This is the mandate given in our Constitution. This is our competence. This is where we can make a difference to children and young people together with the thousands of artists around the world in our membership.

The Constitution of ASSITEJ tells us that we will “support no action that intentionally harms children physically, sexually, emotionally, psychologically or culturally in any context.” In the last four weeks, children and young people have suffered and died in Israel and Gaza. Some of our members are witnessing this first-hand and have relatives and friends who have lost their lives.

We take the side of children and urgently appeal for all actions that are harming children and their families to stop. We appeal for the release of all hostages and beg for a dialogue toward peace.

The power we have as a global community of artists in the present moment is in our art – a power we can use to heal and to hold and remind us all of the need for empathy, compassion, humanity.

-The Executive Committee of ASSITEJ International

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The provocation of Turning Point is about change and the liminal moment this offers. It is a focus on a shift in the world that needs addressing as practitioners, as makers of theatre and performance and as people who serve a young audience. The world is a difficult place to make sense of sometimes, and for all of us, not just the young, it can be utterly overwhelming. We are looking at the appalling effects of war on children and young people, the effects of climate crisis on us all, the inequity and injustice that stops people being able to live their lives, the selfishness and racism that denies people their human rights. What is it we can do, within our own contexts, to make the future possible?

We are theatre and performance makers who make work for, with, by and about children and young people and our task, our purpose, is embedded in the social, economic and political fabric of young people’s lives. It is through our practice as artists that we can take the steps to create a turning point for many, including ourselves. The power we have to tell stories that show and interpret complex situations is vital. We have a deep and nuanced language to play with that spans so many art forms and ways of being – emotional, physical, visual, sensory as well as words.   We are in the business of empathy, of wonder and curiosity, humanity and compassion, of protest and contributing to change.

We thrive through connection and sharing with others. Our work is public facing, is outward and inclusive. We need to feel, stronger than ever, that our community and our association is holding us in what we aim to achieve – unity for our practitioners around the world and the promotion of theatre and performance for, with, by and about children and young people.  We can gather together, share stories, enjoy the connection when we can in person and we can engage online, read what others have discovered, experienced and shared, feel for people in extremis and do what we can, connecting locally, nationally, globally.

We know what we can do through our art: the energy of young voices, perspectives and opinions given space and place; the disempowered heard and seen; and not least, delight, wonder and possibility returned to an increasingly uncertain world.

Sue Giles

President, ASSITEJ International

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The Orto degli Ananassi company of Livorno, opens the call for the 5th Edition of Con-Fusione Festival. The Festival will be held in Livorno (Tuscany, Italy) from 7 to 15 of September 2024. Companies who wish to participate to Con-fusione Festival 2024, may apply by filling out the application form on this link https://forms.gle/hUUVxgRz5G4HdaSL8 and read the terms and conditions carefully. The deadline for submitting the application is December 22th, 2023

For any question send an email at direzione.ortodegliananassi@gmail.com

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Local and foreign theatrical troupes are encouraged to apply by visiting the official link below. Please note that requests will
not be accepted after 2023/11/30

More information

Deadline: 30 November 2023

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Choose between 170 different productions in 6 days!

Get the chance to meet colleagues from all over the world – Aprilfestival is an international hub welcoming around 100 international guests every year.

ASSITEJ Denmark can support a number of visitors: apply to become a sponsored delegate here!

Other visitors can purchase a delegate package, including accommodation and tickets.

Esbjerg, Denmark

 15 – 21 April 2024

Deadline: 1 December 2023

More information

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This year, elPetit Festival programme includes four absolute premieres and 17 companies from Sweden, Holland, England, Portugal, France, Germany, Spain and Catalonia. Hope to see you all!

Spain

 11 – 26 November 2023

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PRO Circuit Program>

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The festival will have one international performance, Look Mum, No Hands! , a co-production between Daryl & Co and Mimbre from Great Britain. This is a tender tale of friendship and growing up and is written by one of the performers who is disabled and uses a wheelchair.

The UNGI festival will also have Icelandic performances staged in the last two years and offers workshops and seminars.

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The ‘Next Generation’ Programme, entitled LAB SAHASA, was facilitated by Luxembourgish choreographer Jill Crovisier, with two young dancers representing each one of the participating countries. The Programme consisted of a series of workshops, which led to a final presentation on the final evening. The ‘Next Generation’ Programme participants, as well as the delegates, also had the opportunity to watch the production SAHASA, choreographed by Crovisier.

The Small Countries Network meeting was attended by representatives from ASSITEJ Luxembourg, ASSITEJ Cyprus, ASSITEJ Iceland, ASSITEJ Liechtenstein and Bradipoteatar San Marino. The delegates had a series of discussions regarding the future of the Network, their respective National Centres, as well as the challenges and opportunities that arise in relation to the performing arts for young audiences in the small states of Europe. A series of visits to cultural organizations was also included in the 4-day programme.

The delegates also had the opportunity to have a meeting with the Minister of Culture of Liechtenstein, Mr. Manuel Frick, during which they presented ASSITEJ and the Small Countries Network, as well as their respective National Centres. The discussion was centred around the right of the child to participate in cultural life, the work of ASSITEJ, as well as cultural policy in the small states of Europe, especially in regard to the performing arts for young audiences.

The ASSITEJ Small Countries Network was founded in 2021, aiming at bringing together ASSITEJ National Centres and corresponding members from countries with a population of less than 1,000,000 inhabitants, which face the same challenges and opportunities. The Network was modelled after the concept of the Games of the Small States of Europe, organized by the International Olympic Committee, as well as a similar Network in the International Committee of the Red Cross. Members of the ASSITEJ family around the world will have the opportunity to learn more about the Network and its activities during the hybrid SMALL TALK event, at the ASSITEJ Artistic Gathering in Serbia.

The next Small Countries Network meeting and ‘Next Generation’ Programme will be hosted by ASSITEJ Cyprus, in 2024.

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From 26 – 31 October, more than 40 artists and management professionals from the national and international scene gathered in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, to participate in the III Jornadas de Teatro Infancias y Juventudes THT, an artistic and reflection meeting organised by the Mexican company Tijuana Hace Teatro in co-production with the Centro Cultural Tijuana, which brought together around 1000 children, young people and adults in its different activities.

The Centro Cultural Tijuana was the venue for the event and a couple of activities were added at Teatro Las Tablas and the Faculty of Arts of the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California to offer a national and international programme through 5 stagings, 5 workshops, 4 conferences, 3 dialogue tables, 3 editorial presentations, 2 artistic encounters and 1 dramatised reading, whose axes discussed artistic creation, cultural policies, mediation and sustainability in theatre for children and young people.

At the same time, the II Meeting of the Ibero-American Network of Performing Arts for Children and Youth ASSITEJ was held, with members from Argentina, Chile, Spain, Uruguay and Mexico, who had a work agenda where they discussed some challenges of the Ibero-American sector in order to continue strengthening their organisation and the work plan towards the next World Congress of ASSITEJ in Cuba to be held in May 2024. In addition, they exchanged with Mexican artists dialogues from different geographies to discuss the state and the tasks currently faced in the performing arts for children and youth.

In the artistic field, the companies Flores TeatroDanza, Teatro en Resistencia, LUNIA Teatro and Tijuana Hace Teatro (Mexico), as well as Peloponeso Teatro and Mon Teatro (Spain) participated. Other artists and managers also shared workshops and conferences; from Spain were Nieves Rodríguez Rodríguez, Virgínia Seguí and Débora Marquès (Triadart); as well as Maribel Carrasco, Bertha Denton, Nadxeli Yrízar Carrillo, Humberto Pérez Mortera, Itamar Dominguez, Nataly Proo, Denizza Flores and Pablo Edén Tejeda from Mexico.

María Inés Falconi (Argentina), Myriam Caprile (Uruguay), Inés Bascuñán Pérez (Chile), Eulàlia Ribera, Marta Torres and Gonzalo Moreno (Spain) participated as part of the Ibero-American Network; Marissa Garay, Anelvi Rivera and Ramón Verdugo (Mexico), who also took part in various dialogue and dissemination activities, including the work of ASSITEJ International, the Ibero-American Network of Performing Arts for Children and Youth, the Red Miradas Mexico, the National Theatre Coordination; as well as the platforms Next Generation, the Foro Internacional de Investigadores y Críticos de Artes Escénicas para la Infancia y la Juventud (Argentina), Festival Poéticas Jóvenes (Mexico), the Editorial Collection of ASSITEJ Spain, as well as the Mexican publishers Paso de Gato and Editorial de la Casa.

In this way, an Ibero-American meeting space was created between artists, researchers and managers working in the field of Theatre of/for Children and Young People, which made it possible to connect new lines of work and generate new bridges that aim to continue strengthening the territory of Ibero-America.

With this meeting, the company Tijuana Hace Teatro and the Centro Cultural Tijuana are committed to stimulating the exchange of artistic experiences and generating spaces for reflection whose target audience are not only the artists involved, but also other agents that form part of the fabric of theatre, such as managers, teachers, young students and, of course, families who can enjoy the activities.

The IV Jornadas de Teatro Infancias y Juventudes THT is already underway and is expected to take place in August 2024.

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