Hello!
About
What We Do
What We Do
We connect theatres in Europe.
ETC is the largest network of publicly-funded theatres in Europe, with over 80 members in more than 30 countries.
Founded in 1988, we organise a wide range of activities for:
- Artistic Collaboration: Creating brilliant theatre across borders
- Professional Development: Supporting and developing theatre professionals
- Theatre Advocacy: Representing theatre in national and European contexts.
ETC activities are open to member theatres and artists across Europe. They have won numerous awards, including the Art Explora-Academie des Beaux Artes award; a “Spotlight on Heritage in Culture and the Arts”, and have been designated a European Union “Success Story”.
Discover:
ETC Values EU-funded Projects:
ETC Values
Reflecting the best of Europe
ETC firmly believes that European Theatre reflects the best of our continent: diverse, sustainable, multi-lingual, cross-border.
European Theatre brings our social, linguistic and cultural heritage to audiences and communities around the world.
ETC’s vision for European Theatre is set out in the documents ETC Vision 2030, the ETC Sustainable Action Code, and the ETC Code of Conduct.
EU-funded Projects
European Theatre: BREAK THE MOULD
ETC’s core activities as a European network are co-funded by the European Union and our members. The current EU project European Theatre: BREAK THE MOULD, runs from 2024-2028 and consists of five key programmes:
ETC’s Digital Theatre Programme:Experimentation with new technologies. Includes a digital consultancy, retreats and workshops with the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund
ETC’s Sustainable Theatre Programme: Growing towards net zero with the ETC Theatre Green Book. Includes webinars, mentoring, and the self-certification proces
ETC’s Next Theatre Generation Programme: A path for young artists into European Theatre. Includes the Fast Forward Festival Forum, TRANSMISSION, and the annual European Theatre Academy at the Festival d’Avignon
ETC’s Diversity in Theatre Programme: Putting inclusion and empathy at the heart of artistic creation. Includes the award-winning Young Europe project
ETC’s European Theatre Programme. The voice for European Theatre in EU policy making. Includes the European Theatre Talks; ETC Roadshow; and the Resistance Now! Together campaign for a European Artistic Freedom Act (EAFA)
TRUST — TRUth on STage
Stories. Journalism. Theatre.
TRUST — TRUth on STage: Stories, Journalism, Theatre is a groundbreaking European collaboration exploring what happens when journalism and theatre meet on stage.
Across Europe, artists and journalists are joining forces to investigate urgent stories and transform them into powerful live performances that invite audiences to think, question, and engage.
Led by the European Theatre Convention and Schauspiel Köln, TRUST brings together ten leading European theatre institutions to experiment with a new artistic form: journalistic theatre — a genre where investigative research meets the emotional power of performance.
At a time of misinformation and growing social polarisation, TRUST explores how theatre can become a place where facts, stories, and collective reflection come together. Aiming to develop a replicable model for journalistic theatre, the project is founded on the conviction that theatre can become a powerful space for public dialogue and democratic debate.
Follow TRUST on Instagram: @trust_truthonstage
TRUST is co-funded by the European Union.
DoSEL - Drama of Smaller European Languages
The Drama of Smaller European Languages (DoSEL) is a European project that contributes to safeguarding cultural and linguistic diversity in Europe, specifically in the drama and theatre sectors.
It improves the conditions for transnational creation, translation, and performance of European drama written in smaller European languages to encourage their more frequent staging.
The DoSEL project is a collaboration between Prešeren Theatre Kranj/Slovenia (leader of the project), the National Agency for the Performing Arts/Malta, Arriaga Antzokia Theatre and Sala Beckett/ Spain, the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb/Croatia, the Estonian Theatre Agency/Estonia, the National Theatre of Kosovo/Kosovo, and Ivan Vazov National Theatre/Bulgaria.
A collection of 24 first translations of dramatic texts will be published by the end of the project. Texts, originally written in Albanian, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Estonian, Maltese, and Slovenian will be translated into a major European language (German, French, or English) and one other, smaller European language. These texts will also become a part of a collection of contemporary European drama, compiled and curated with the support of the European Theatre Convention (ETC) network.
Follow DoSEL on Instagram: @dosel_project
DoSEL is co-funded by the European Union.
Credit Photo: FCK LOLITA scènefoto HZT Sofie Knijff