The Legend of Europa

  Cre-Actors comes to an end! Words from the project participants, waiting for future adventures to come And so, as every beautiful journey, our Cre-Actors’ project has almost come to its end. The incredible richness not only of the processes and practices shared, but of the participants met and of the partners involved is present and told: first of all in our beautiful ebook (which you can read here https://issuu.com/border-crossings/docs/cre-actors_e-book ); then in the Cre-Actors blog ( https://cre-actors.blogspot.com/ ) and Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/creactorserasmusplus ); and finally on the websites and social media of all the partners. But the way we want to tell you goodbye is through some of the reflections and impressions given at the end of the process by all the participants in their reports and comments (starting from myself): the diversity of perspectives, ideas, backgrounds of this small but great community is what made the process and the project s...

  The Cre-Actors’ e-book is online! After the launch of November 3rd, Cre-Actors’ e-book is online! The e-book explores how devised theatre can and should be made in an ever more intercultural Europe. As well as being a handbook for devising, it also includes responses to workshops and performances, debates and controversies, and an interview with Ariane Mnouchkine. Cre-Actors: Training Intercultural Theatre-Makers for a Diverse Europe E-book edited by Jonathan Meth (The Fence) and Michael Walling (Border Crossings) Co-ordinating Organisation: Border Crossing (Ireland - www.bordercrossings.ie ) Partner Organisations: Teatro dell’Argine (Italy - www.teatrodellargine.org ), Théâtre du Soleil (France - https://theatre-du-soleil.fr/fr/ ), The Fence (Sweden - http://the-fence.net/ ) Associated Partners: Blue Raincoat Company (Ireland), Cantieri Meticci APS (Italy), Kabosh Theatre Company (Northern Ireland), Tallaght Community Arts (Ireland), Riksteatern (Sweden) To watch the presentatio...

The Cre-Actors’ ebook is ready! Online launch on November 3rd at 19.00 (CET) “We only know who we are in exchange with others.” (Hannah Arendt) After two years of project, 3 training courses, 5 transnational gatherings of the team leaders, and many more online meetings, CRE-ACTORS’ arrives to its final and maybe most important output: the ebook collecting practices, processes and methodologies of theatre creation in intercultural contexts, that have been shared by the partner companies Théâtre du Soleil (France), Border Crossings (Ireland), Teatro dell’Argine (Italy), with the help and under the look of The Fence (Sweden) network! The first thought, when you come almost to the end of an important and meaningful project, is going back to its beginning. And our beginning was right during the first Covid-19 rush. As Michael Walling writes in the ebook’s Introduction: “When we first planned our two-year collaboration it was early 2020, and it seemed almost impossible that what we were sugge...

Cre-Actors: working on the ebook The crack Cre-Actors team of 8 drawn from across the 4 partner countries met over 2 days in Stockholm; just as the temperature of the water began to divide the Northern Europeans from their Southern cousins when it came to swimming in one of the glorious lakes which lie 20 minutes from the centre of Sweden’s capital. We came together to mull over plans for the e-book which will serve as the key resource emerging from our Cre-Actors project. This will be a lively, visual, aural and narrative journey for all those interested in how to work collaboratively, interculturally to make theatre across languages, cultures, different organisational shapes and national contexts. As well as the e-book we were also delighted to learn about our Swedish hosts Riksteatern, from Dritëro Kasapi (Artistic Director) and Pratik Virhani (Co-ordinator of International relations). Founded in 1933, Riksteatern is the national touring company covering theatre, dance, ballet, youn...

Done!   The third stage of our meetings and work sessions is accomplished! It took place in Dublin, or rather in Tallaght, from July 25 to 29. During this scorching period, the Irish freshness was very soothing. And the joyful atmosphere, with no other concern than that of research and discovery carried out among friends, of the quest for theatre… such a volatile art! We brought together around twenty participants, around the three companies (Border Crossings, Teatro dell'Argine, Théâtre du Soleil) and The Fence dramaturgs. And the newcomers also reflected the face of the Ireland of the future: We had with us, in addition to the usual teams, Irish actors or dancers from Argentina, Brazil,  from Moldova... or from Kerry! What richness, these different experiences!  We knew it, but it was confirmed once again: there is no unity without diversity! As Michael Walling had announced, the question of language very quickly became central to the work: How do you convey a stor...

Tallaght is a suburb of Dublin, to the South of the city.  A bit like the areas of Bologna where Teatro dell’Argine and Cantieri Meticci operate, this is a culturally rich but cash poor, multicultural and multilingual space, an ideal location for the Irish leg of the CRE-ACTORS project. In a generation or so, much of Ireland will probably look like Tallaght. This year alone, with the government’s positive response to the arrival of refugees from Ukraine, there has been a significant demographic shift in the country.  As elsewhere in Europe, theatre and culture need to encompass this increasing diversity. It’s quite daunting to lead the last of the three CRE-ACTORS training workshops. So much has already been achieved under the remarkable leadership of the Théâtre du Soleil and Teatro dell’Argine teams. There would be no point in pretending we’re starting from nothing again. So, rather than simple “sharing our methods”, we are going to attempt to build on what has been learnt s...

Blog post responding to Bologna training On the first morning of our wonderful, inspiring week in Bologna, we were all asked to say what theatre meant for us. Ida Strizzi, from our host organisation Teatro dell’Argine, responded that theatre for her was “giving people another point of view”. For the rest of the week, and since, I’ve been using this idea as a way of thinking through and developing what we are trying to achieve in the CRE-ACTORS project and beyond.  On one level, Ida’s idea can be literal. On the second day, we were working with the challenge that our stage was limited to the top of a white stool, with everything around it considered invisible. In one glorious moment, Xevi Ribas walked his fingers across the stool as a man moving towards a tree, and the stool then rose up and was held behind his face so that we could see him bite into the apple he had picked. It was like a wide shot cutting to a close-up, but achieved with the simplest of theatrical means (which are,...

The second Cre-Actors’ training course in Bologna! An important step is approaching for the Cre-Actors project: the training course held by the Italian partners of Teatro dell’Argine in Bologna. The course will run from May 26 th to May 30 th and will involve a large group of people both locally and from the partners’ countries, Sweden, Ireland and France. In order to make the most of these 5 days, all the participants have been asked to watch and read some materials about the artistic production of the Bolognese company: videos of theatre pieces, documentaries on special projects, dossiers and descriptions about artistic creations with intercultural groups and/or in intercultural contexts. Find out more by reading the Theatre-Love Letter to the Cre-Actors and the programme below, containing detailed info on the planned process. And follow us on this blog and on our Facebook page! A Theatre-Love Letter to the Cre-Actors Dear Cre-Actors, first of all… Be welcome, bienvenu(e)s, välkom...

  The 1 st training course of the Cre-Actors' project in Paris After months of stops and closures, after several virtual meetings, after so many postponements due to the still ongoing pandemic situation, on July 26 th to 30 th 2021, the Cre-Actors crew finally convened to exchange and work in person at the same time in the same place. “ At the same time in the same place”: this is really the true specific magic of theatre, as of many rituals, be them religious or secular, providing that people gather not only to “assist” in something acted by other people, but really to live an experience together hic et nunc (here and now). And what a place to start! Our first training course was held at the Théâtre du Soleil in Paris, and precisely on the stage that was hosting the scenery (and the spirit) of the new production directed by Ariane Mnouchkine, having Dominique Jambert and Vincent Mangado as wise, skilful and smiling guides, and a crew of 18 Cre-Actors from many different place...

The first CRE-ACTORS workshop in Paris is approaching! It will take place from 26th to 31st July at the Théâtre du Soleil and it will be led by Dominique Jambert and Vincent Mangado , both of whom have been members of the Soleil Ensemble for more than twenty years. They will be leading the partecipants through an exploration of the intercultural devising techniques used by the Théâtre du Soleil. This training involves teams from project's partners - Teatro dell’Argine (Italy) and Border Crossings (Ireland) - and  other actors from the Théâtre du Soleil (France). «Nearly the first week of meeting(s) on stage. How are we going to understand one another?  What language(s) will we speak? French, English, Italian, Swedish? But also Persian, Spanish, Catalan, Gaelic, Occitan?  All of them perhaps, but especially that of theatre of course! Yes, theatre can be a universal language... but not quite its text, then? ...the body! Yes, when the body expresses itself, it can be un...

After a very long wait, the core team for Cre-Actors was finally able to meet over the weekend, at the Cartoucherie in Paris: home to our French partner, the Théâtre du Soleil.  The simple experience of walking into a theatre space after so long was powerful enough in itself: and at the Cartoucherie we had the joy of not one theatre but many, with one of them - Théâtre de l’Aquarium - offering the first, incredibly accomplished live performance that most of us had seen for well over a year.  But the Théâtre du Soleil’s space at the Cartoucherie is even more than a performance space: it is a space of intense, profound holiness.    When I say “holy”, I don’t simply mean “religious” or even “spiritual”, certainly not in any doctrinaire way.  Rather, I am recognising the power of this theatre’s engagement with the most vital questions in our lives, its status as a place of contemplation, rigour and pilgrimage, its function as something distinct from the mundane, som...

The first live meeting of CRE-ACTORS is approaching at last, to start the discussion and the planning of the training courses led by the four partners! On July 3rd and 4th 2021 , Théâtre du Soleil (France), Border Crossings (Ireland), Teatro dell'Argine (Italy) and The Fence (Sweden) are meeting in Paris to plan the training which will be held by the French partners from July 24th to 30th in the beautiful theatre La Cartoucherie . An important occasion that responds to the need to share and disseminate good practices between organizations expert in contemporary theater engaged with social and cultural diversity, collective creation and with an international vocation. The three training courses will be led by Théâtre du Soleil, Border Crossing and Teatro dell’Argine in the respective countries, with The Fence as coordinator of the discussion and evaluation processes. Each of them will involve 17 network professionals and include at least 10 other participants from the loca...

   ph. John Cobb Border Crossings (Ireland) is a new theatre company based in (or, perhaps more accurately, “based out of”) Sligo: a small town on the Atlantic Coast, with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants.   5.5% of the population forms the significant Polish minority, and 4.1% are described by the census as “people from countries outside the EU”.   The census statistics date from 2016, so the latter figure does not yet include British people. It’s not the sort of place that is usually associated with intercultural theatre: that tends to be the preserve of large cosmopolitan cities with histories of migration and complex populations.   But Sligo is surprising.   As you walk from the centre to the railway station, you pass a bust, given by the Indian Embassy in 2015, which portrays the Bengali playwright, poet, painter and educator Rabindranath Tagore.     Tagore is celebrated in Sligo because of his friendship with W.B. Yeats, who throughout his pe...