Student Theatre in Europe

"Student Theatre in Europe" Student theatre at the respective universities is characterized by large differences. Depending on the local academic constraints and involvements, the theatre groups reasonably vary in structure and conceptional direction. The objective of the project was to intensify the exchange of the student theatre groups within the European Greater Area of SaarLorLux, and in specific individual cases beyond. Within the framework of this strategic partnership, the partners from Luxembourg, Saarbruecken, Metz and Cambridge had the possibilty to get regularly in touch with each other over a certain period of time in order to gain a better knowledge of the individual situation. Scope and function of the partners: Theatre groups (Edudrame, Ars in Fieri, TUM, Los Mutantes): Best practice in student theatre Grrrrr: PR & Documentation of the project, PR-Workshop "Promotion of student theatre" Mochila Productions: Profile-Coaching: "View from the outside", Thematic input and impulses towards sustainability, EU-Citizenship, Empowerment GrAFiTi Asbl.: Conception and coordination This partnership offered access to international large-scale creative projects that on an individual level wouldn‘t have been dared to undertake, due to a lack of both money and experience. The opportunity to exchange and co-create together strenghtened both the individual profile in general and especially the self-confidence of our partners in student theatre. So both partners and participants gained know-how and confidence in the network, getting to know different approaches both on how to deal with artistic work and how to run a project in general. The cooperation within the groups belonging to the „cultural space“ of the greater region has grown immensely within this Erasmus+ Partnership due to regular meetings and common projects. By opening the latter not only to the appointed partners even new members were found, who later on joined the network of GrAFiTi. Starting with the festival in Saarbrücken to come together and present the art that everybody still worked on individually but already opening it to the ongoing debate on the ,refugee situation‘, we went on to create a spontaneous collective work in Cambridge based on the „refugees & us“ dilemma which we were able to present in a local theatre among other initiatives. We responded to the lack of cultural student life in the freshly opened university of Luxemburg by offering an acitivity called ,Cultural Spring‘ which we held in public space(s). We offered and participated in workshops open to everybody. Finally we co-developed the GrAFiTi-festival edition 2016 that took place in France (Metz) for the first time, not only did we implement sustainable environmental measures but we also provided workshops for people with visual impairment and worked on a barrier-free festival. Turning - as a very heterogenous group of people who had only recently met (many of them) for the first time - strongly towards these social, political and environmental issues exceeded our initial expectations. United by this partnership, forces seemed to have grown and we were ready and happy to take this direction.