We are opening a new page in our educational program “Theatrical window to Europe”

Thanks to the support from the International Relief Fund with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany, we are launching “Theatrical windows. Work in progress” this season and expecting four directors from  Germany, France, Poland and the UK to visit Ukraine.

This year’s project is special, because all directors (coaches) will not only hold workshops, presenting their schools and methods to the students, but will stage blitz shows with the future actors as well. The same shows will be open to public later on.

“This is a new stage of the program, because the students will be able to discover new practices and immerse themselves deeper into various theatre cultures and attain valuable experience, working under the guidance of European directors”, says Dmytro Ternovyi, Project Coordinator.

The project will launch next week. On 28-29 October, Lana Gustavson Biba, director and actress from the UK, will conduct workshops and present the school of physical theatre of Jacques Lecoq (more details to follow).

The project will then proceed to presentation of the schools of Grotowski, instrumental actor and commedia dell’arte.

All “work in progress” blitz shows created in the course of the project will be integrated into one big students’ play in February 2022. On the one hand, they will represent various European theatre schools, while, on the other hand, it will be a demonstration of the Ukrainian understanding and perception of these schools. The play will be performed on a central stage of the city and will be streamed online.

Due to Covid restrictions, this year, the coaches will have to conduct all their classes in Kharkiv alone: the directors will focus on working with the students of Theatre Faculty of Kharkiv National University of Arts (partner of the project).

However, we are planning to expand our audience by way of online streaming of workshops,a series of theatrical video classes and filming the preparation of the shows.

“Theatrical window to Europe” is an educational program initiated in 2010 by the Theatre na Zhukah (Kharkiv, Ukraine) to bring contemporary theatre schools and practices from Europe to the students of Ukrainian theatre universities, and aims to bring the Ukrainian and European theatre communities closer to each other. Thousands of students and teachers of theatre universities, as well as actors in Kharkiv, Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro and Mykolaiv over these years. All classes under the program are conducted by the directors invited from European theatres in practical format (training sessions, workshops), wherein the students will personally experience the acquisition of new knowledge and attain brand new experience and skills. The program has already given impetus to dozens of independent student projects implemented in conjunction with foreign partners.

This year, the project is financed by the International Relief Fund-2021 that provides assistance to organizations conducting their activities in the sphere of culture and education with the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Goethe-Institut and other partners: www.goethe.de/hilfsfonds