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The Report on the Conference on Regional Cooperation

The 10^th meeting of ASSITEJ Croatia and The First EPIFEST, international festival of theatres for young audiences in Central and Southeastern Europe were held in Cakovec, Croatia, October 22-27, 2007. The program consisted of performances by theaters from Croatia, members of ASSITEJ and guests from Hungary, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia.

The conference on regional cooperation in Central and Southeastern Europe was held within the Festival’s program (Oct 25-27). The Conference gathered artists and representatives of theatres from Croatia, Austria, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Germany and Denmark, representatives of international foundations in Croatia and officials from the Croatian ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs.

In the three workdays of the Conference, participants heard presentations of the theatre situation in various countries in the region and of the experiences of the Nordic cooperation and learned about some possibilities for future project funding. The Conference ended with the establishment of a network of theatres and artists in Central and Southeastern Europe with Theatre Epicentre as coordinator.

konferencija

The results

After the formulation and the signing of a Declaration on regional cooperation by the participants and all interested parties in the region, the network will formally start with it’s activities.
The second Conference on regional cooperation will be held in Cakovec in October 2008.
The second Epifest will be held in Cakovec in October 2008. The call for performances is opened and will be officially announced on the web portal and in the Epicentre newsletter.
The second Playwrights Forum and workshop for young playwrights will take place within Epifest. The guests and the workshop leaders will be Lutz Hübner, Kristo Šagor and Rudolf Herfurtner, famous German playwrights. The forum and workshop will be held under the auspices of the Goethe Institut in Zagreb. A book of German plays in translations will be launched as the first publication of Theatre Epicentre
Theatre Epicentre will pay special attention to education programs for artists, educators and members of the audience. For that purpose, a comprehensive research will be undertaken to scan the condition and detect the problems of theatre for young audience on all levels.
The deadline for setting up the program for 2009 is June 30, 2008. The second Conference will verify the programs and projects and define the mechanisms of implementation.
Creation of a close connection with the Regional Cooperation Council - RCC and Central European Initiative - CEI.
Theatre epicentre will maintain the web portal www.theatre-epicentre.org and keep the newsletter as the main tool for intertheatrical communication. In the nearest future an International Magazine will also be produced.
The artists from EU (Denmark, Germany, Austria) expressed their interest for a cooperation with theatres in the region.
The representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Ukraine, Kosovo and Macedonia who were not present at the conference, expressed their wish and intention to participate in the process of cooperation in the future.