Festivals

Multidisciplinary artist Ash Marinaccio sits down with the co-founder and artistic director of ASHTAR Theatre Iman Aoun to discuss this year’s ASHTAR International Youth Festival in Palestine.

verity healey describes the power and significance of independent theatre in Türkiye by sharing her experience at the theatre festival, TheatreIST.

Play House is a collectively stewarded performance space near the border of Detroit and Hamtramck that has become a place of convening and creation for the neighborhood. Richard Newman, a co-manager of the space and co-director of The Hinterlands ensemble, traces connections between creative practice, community, grief, and an outdoor ramp at Play House.

Producing artistic director Kellie Mecleary shares her experience participating in Vaba Lava Narva Theatre Centre’s first International Freedom Theatre Festival in Estonia.

Robert Hubbard sits down with Dr. Nicolette Bethel and Philip A. Burrows to discuss their creation of the annual Shakespeare in Paradise Festival in the Bahamas.

Noémi Herczog discusses the need for greater Roma visibility on stage and introduces Roma Heroes: Five European Dramas, a new collection that anthologizes plays from the Independent Theater Hungary’s Roma Heroes International Theater Festival.

Jonathan Mandell shares his experience at New York City’s first-ever official Puppet Week.

Carra Martinez, with thoughts from Justin Favela, Ty Defoe, Ron Berry, and Leyya Tawi, writes about how the future is a structurally minded labor of the everyday.

Jacob Juntunen shares how the MFA playwriting program at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale adapted their new play festival for the online world and how open-access software and streaming platforms helped students at the rural school transcend geography.

Marta Keil and Grzegorz Reske share letters from the past and the future, from June 2020 to June 2029, detailing the changes to the theatrical landscape in their hometown of Warsaw, Poland.

verity healey, who spent time in Kosovo for its Theatre Showcase last October, discusses the precarious nature of Kosovo’s independent theatre sector and shares her thoughts about the plays she saw while visiting.

Amelia Parenteau explores the most recent Seuls en Scène Festival, which took place in September 2020 on Zoom and had a programmatic mix of video recordings of live performance, “staged” readings, one making-of documentary, and a series of docutheatre work. / Amelia Parenteau explore la dernière édition du festival Seuls en Scène, qui a eu lieu en septembre 2020 sur Zoom et qui a présenté une programmation variée, avec des captations vidéo de performances, des lectures de pièces, un documentaire sur un processus de création et une série de docu-théâtres.

Michelle Yemayá notes that while Colombian theatre artists have found ways to face the unexpected changes this year, artists are still struggling to stay afloat. She talks about how she has adapted her practice under the circumstances and shares the stories of three other artists living and working as artists in Colombia right now. / Michelle Yemayá ha notado que, si bien los artistas del teatro colombiano han encontrado formas de enfrentar los cambios inesperados de este año, la lucha por mantenerse a flote es constante. Habla sobre cómo ha adaptado su práctica a las circunstancias y comparte las historias de otras tres personas que en este momento viven y trabajan como artistas en Colombia.

verity healey recaps the multidisciplinary arts festival Kunstfest, which took place in Weimar, Germany in late August and early September this year and tackled issues such as immigration, identity, COVID-19, and the environment.