“Fabulamundi. Playwriting Europe” is a cooperation projects among theatres, festivals and cultural organizations in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and Romania.
“Fabulamundi. Playwriting Europe” has been funded twice with support of the European Commission: “Culture Program 2007 – 2013” and “Creative Europe 2014 – 2020”.
The network aims to be a platform of support and promotion of the contemporary playwriting across Europe, in order to reinforce and enhance the activities and strategies of the professionals and artists working in the sector and to provide the theatre authors with opportunities of networking, multicultural encounter and professional development.
After the Fabulamundi pilot edition on autumn 2012 and the first cycle of the European cooperation project 2013-2014 (The dangerous opportunity), the Fabulamundi network confirms its interest in continuing the collaboration for the improvement and the support of the contemporary dramaturgy.
This second edition of Fabulamundi is organized around the theme “Crossing generations” that marks not only the contents of the project but it comes as a cornerstone of the creative activities and the audiences involved. Young and ageing are potential targets for us not only to be involved in the activities but also as a wealth of stories and experiences that can instead feed the imagination of the writers.
“Fabulamundi. Playwriting Europe – Crossing generations” foresees the following activities:
- Translation and circulation of plays
- Online catalogue about authors with biographies, synopsis, list of the existing translations
- Publication of the translated texts in three languages (e-books, or books)
- Artistic residences
- Masterclasses or workshops on playwriting
- Conversations and encounter with the authors organised in collaboration with high schools, universities or third age centres
- Journal of the project made by the authors involved in the activities
- Partners meetings and peer learning sessions focused on the exchange of best practices and methods of co-production and promotion of contemporary theatre
Fabulamundi. Playwriting Europe – Crossing Generations is organized by PAV (project leader – Italy) and La Mousson d’étè (France), Théâtre Ouvert (France), Interkulturelles Theaterzentrum Berlin (Germany), Theater an der Parkaue (Germany), Short Theatre (Italy), Teatro I (Italy), Teatrul Național Târgu-Mureș (Romania), Teatrul Odeon (Romania), Sala Beckett/Obrador Internacional de Dramatúrgia (Spain). For more information about our partners click here.
HOW IT WORKS
- How Writers and Texts are selected from the five partner countries
Regular monitoring allows each partner country to map and choose authors to promote abroad, at the same time identifying a selection of scripts and related texts compliant with requirements common to all countries. To ensure a uniformity in the quality of choices, authors must be living and their works already published or otherwise publicly presented. Another requirement for said work is of having won a prize or award or having already been translated into foreign languages. Once the choices by individual partners are made, the names of those selected authors will be put into a dossier shared with all the project members.
Reading committees will be established in each country, helping to translate the chosen texts and representing in situ the work of artist groups. In order to respect each partner countries cultural, theatrical and dramatic sensibilities, as well as their educational practices and audiences, independence in choosing writers and scripts by project partners is fundamental.
After this preliminary stage, comes a second round of scouting for the artistic team to fulfill the work’s staging. Chosen from the pool of academies and theatre schools aligned to the network, young actors and directors will have the chance to work on selected texts. To get an idea of the number of artists involved in the Fabulamundi project so far, consider that in previous years a total of 70 authors from different countries were selected and a further 120 actors and directors, some well-known and the rest from from theater schools and national academies, were involved in staging the plays.
- The role of young artists in the project
The young artists, be they playwrights, actors, directors or translators, are the project’s driving force. Supporting and promoting contemporary drama not only means introducing authors already established in their own country to other countries, but being predisposed to discovering and supporting young playwrights, giving them the possibility to increase their capacities by encounters with artists and audiences from different cultures. The selection of texts by the project’s five partner countries foresees a co-existence between established authors and those emerging, giving everyone the chance to become part of a common body of work and thus see their work presented abroad. The playwrights are asked to work closely with both renowned actors and directors as well as those just emerging from theater schools and academies. In fact, this formula, already worked out in previous years, ensures that young actors are directed by established directors and emerging directors work with important actors, inevitably creating a fruitful exchange of experiences and points of view. The actors’ involvement in the staging of texts, in meetings with the public and in residencies, gives them not only greater visibility but also the opportunity to examine in depth the issues at hand. The young artists are involved in various capacities throughout the busy program of master classes and workshops that authors and artistic teams hold during residencies as well as immediately after the staging of scripts.