Boundless Theatre Announces Extended Universe To Develop Young Theatre Audiences

Boundless Theatre today announces Extended Universe, a two year project funded by Creative Europe where they will partner with three European theatre companies to develop new young independent theatre audiences across Europe.

Boundless Theatre will lead the project partnering with four politically-engaged, outward-looking theatres from across Europe, Teater Grob (Denmark), Entropia (Greece) and Sala Beckett (Spain) with the shared aim of connecting more with young audiences and maximizing digital developments for storytelling. The partners have connected through conversations about recent social, cultural and political shifts in each country; together they will explore ideas around power, protest and utopia, offering a platform to young adults and their perspectives.

The four companies will each work with a theatre-maker (to be announced shortly) and 15-25 year olds over the next two years to co-create a narrative for multiple platforms (including live theatre), adopting a transmedia approach to storytelling. Work will be presented in Copenhagen, Barcelona, Athens and online (created in London) in May 2020.

Rob Drummer, Artistic Director of Boundless Theatre, said today, "This is an extraordinary and exciting time to be working with three inspiring and innovative companies across Europe. Extended Universe will honour the conversations we've all had with teenagers and young people and will reflect a changing Europe through the eyes of a generation living with the impact of recent upheavals in the UK, Denmark, Greece and Spain. Creative Europe funding is a real endorsement of an outward looking collaboration across Europe and an investment in Boundless Theatre's audience-first approach, for which we are incredibly grateful."

boundlesstheatre.org.uk

Boundless Theatre creates exhilarating, relevant and shareable theatre with and for young people. We empower, inspire and invest in future audiences and artists, promoting conversation and exchange across the UK and Europe. Since 1991 the company has pushed the boundaries of work made for and with young people, producing over 25 high quality productions.

We have worked with partners across Europe for 15 years delivering Pan-European partnership projects including Theatre Café (lead partner, Creative Europe funded) and Boundless Dialogue (Erasmus+ funded), to empower and inspire young adults through contact with high quality theatre artists across Europe.

Following a rebrand, the company is now audience-centric, with a focus on independent theatregoers aged 15-25. An advisory group of teenagers and young adults informs artists' decisions to make new work relevant, and we support the best young artists through our Associates programme now in its tenth year.

Teater Grob was established in 1993. Since 2009 Grob has had its home in a black box theatre in Copenhagen. We focus exclusively on new works. We encourage the artistic exploration of what it means to be human in contemporary society. A society that it global and interconnected, for good or worse. International co-creation is a necessity for any artist who wants to dig deeper into society and the human condition of today. We seek to support young talent that will define the future of the theatre landscape. Not only in the themes and stories that will be put on the stage, but also in the way it is created and presented. Extending the local stage beyond its immediate framework, represents a new potential that we are very excited to investigate.

Entropia is a non-profit cultural organization (first established in June 1997 and based at the homonymous Theatre space in the centre of Athens until 2014), that presents and produces theatre, live art, site-specific, interdisciplinary and multimedia performances, promoting the creative dialogue amongst different art disciplines, the pioneering approaches in form and content, and the exchanges between Greece and the contemporary international Performing Arts scene. Entropia has been supported by the Greek Ministry of Culture, the European Cultural Foundation, the Ministry of Culture and Education of Cyprus and various cultural institutions nationally and internationally, as well as been sponsored by the private sector.

Sala Beckett/Obrador Internacional de Dramatúrgia is a theatre of Barcelona which, from its very beginning, has been run on two axes. On the one hand, its constant support for home-made playwriting. Since its creation, more than 20 years ago, Sala Beckett has endeavored to introduce new Catalan playwrights and consolidate others. This has been done not only by premiering plays, but by offering playwrights a space where to experiment and test their work. Sala Beckett's second line of action throughout its history has been premiering works by foreign authors who, despite enjoying deserved and growing recognition in their own countries, were unknown in Catalonia. Apart from these two main goals, Sala Beckett promotes specific work addressed to young audiences. By means of working with secondary schools and having its own young permanent company, Els Malnascuts, Sala Beckett produces 2 shows per year which want to involve young people with creating processes.

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