The 34th edition of the SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER International Festival of Theatre Schools will take place in Brno on 16-20 April. The festival showcases the unique artistic achievements of students from theatre schools around the world, with an accompanying programme of interactive workshops, discussions, and a host of bands, DJs, and parties.
Like every year, the festival is organised by students from the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts. This year, for the first time, a current student, Sonja Špačková, became the festival director.
The theatre work of Czech and foreign student ensembles will grace the stages of well-known Brno theatres including Husa na Provazku and the JAMU school theatres, Divadlo na Orli and Studio Marta.
The theme of the five-day festival is ‘The Storm’. The opening parade will take place on Tuesday, 16 April in front of the JAMU Theatre Faculty, and the festival will culminate in the Old Town Hall Courtyard on the Open-Air Stage provided by the Brno Tourist Information Centre (TIC Brno).
There are nine participating theatre schools from eight different countries:
- the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava
- the Max Reinhardt Seminar – University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna
- Poland’s AST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Krakow
- Academy Dimitri in Terre di Pedemonte, Switzerland
- the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade
- the National I. K. Karpenko-Karyi University of Theatre, Cinema and Television in Kiev
- the Latvian Academy of Culture in Riga
- the Theatre Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU)
- JAMU
The performances will be accompanied by stimulating discussions, interactive workshops introducing a wide range of approaches to the craft of theatre, concerts by bands of various genres, and afterparties. Most of the evening programme will take place in the courtyard of the Old Town Hall, Café Trojka, and Artbar.
SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER is a non-competitive festival, but the jury will award the Marta Award for outstanding artistic achievements. This year’s jury includes: Hungarian actor and director Márton Birta; Maria João Vicente from Portugal, an actress and dramaturge; and director and performer Tata Angola Tavdishvili from Georgia. The jury will also include one student representative, Viktor Hájek, who studies Theatre Studies and Cultural Anthropology at Palacký University in Olomouc.
Tickets for individual productions will be available online at GoOut website no later than one week before the festival. To learn more about the festival behind the scenes, you can check out the festival blog, Meeting Point, or keep up to date with the latest news and updates on Facebook, Instagram, or on the festival website.
This project is co-financed by the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia through Visegrad grants from the International Visegrad Fund, which promotes sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. Financial support is also provided by the City of Brno and the Czech State Fund for Culture of the Czech Republic.
Brno Daily is a media partner of the SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER festival.
