Our Stage – New Forms of Participatory Theatre
23–26 May 2019
The practice and idea of turning citizens, users and audiences into active participants is on the rise in many fields of society. In the arts, social, dialogical, collaborative projects as well as new participatory repertoires are evolving. And many theatres feel the urge to link art to new and more democratic forms of communication and community involvement.
Our Stage introduced the idea of citizen theatre run as a professional inhouse production company and new form for creative community outreach via artistic collaboration to the wider sector. How can theatre become a mirror of a city's sociology? How can theatre be perceived as a real public space and how can we best put that into practice? Is it possible to create global-local co-productions in citizen theatre? The conference programme focused on these questions by sharing best practices and discussing different European formats of participatory theatre with artists and theatre directors.
Keynote speeches by international experts, interactive formats such as panel discussions and tables talks as well as a space for networking with peers and colleagues from all over Europe characterised the programme of the ETC International Theatre Conference and the Our Stage – 4th Bürgerbühnenfestival at Staatsschauspiel Dresden, Germany.
To learn more about it, read our full press release
Photo: Participatory theatre performance Die Stunde, Staatsschauspiel Dresden/Germany. ©Sebastian Hoppe
