The Convention Thꢴrale Europꦮne (European Theatrical Convention, ETC), formerly based in Saint-Etienne (France) and functioning as a network association, counts six new members. Held on the 22nd and 23rd of May in Dresden, Germany, the General Assembly of ETC, admitted six new members from Albania (1) – The National Theater of Albania), Israel (1) – the Cameri Theatre), Italy (1) – Slovenian Repertory Theater in Trieste), France (1) – Thꢴre de l’Est Parisien), and Germany (2) – Deutsches Theater, Berlin & Bad Hersfelder Festpiele).
The ETC boasts on this occasion, that for the first time the Convention offered membership to a theatre-producing festival, the Bad Hersfelder Festpiele, in Germany.
The president of the ETC, Jean-Claude Berutti addressed a warm welcome to the director of the National Theater of Albania, Kristaq Skrami, who declared that “The Albanian National Theater joins with the dignity confered to this theater by its original experience an identity, one of the large European artistic families which conserves and respects the artistic identity of every Nation”. He declared that the Albanian theater “needs to touch the large and diverse contemporary tradition. To touch this contemporary tradition at close hand and not only through modern forms of electronic communication, but essentially in the theater halls, with directors, actors and in the presence of the spectators”.
The National Theater of Albania is reported to have been established on the 24th of May 1945, in the same building where it first initiated its original activity. It was thus included to the ETC almost on its anniversary date. Theatre in Albania has often been the avant-garde of all artistic creation. Some of the major theatrical creations and productions in the Albanian National Theater, the most famous theatrical institution in Albania, will be historic timepieces in the development of Albanian art.
The ETC was established in 1988 and functions as a European network which supports and promotes contemporary theatre in Europe. The ETC was reported to have nearly 40 member theatres from 22 countries, before the Dresden General Assembly, and is reported to have come out of this assembly with 43 members from 23 countries. Albania and Israel seem to be among the latest countries that participated in this network which stretches as far as Israel to the South and Belarus to the East.
