory is the only Bulgarian theatre - a member of this prestigious European theatre association and actively cooperates with it. In the international workshops and master classes organized by theatres-members of UTE, Sfumato regularly sends young theatre makers and students. UTE is a co-organizer of master classes with foreign artists in recent editions of the Small Season festival. UTE members recommend to Sfumato young people and individual artists from their countries to participate in the festival's editions.

 
 

 
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