Journal 2026

ETC Journal 2026/27

Discover our annual magazine featuring interviews, reflections, and a look ahead at ETC's upcoming work. Includes a spotlight on ETC's latest EU-funded project, TRUST, and on women leaders, inclusion and accessibility, and artistic freedom. READ

Videos Member Only 7 OCTOBER 2026

ETC Webinar: How Can We Communicate Through ETC?

If you work in communications or marketing at an ETC Theatre and wonder how you can best promote your theatre as an ETC member, then this webinar is for you. READ

Videos 26 MAY 2025

ETC Webinar: Ethical Communications - Should European Theatres Transition Away From X and Meta?

The dependence on big tech's social media platforms is no longer sustainable. With moderation and fact-checking getting banned and big tech's power increasingly intertwined with political power, it is time to move to better alternatives. In this special ETC webinar for communications and digital professionals, Marleen Stikker and Danny Lämmerhirt from the Amsterdam-based tech foundation Waag Futurelab, lead the discussion on how ETC Members can actively engage in alternative social media platforms that safeguard public values. Includes insights from Waag's #MakeSocialsSocialAgain campaign. READ

Casebooks 2025

Fabulamundi New Voices: Inclusive Practices in European Theatre

The Fabulamundi New Voices twin casebook series, published by the European Theatre Convention, documents a cross-European effort to empower emerging writers and diversify theatre-making, offering methodological insight and institutional strategies for inclusive, forward-thinking dramaturgy. READ

Videos

Skin

'Skin' explores the healing effect of theatre, and the idea that, in its fascinating territory we can experience parallel lives that are more fulfilled than the one that we actually have. Art is revealed as a source of justice, hope and faith in a better tomorrow. All this is especially important in period of crisis, such as the one we are currently going through. READ

Videos 24/09/2024

Online Talk - Script Secrets: Playwrights Share Their Stories

In this online talk, acclaimed playwrights Miguel Castro Caldas (São Luiz Teatro Municipal, Portugal), Magne van den Berg (De Toneelmakerij, The Netherlands), Nalini Vidoolah Mootoosamy (PAV/Fabulamundi, Italy) and Milan Ramšak Marković (Prešernovo Gledališče Kranj, Slovenia) will offer a glimpse into the creative secrets behind their powerful scripts, which were selected by the ETC Drama Committee this year. READ

Casebooks 2020

Participatory Theatre – A Casebook

‘Participatory Theatre- A Casebook’ was the second ETC Casebook released on World Theatre Day 2020.  The casebook offers insights, reflections and best-practice advice written from theatre makers, for theatre makers.   READ

Videos 2021

The Father Watches over Daughter - Ondřej Novotný

A video clip with an excerpt of the play The Father Watches over Daughter by Ondřej Novotný selected by ETC Drama Committee 2021. READ

Videos

Renaissance?

The Staatsschauspiel Dresden asked Instagram users to comment on the theme of “Renaissance”. 62 people participated and head dramaturg Jörg Bochow selected 47 terms for a brand-new text that was performed by their actresses and actors, in one take, within a few days of receiving the text. Selected words include: Justice; Humanism; Theatrical death; Rebirth; Michelangelo; Oxblood Red... READ

Videos

Restarting from the Human Being

Faced with a digital and virtual intoxication we emphasise the irreplaceable need for the Theatre and for Society: Restarting From the Human Being, as suggested in the renowned Italian Renaissance manifesto, Oratio de hominis dignitate, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.   READ

Videos

Rinaxximent

We follow a young girl, Leah, who was participating in one of the Teatru Malta projects - Trikki Trakki Youth Theatre Festival. After the festival is halted, she must go back to her new-normal life: going to zoom-school, and scrolling through social media. She gets very frustrated that she cannot interact with anyone anymore except for online. In a fantastical adventure, she re-discovers books and a secret library, learning about theatre and renaissance. READ

Videos

Renaissance?

We have decided to re-awaken our understanding of the collective, of relations that form the collective field, by using a stone puppet that resembles a human being. River stones are sacred in our local environment. And Michelangelo's David, one of the truly iconic Renaissance masterpieces, was also made of stone. READ

Videos

Sustainability in European Theatre

Watch the recorded speech of ETC Executive Director, Heidi Wiley joined by Michaela Rýgrová, ETC Sustainability Advisor at the conference for the 40th anniversary of Taipei National University of the Art on the theme Art and Sustainability. READ

Research MARCH 2015

Audiences for European Theatre - Study on the Status Quo of Audience Development and Audience Research in the European Theatre Convention

The study, developed in partnership with the Center for Audience Development (ZAD) at the Freie Universität Berlin tackles the lack of comparable data on European theatres and their audiences. READ

Book 2000

Europe on Stage 1988-2000

12 years of the European Theatre Convention.This bilingual French-English publication is a snapshot of what had been achieved by and with the 40 theatres that made up ETC from 1988 – 2000. The book features performance images and a biography for each theatre, separated by country, as well as a list of the key performances across the 12 years of European theatre history.  READ

Videos

Renaissance (Ukraine)

Shot in one take, on multiple cameras, this futuristic response to the Renaissance mixes new texts with a Shakespearean sonnet, and original music by renowned ‘ethno-chaos’ band DakhaBrakha - symbolising the aesthetics of canvas as weaving "the canvas of life". READ

Journal 2021

ETC Journal 2021/22

The 2021/22 edition of ETC annual theatre magazine includes interviews and articles about sustainability, working bilingually, and the future of European theatre. READ

Book 2004

The European Theatre Today – The Plays 6

ETC’s “The European Theatre Today” series worked with national juries to select the most innovative and exciting productions from across Europe and introduce them to European audiences and directors. The book is organised by country and presents summaries in English and French for several plays from each country. This edition, Plays 6, reviews around 80 plays from 2002 to May 2004. READ

Videos 2022

ETC Artist Residency 2022 trailer

The Artist Residency Programme supports emerging theatre artists by offering new perspectives and professional artistic experiences in a European public theatre. Participants were asked to record their reflections from their experience as artists working with colleagues from different countries in Europe. READ

Journal 2020

ETC Journal 2020/21

The 2020/21 edition of ETC annual theatre magazine was produced just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit European theatre and wider society. It has reflections on an industry at risk, and questioning itself.  READ

Book

European Theatre Today – The Plays 3

ETC’s “The European Theatre Today” series worked with national juries to select the most innovative and exciting productions from across Europe and introduce them to European audiences and directors. The book is organised by country and presents summaries in English and French for several plays from each country. This edition, Plays 3, reviews around 80 plays from July 1995 to May 1997. READ

Videos

Renaissance

The theatre community lost its foundation. Theatre as we knew it no longer exists. The stage is a mere dream – sometimes thrilling, often depressing. We need to change it. Go out. Find a new source and sense of creation… READ

Book 2000

The European Theatre Today – The Plays 4

ETC’s “The European Theatre Today” series worked with national juries to select the most innovative and exciting productions from across Europe and introduce them to European audiences and directors. The book is organised by country and presents summaries in English and French for several plays from each country. This edition, Plays 4, reviews around 80 plays from July 1997 to March 2000. READ

Videos 2021

Renaissance – The Trailer

22 Theatres. 18 European Countries. 250 Artists. Renaissance, a project coordinated by the European Theatre Convention, sees 22 theatres from 18 European countries each write and produce a five-minute short film that responds to the dramatic prompt of ‘Renaissance’.   READ

Book 1995

The European Theatre Today – The Plays 2

ETC’s “The European Theatre Today” series worked with national juries to select the most innovative and exciting productions from across Europe and introduce them to European audiences and directors. The book is organised by country and presents summaries in English and French for several plays from each country.  This edition, Plays 2, reviews around 80 plays from July 1992 to May 1995.  READ

Book 2006

The European Theatre Today – The Plays 7

ETC’s “The European Theatre Today” series worked with national juries to select the most innovative and exciting productions from across Europe and introduce them to European audiences and directors. The book is organised by country and presents summaries in English and French for several plays from each country. This edition, Plays 7, reviews around 80 plays from 2004 to May 2006. READ

Videos

Der Apple

When we talk about the Renaissance, which and whose Renaissance do we mean? Implicitly, we think about humans. But who says that our species is soaring to new heights? Perhaps we are merely the birthing agents of the resurrection of other forms of life. READ

Tools 2021

White Paper Participatory Theatre Casebook

Ideas and recommendations for participatory theatre: a valuable knowledge resource for theatre practitioners and policymakers. READ

Videos

Perspective

Perspective recalls Filippo Brunelleschi’s experiment on perspective, which took place in Florence, in 1425, a few years after the horrors of the Black Death, and compares it to the possibilities of theatre nowadays, pointing out how the representation of an object allows us to see more than the object itself. READ

Videos

Renaissance

A natural and spontaneous short documentary with an actress during a time that stages are closed. Will all this creative energy be retained? Will it be able to give us rebirth? READ

Videos

Renaissance

A call-and-response combination of real interviews and clips of artistic work, which provides some answers as to what kind of renaissance is possible for theatre. The text about what we can think about whole difficult situation is written by the author Péter Esterházy. The text about death and loneliness is written by the director Roman Polák. And the text about what is lost without art is written by a member of our playwriting workshop, Martin Miler. READ

Policy Papers 17 JULY 2023

The Opole Recommendations

'The Opole Recommendations' is a significant policy document resulting from the in-depth exchanges during the European Theatre Forum (ETF) 2023, the high-level event by the European Commission that took place from 11-13 May at JK Opole Theatre in Poland. READ

Videos

Plus Grand Que Moi

A sweet, jarring and uplifting monologue about the story of a (re)birth – a story that straddles myth, love, and a journey into the beautiful unknown… READ

Videos 2021

Patty Kim Hamilton - SEX PLAY

A video clip  with an excerpt of the play SEX PLAY by Patty Kim Hamilton selected by ETC Drama Committee 2021. READ

Videos 2021

Casper Vanderputte - Sweet Sixteen

A video clip with an excerpt of the play Sweet Sixteen by Casper Vanderputte   selected by ETC Drama Committee 2021. READ

Videos

Leeres Theater

Ensemble members stand alone on the stage of the Volkstheater. The grandstands are deserted, the corridors in the Volkstheater are deserted. A mash-up emerges from two texts: Hasti Molavian sings “Ich bin der Welt loser”, a poem by Friedrich Rückert in Gustav Mahler's setting from 1901; Uwe Schmieder speaks the text "Empty Theater" by Heiner Müller from 1994. Has the world's theater been lost? Are we lost in the world? Where and how do we look further? READ

Tools 2021

White Paper Youth Theatre Casebook

Ideas and recommendations on youth theatre for publicly funded theatres, policymakers and funders at the local, national and European level. READ

Journal 2019

ETC Journal 2019/20

The 2019/20 edition of ETC annual theatre magazine includes articles about the work needed inside and outside of theatres to reach new audiences in a meaningful way. READ

Videos 2021

ETC International Theatre Conference – Launch of TRANFORMATIONS

The video presentation and launch of ETC's new 3-year network programme. recorded the ETC International Theatre Conference in partnership with Teatru Malta, Autumn 2021. READ

Videos

The Nightmare of History

Théâtre de Liège has partnered with The Karyatides on the Renaissance project - a company whose performances are open to every age group. Based on literary classics, the Karyatides develop a theatre of figures, combining puppetry, object theatre and music. They play with the commonplace, the cliché, provoking quirkiness from which poetry flows. READ

Videos

Renaissance

Dancing in a vacant, gilded theatre hall, performers' hearts beat faster. Where does the body of a performer belong? Longing for an observer, hearts beat faster and faster and faster and faster. READ

Videos

Confession

We testify in the most important moments of our lives. We make statements at our workplace, we confess when voting, we confess to our parents, our friends, the doctor... to everybody. And of course to our love. It is worth learning from the greatest master of the Renaissance how to confess! READ

Videos

Renaissance (Ukraine)

Today we should learn to be closer again in spite of physical distance, to hear and to be heard. We need to come back to the beginning, where there is no fear. We must eventually become happy. READ

Tools 2021

White Paper Diversity Casebook

Ideas and recommendations on Gender Equality & Diversity in European Theatres for publicly funded theatres, policymakers and funders at the local, national and European level. READ

Videos

The Possibilities of Inhaled Air

Our breath is taken away. By a disease, by lockdown, by renovation. We can no longer share the same air, as we are afraid of it. Theatre is devasted, but there’s always hope. We just need to await the return, await the long-lost meeting and when it’s there: just dive into all possibilities, giving us the air we breathe together. READ

Videos

Renaissance

Renaissance / rebirth is a process of transformation, which is not only natural, but also a necessary part of a human life. We asked established Slovak playwright and translator Peter Lomnicky to share his view on the topic. READ

Videos

Renaissance

We are currently facing a period of darkness. Our ecosystem has been disrupted; a virus, a simple virus, has driven the hubris of capital (and whoever worships it, albeit against their will) to its knees. A multitude of different issues has come to a head. What world is this when culture is not recognised as a remedy for the soul, just as medicine is for the body? READ

Videos 18 SEPTEMBER 2025

Online Talk - Script Secrets II: Playwrights Share Their Stories

The second edition of Script Secrets, ETC’s online talk series that opens a window into the minds of some of today’s most exciting European playwrights. Featuring: Darling, Svenja Viola Bungarten (2025) -Deutsches Theater Berlin (Germany/Berlin) who run for happiness, Jaka Smerkolj Simoneti (2024) -Prešernovo Gledališče Kranj (Slovenia/Kranj) In Search of Lost Language, Goran Vojnovic (2024) -Slovensko Narodno Gledalisce Nova Gorica (Slovenia/Nova Gorica) READ

Tools 2018

White Paper Digital Theatre Casebook:

Suggestions and recommendations on digital theatre for publicly funded theatres, policymakers and funders at the local, national and European level READ