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Fill in the Blank… and Celebrate! Ernie Nolan, member of the Executive Committee of ASSITEJ
Early in my TYA career, I heard a veteran artistic director address their board. “It’s so hard!,” was the first thing they said when they addressed the group. I couldn’t believe it. I was shocked. Here was someone I incredibly admired, who ran a huge million-dollar theatre company. “How could it be so hard?,” I thought.
Flash forward years later. Little did I know. I would run my own million-dollar theatre. And who would have thought there would be a pandemic and the aftermath to navigate?
Now I understand. As a theatre artist and administrator, I can say for myself, “It’s so hard!”
Yet while it’s been hard, it’s also been so many other positive things as well. The brilliant composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim was a master at showing the complexity of various situations. Little Red Riding Hood sings about being “excited AND scared” in INTO THE WOODS. The husbands in COMPANY share about being “sorry, grateful” as well as being “regretful, happy.”
As we come to the end of another year, I feel like I could write my own song lyrics in the style of Mr. Sondheim. It’s been hard, but it’s also been a time of growth… enlightening … educational … inspirational. The list goes on and on.
I would love to know how you would fill in the blank for yourself:
It’s been hard, but it’s been _______________________.
As we be adieu to 2022, I hope that we can take our challenges and our triumphs and celebrate all that we’ve accomplished. Afterall, in the words of Mr. Sondheim, “Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.”
The ASSITEJ Artistic Gathering 2023 will be in Serbia from 20-24 November 2023 with the theme of Connecting Voices which is the second theme in our overarching dramaturgy of Regenerating.
The magazine articles will be published in English and the original language of the author. We will create a magazine that communicates through images, films and text. Both visuals and text should address the theme, Regenerating: Connecting Voices. We are aiming to regularly update this online Magazine with new articles, from June 2023 until the opening of the Artistic Gathering in November 2023.
ASSITEJ is pleased to welcome two great speakers: Bo Hårdell and Aurélien Mancino, from Teater 5005 (Denmark). They will present different historical and sociological elements concerning deafness. These different points of view raise questions about issues of accessibility and inclusion.
We are looking for projects, in any creative form, that have a great potential to engage children and young audiences (ages 0 to 16) across different platforms including live performances as well as digital experiences.
International Dance Encounter Amman invites you to submit your performance proposals for its 3rd edition. IDEA is a multidisciplinary festival that aims to create a bridge that will unite the artistic influences of Jordan and abroad. IDEA program consists of works in the fields of dance, theatre, performance, and art installations. IDEA is organized and curated by Jordan based arts and culture platform, Studio 8, partnering with local, regional and international organizations.
The Orto degli Ananassicompany of Livorno, opens the call for the 4th Editionof Con-Fusione Festival. The Festival will be held in Livorno (Tuscany, Italy) from 2 to 10 of September 2023. Companies who wish to participate in Con-fusione Festival 2023, may apply by filling out the application form and reading the terms and conditions carefully.
Call for the 4th International Online Theatre for Young People "Better than Us"
ASSITEJ Russia
Open call for the 4th International Online Theatre Festival for Young People “Better than Us”. The 4th edition of “Better than Us” is realized in cooperation with the Goethe Institute Moscow aiming to introduce the participants and the audience (with a special focus on the participants from the countries where Russian is one of the spoken languages) to the modern German TYA. The productions will be available in the language of the original – German with Russian subtitles.
🌎🌍🌏 Online
🗓 13–15, 21–22 January 2023
Deadline:1 December 2022 (German theatre productions)
La Baracca-Testoni Ragazzi is happy to announce a call for productions to be presented during the next two editions of the International Festival of Theatre and Culture for early years “Visioni di futuro, visioni di teatro...”.
AND
Artists meet Early years offers the chance to 18 young artists (Italian or international ones) to meet children in their early years in the places where they belong in educational community; crèches and kindergartens.
The next edition of the festival will take place in Bologna between October 20th and 29th in 2023, but this call is valid also for the edition of Visioni 2024.
International Open Call for IETM Global Connect 2023
IETM
IETM Global Connect 2023 is open to performing arts professionals worldwide (producers, artists, managers, presenters, etc) who have at least 5 years of professional experience in the field. We are looking for professionals who are committed to increasing global awareness, inclusion, accessibility and connectivity – in the sector at large and in their own communities.
Those selected for IETM Global Connect 2023 will receive an IETM membership for 5 years (from the beginning of 2023 till the end of 2027), with free access to all of our meetings. Last but not least, they will receive funding support in order to take part in the 2023 IETM Plenary Meeting in Aarhus, Denmark and, as part of the plenary, in the yearly IETM Global Connectors Gathering.
La Baracca wants to award people or institutions that have deservingly promoted the development and dissemination, in Bologna and worldwide, of performing arts for very, very young children from 0 to 3 years old.
The Award is dedicated to Valeria who, as artistic director of La Baracca, decisively supported the start of the project “The Crèche and the Theatre” and then accompanied it with passion for more than 30 years, as an actress and director.
A cultural policy report: ”Spelar mindre roll?” – ”Plays less role?”
ASSITEJ Sweden
In 2019, we launched a new initiative regarding cultural policy work - "How we want to secure children and young people's right to the performing arts in schools" - with two consultations with members to gather information and agree on the situation in the country. In 2020 - 2022 we have continued to discuss the issue in various rounds with individual politicians, with the Swedish Parliament´s Culture Committee and the organization Swedish Municipalities and Regions, with our members and with other actors around the country as regional and municipal consultants and intermediaries.
Join us and become a member of the Young Dance Network!
Young Dance Network
YDN is a network for exchange under the umbrella of ASSITEJ International that aims to generate occasions for professionals in the field of dance to encounter, exchange and raise their voices.
Members can be: choreographers, companies, dancers, theatre-venues, producers, production houses, festivals, dramaturges, promotors and any other people working or interested in working in the field of dance for children, school teachers, school directors, children and families.
Following its big success last year, our national centre’s campaign “Every child to the theatre” returns this year.
This Christmas, the campaign returns with the dual aim to give the chance to children from vulnerable families to visit the theatre and at the same to support ASSITEJ Cyprus members. Through a sponsorship by Alpha Mega Hypermarkets, ASSITEJ Cyprus will buy tickets from the productions of its members (companies or individual artists) which will be running during the Christmas period. These tickets will be then distributed to children from vulnerable families with the help of the Cyprus Red Cross.
Radical Dramaturgies: a path to democratic performing arts for early childhoods
by Viviane Juguero
Democracy is a central theme in recent speeches in various knowledge areas and different realities worldwide. The arts field for children echoes this socio-historic moment and the commitment of being democratic is declared in many diverse local and international discourses. In this direction, in 2020, the International Association of Theatre for Children and Youth (ASSITEJ) launched a Manifesto developed through various online meetings engaging hundreds of performing arts professionals across the globe (ASSITEJ, 2020). The document is addressed to citizens, governments, political parties, institutions and authorities related to the development of arts and children's education and welfare. The ASSITEJ’s manifesto is based on the convention on the child's rights of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, especially articles thirteen and thirty-one (UNICEF, 2002). In the same direction, the institutional project Scenekunst til ALLE små (Dybwik and Halle, 2020) also emphasizes its intention of being democratic by presenting theatrical performances for all children from zero to five years old in Stavanger city. By analyzing the context of this example through a radical heteroscientific methodology, the present study proposes grounded criteria to promote democratic artistic projects for Early Childhoods.
