Context/Backround and Objectives Alexandria Nova is a network of North European directing programs. It aims to create a international and diverse learning environment for the relatively small directing programs of each national institution and make a leap forward in the awareness about pedagogical methods used. We will share practical and pedagogical knowledge, describe and share working methods and gather together understanding about the art of directing. Number and profile of the participants Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Erns Busch in Berlin in the leading organisation with six partners including Listahaskoli Island in Reykjavik, Den Danske Scenekunstskole in Copenhagen, Theatre Academy of Uniarts Helsinki, Uniarts Stockholm, Lietuvos Muzikos ir Teatro Akademija in Vilnius and Kunsthogskolen i Oslo. Each of these institutions offer higher education in directing. In most cases (Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Island, Norway, Copenhagen) they are also the only national institution to do so. This is why the transnational dialogue is completely essential in order to develop further artistically and pedagogically. Description of activities The three-year-project includes - Alexandria Nova Workshops and Seminars where the students and teachers can learn and exchange methodologies of directing and teaching directing. - In the Alexandria Nova Symposiums we address the current theoretical issues in the field of directing. - Alexandria Nova Labs are meant for the teachers to bring together, reflect and develop their pedagogical understanding. There is also possibility to compare and develop our curricula together: not to make them all similar, but to recognise and describe the strengths of each directing program. Methodology to be used in carrying out the project Alexandria Nova is gathering and documenting artistic and pedagogical knowledge from the field of directing. It is essential that both teachers and students are participating in this process. This will be done through teaching demonstrations in seminars, teachers writing and documenting their own work with the supportive questions and reflections on their work from their peers in the network. The students will also be reflecting and documenting on their learning processes by documenting their artistic processes in different ways: for example by writing, video and photographs. This work will lead to the building of the Alexandria Nova Digital Library which will include theoretical texts used in teaching, theses work in doctoral and MA -level, recorded lectures, exercises and documentation of students artistic learning processes. By gathering this knowledge in one place and examining it we will be able to recognise and name the most important pedagogical methods used in the Alexandria Nova network and develop them further. We will hopefully also recognise what is missing in our curriculums, what challenges and questions of our art we fail to address at the moment. This will lead to further curriculum development and to the process of creating new pedagogical methods. The idea is that digital library is a living thing: it will carry out after the three-year-project and serve as a database for pedagogical and artistic research concerning directing in the future. After naming and recognising the essential issues in the field of directing today to Alexandria Nova will publish a book about directing. It will consist of articles addressing for example: - the historical development of the role of a director, - ethics of representation, - the new contexts of making performance and the effects that these contexts have to the work of a director, - different methods of leading and directing artistic group work, - awareness of the socio-political context and artists own possibly privileged position as an important working method of a director A short description of the results and impact envisaged and finally the potential longer term benefits The project will have two intellectual outputs: 1) the Alexandria Nova Digital Library and 2) Alexandria Nova: Book in directing. These, together with our last symposium in the May 2022, will be a way to disseminate the results of our pedagogical and artistic research to the wider audience. Joint European modules will be designed to share and develop the knowledge of the participating institutions by encouraging teachers and students to engage in educational mobility and cross borders cooperation. Alexandria Nova is a project that has a potential to make big changes in the way we teach and learn directing. The gathering and reflection of our pedagogical and artistic knowledge about directing will lead to a heightened understanding of the methods of teaching and learning directing. The learning environment becomes transnational and more diverse. This kind of learning environment will be a growing place for the next generation of artists who see transnational artistic cooperation as a natural part of their career.
The main goal of the project was to create sustainable synergies between the participating courses of study. The profession of a theatre director has long since gone beyond the spectrum of classical theater directing and is now so complex and multi-layered that the training profile of a single university cannot fully reflect it. Students of directing should be enabled to shape their studies with a high degree of personal responsibility by being able to look beyond the horizon of their own university and consider the other training institutions in order to strengthen their own artistic profile. On the other hand, teachers should also share, question and further develop their own practice by getting to know the participating schools personally. Despite the diversity of the schools' structures, the joint offerings were to be integrated into the curricula and to be made creditable. Furthermore, in each of these aspects it was important to further develop the professional as well as the intercultural and linguistic competence of our students and lecturers.
The promotion of excellence in teaching and the competence development of the students and teachers involved were the main reason for applying for the project. The directing programmes at the individual art schools are so small and so rare on a national level that this need could only be met on an international level. The exchange of experience we sought was intended to lead to an internationalization of the training and to give directing students the opportunity to make informed decisions about which stays abroad would usefully complement their studies and their individual artistic development. We wanted to create capacities to understand the differences between the individual art schools and the various methodological approaches, in order to get an overview of possible synergies and to discuss the significance of theatre today in personal contact between teachers and students. Before the application was submitted, there had already been cooperations between the partner schools on a smaller scale, which showed the great need for contacts that go beyond a mere exchange of experiences and lead to a sustainable expansion of individual horizons.