Theatre Academy – Bridging borders through performing arts

During the last week of August, Intercult hosted the Theatre Academy, a 3-day performing arts seminar in collaboration with Stockholm Fringe Festival 2024, as a part of the Creative Europe project Theatre in Palm (TIP). Guests were able to attend workshops, seminars, panel discussions and  performances, proposed by experienced practitioners from all across Europe.

Photos in this text are taken by Theatre in Palm artists and partners.

The day before the Academy started, artists and TIP partners joined us from 11 European countries for a meet and greet at the Intercult office, the occasion for us to warmly welcome them to Stockholm. and present the Academy program. It was very special to finally meet everyone after months of planning this event.

Everyone was then invited to the opening ceremony of the Stockholm Fringe Festival (STOFF2024) where we got to celebrate in the amazing venue “kollektivet livet” with a beautiful view over Stockholm. Some previews from the festival were also shown, such as a glimpse from “Inter Relatio” brought to the festival by our Spanish partner organisation Espronceda Institute of Art & Culture.

The first Day the Academy was set for a good start at Giljotin with a first workshop on how to create a piece from scratch in 3 hours led by Minna Haapasalo (Turku UAS, Finland). Everyone got very creative and some great collaborations emerged! In the afternoon Fabio Banfo (MaMiMò, Fondazione E35, Italy), presented a commedia dell’arte laboratory workshop, where the participants learned a lot about the history with passionate teachers, and discovered the significance and physicality of each mask and got to experiment with them.

At Konträr the Academy started with a very dynamic acting workshop by Suresh Nampuri, (JÁ International Theatre, Portugal) on how to extract the motive of the emotional movement and their cues from the text of different playwrights. The participants were very active and engaged fully in the workshop.

The second day started at Konträr with a workshop called “When is it Physical” by the mime actor Adam Stålhammar (Sweden), exploring the transition into physical performing arts. The participants got to learn more about the Brosowski technique, the primary mime technique at Stockholm University of the Arts.

At Giljotin, Karolina Spaic (ZID Theater, Netherlands) guided the participants in her workshop through the process of creating a solo performance that is based on the autobiographical material of the performer, to become universal and communicate with the audience. It stimulated the participants’ idea process and motivated them to start creating their own performance!. The afternoon workshop-seminar invited participants to discuss Contemporary Theatre and  write Performing Arts Criticism, with the guidance of Andriana-Anna Tsiotsiou (CUBE, Greece).The workshop was really useful to learn about criticism and how the reality of that field takes part in the theatrical scheme in different cultures.

This was followed by a panel discussion entitled  “Developing Theatre Criticism in Europe – what conditions and possibilities are there?” moderated by the Swedish critic and dramaturge Sandra Grehn, with panelists from 4 different countries and with various experience of theatre criticism: Andriana-Anna Tsiotsiou, Dramaturg and Theatre Critic, member of the National Union of Theatre and Performing Arts Critics, Thessaloniki (Greece), George Lizos, Emerging actor from Cyprus, studied the Geographies of Theatre (Cyprus), Suresh Nampuri – Playwright, actor, director and president of JÁ International Theatre in Lisbon (Portugal) and Ylva Lagercrantz Spindler, Cultural journalist, Author and Theatre critic (Sweden). The panel discussion was also live streamed, and provided a international perspective, with various point of view from different countries

That very same evening at Giljotin, the artists who participated in the TIP residency during the two preceding weeks, got to present their work “Anoxic Meditation”. It was also a great opportunity to mingle and make intercultural connections before and after in Teater Giljotin’s cosy foyer. Read more about the performance here.

The last day of the academy started with a workshop entitled “Dancing with elements. Chapter: Earth and mycelium network”” led by Elena Stamatopoulou (CUBE, Greece) at Giljotin, that integrates theatrical tools, energy practices, Chinese medicine basics, and meditation. A workshop not only useful for the work of performing artists but for humans in everyday life as well!

For the last workshop at Giljotin, Tana Maneva (Teater Giljotin, Sweden) gave an introduction to Butoh and the Ankoku Subbody Method – a hybrid of Butoh, theatre and dance. The method helps artists to develop, to find their inner voice and create depth, quality, beauty and authenticity. A very special and intense workshop!

At Konträr the participants of Agnes Török and Charlie Prag’s workshop (Sweden) got an introduction to generative AI and how you can use it as a part of your artistic work. This workshop included using  AI in various stages of idea generation, research work, feedback processes, and prototyping. A very appreciated session where the participants had the chance to work together in groups of people from different sectors of performing arts.

This was followed by a seminar questioning “How can the performing arts sector become more sustainable?” led by  Annika Bromberg and Petra Weckström (Hållbart Kulturliv Nu, Sweden), that gave us a lot of food for thoughts.

In the evening we got to say goodbye to everyone during a last mingle at Intercult’s office.

During the Academy we also got to see some amazing TIP Partner’s performances as part of STOFF 2024:Inter Relatio by Ángeles Císcar – Colectivo Parapente, Espronceda Institute of Art & Culture, Spain; Not Only One by Nivin Baranbo ZID Theater, Netherlands; Emerged by Hamm Broductions, THOC Cyprus Theatre Organisation, Cyprus.

Intercult also presented their Theatre Roadshow 1974 in collaboration with Konträr.

Quotes from Academy participants:

”The workshop series was very well thought-out and executed. A varied and exciting mix of teachers and teachings, it was extremely enriching to me as an actor. Hoping for another round in the future!” – Leon Brander, actor, Sweden

”Intense. I learned a lot and actually a lot that I can incorporate into my own work only after this one session. Brilliant teachers” – Workshop participant

“Theatre Academy was for me as a mentor, educator and artist, beautiful meetings with colleagues from around Europe and experiences of multiple ways to approach performing art. It was a series of brilliantly coordinated and facilitated cocreations. The event, as a whole, embodied the power and deep value of culture and arts in our European societies.” – Minna Haapasalo, Senior Lecturer of theatre, Arts Academy of Turku University of Applies Sciences, Finland

”The workshops gave me new perspectives on European theatre, acting and pedagogies. I received new, coherent and effective tools to work on as an actress and a lecturer. Last but not least, it was such a pleasure to work on theatre with other artists from all over the world.” – Sara Celler- Jezierska, actress, Poland