The National Theatre of Kosova was also voted in as the newest European Theatre Convention (ETC) member in the Tirana meeting
TIRANA, March 26 – For the first time ever over 50 European theatre-makers convened in the Albanian capital of Tirana for the spring General Assembly of the European Theatre Convention (ETC). The meeting, which was hosted by the National Theatre of Albania and ran from 21 – 24 March, marked the premiere gathering of ETC members during the organization’s 25th anniversary year and the Albanian location of the conference highlighted the continuing expansion across the continent of Europe’s oldest public theatre network.
The conference, which was officially opened at a reception on Thursday 21 March by the artistic director of the National Theatre, Kristaq Skrami, in the presence of the Cultural Minister of Albania, Aldo Bum詬 offered two thought-provoking days of debate. Theatre professionals from across Europe convened to discuss how performing arts networks, in all their diverse configurations, can offer individual theatres a space to thrive in a collective approach to the challenges of Europe’s current crises. Guests from other key European theatre networks joined their ETC colleagues in an open panel debate on Friday 22 March to review the opportunities that networks – big and small, developed through new models or standardized structures – can offer their members. The impressive line-up of panelists were – Manfred Beilharz from the International Theatre Institute, Staffan Valdemar Holm from mitos21, Hugo de Greef from the European Festival Association and Christa M
