Theatre festival’s energy is spreading over European universities in 2010

Applications extended to 5 February for European Universities Theatre Festival that will bring the energy of theatre to Istanbul the 2010 European Capital of Culture by gathering young members of the theatre community from all over Turkey and Europe to enable artistic cooperation and cultural interactions.

Deadline for application to "European Universities Theatre Festival” is extended until Friday, February 5 due to insistent demands from all university theater groups, theatre departments and conservatories. Information about the festival and application form can be reached at http://www.istanbul2010.org. Organization team can be contacted through senlik@istanbul2010.org for further information and applications.

As one of the main projects of Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture program, the European Universities Theatre Festival will be held on 2-16 May 2010.

The theatre festival organized in 2008 as the “Istanbul Universities Theatre festival” with the participation of 22 university theatre groups and held on 12 different university stages. As for 2009, the festival turned out to be the “Turkish Universities Theatre Festival” and hosted 15 groups from Istanbul and 27 groups from Anatolia that staged a total of 42 performances at 10 different venues in Istanbul. Now the festival becomes the “European Universities Theatre Festival” where various university theatre groups from Europe and Turkey will convene in Istanbul to spread the festival energy in different districts of Istanbul along 15 days. Workshops, seminars and post-play discussions to be realized within the festival will make an innovative and original platform for artistic and cultural interaction. Bringing young talents from all over Europe, the festival will also provide a useful basis for discussions on theatre.

Furthermore various panels will be held during the “International Theater Education Symposium” which will be organized simultaneously with the festival, for the participation of education professionals and theatre specialists from Turkey and Europe in order to discuss new developments in theatre education and the role of theatre in education.

Festival is aimed to constitute a bridge for artistic cooperation among European universities to give way to joint productions and workshops. It is also targeted that the “European Universities Theatre Festival” will get to be permanent as to continue internationally even after 2010.