Projects

ERASMUS+

the name of the project

Roma Heroes in Streets of European Cities

COOPERATING paRTNERS

About the project

We – four Roma theaters working on the fields of art and education in Budapest, Rome, Bucharest and Seville – bring in the streets of our towns theater and workshops. We will collect innovative methods such as outdoor theater, street performance, thematic city walks and storytelling and publish foundation bricks on them, which we will use in our own artistic and educational work and inspire the work of other initiatives on these fields. 

We will collect stories, which highlight the role of Roma communities in the past and present of our cities and the importance of inclusive, diverse, democratic societies and the danger of segregation and authoritarian regimes. Based on those stories we will create theater plays, which will be presented in outdoor performances on public spaces relevant to the given stories. We will involve 4 young Roma and non-Roma artists in each country in the planning and realization of the performances, who will receive domestic offline and international online training, too. The performances will serve as multiplier events reaching young people and experts of education and culture. The performance will be video recorded in order to make it available for wider European audiences and next generations and also nonformal educational methods. We will involve 4 young Roma and non-Roma peer trainers in each country, who will also receive both domestic and international training and participate in the creation of the methodology and afterwards realization of the outdoor workshops, where the videos about the performances and other digital tools will be also included in the interactive sessions. 

The programme is supported by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

VISEGRAD FUND

the name of the project

Roma Theater – Secret Treasury of Visegrad Countries

COOPERATING paRTNERS

About the project

The project aims to ensure the visibility of Roma theaters in the V4 region and even beyond. As the creators work isolated, we will ensure the mobility for the artists, present their plays in the partner countries and with the video record of the plays and building up the archive of Roma theaters, we help to protect their artistic works and make possible to academics to access the hardly-known
values of Roma theater and literature.

Roma is the biggest ethnic minority in the Visegrad region, the members of which minority often
portrayed stereotypically by mainstream culture and public discourse. Although the Roma theater has a century-long history and there are professional theaters in the countries of the region, they are hardly known in the culture and education and the initiatives are quite isolated. The perception of the Roma communities should improve by the majority and themselves. They lack positive active human examples, which can inspire them. Roma dramas and theaters often show dramatic heroes who react to challenges with responsibility and bring change to their surroundings. They can empower the members of Roma communities and shape the attitudes of non-Roma communities.

The programme was supported by the Visegrad Fund

Creative Europe

the name of the project

European Roma Theater – Contemporary Cultural Heritage Shapes Our Future

COOPERATING paRTNERS

About the project

There are professional Roma theatres and theatre professionals in several European countries, however, they are mostly isolated and invisible for the mainstream. Roma theatre has a valuable past starting from the 19th century but its values are unknown in each European country. Roma theatre makers and artists’ associations don’t have an international network, they hardly have any cooperation with the mainstream theatre, they don’t know innovative models and techniques that could make their theatre work sustainable and would ensure wider outreach for them.

Within the project there’s an emphasis on the strengthening of cooperation between the Roma artists, promoting the creation of new theatrical productions and making Roma theatre visible since mainstream theatre has an increased interest in Roma self-representation.

The main goals of the project:

  • Strengthening the network of Roma theatre producers and dissemination capacity building on a European level
  • Providing mobility and visibility for Roma theatre producers and their work in different European countries
  • Developing an audience that is familiar with the values of Roma theatre and the social situation of the Roma communities, facilitating a theatre discourse in an interactive way.
  • Making recordings of the theatre pieces, using the digital materials for marketing, educational and archiving purposes.
  • Running development courses for university lecturers, mainstream artists and trainers about the values of Roma drama and theatre and its social ad aesthetic values, this way supporting their professional work.
  • Creating a new generation of artistic directors, producers and managers that has a basic knowledge of Roma art and history, which helps ensure that the interests of minority groups will be represented in theatre.
  • Determining the professional basis of the European Roma theatre.

The programme was supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

ERASMUS+

(Finished)

The name of the project

(Roma) Heroes in Theater, Education and Everyday Life

cooperating partners

about the project

During the project, together with the three partners we further develop the Roma Heroes educational material and methodology that was created by the Independent Theater Hungary in 2017. Resting on the results, we set up an educational methodology that can be used on a European level. All three partners participated as performers in the Roma Heroes International Storytelling Festival in 2017 and 2018, thus, our methodology is based on their plays, too. Furthermore, all of them work together with young people of different age who have different talents and capacities, consequently, the new methodology will be easily adaptable to different groups with special needs. We not only create new materials, but each partner trains 4-4 peer-trainers who will be able to hold workshops for Roma and non-Roma young people in informal and school groups. The trainers take part in an international training in February 2020 in Budapest.

Full material: Foundation_Bricks_EN

The programme is supported by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

FEST

(Finished)

the name of the project

STORYTELLING IN YOUTH Work and Academic Education

cooperating partners

  • Zalka Csenge
  • Mihaela Dragan
  • Ursula Mainardi
  • Sebastian Spinella
  • NaBOUT THE PROJECT

about the project

In February 2020 the Independent Theater Hungary organises a two-day long training that points out the importance of storytelling in formal and informal education, with special attention to the understanding of vulnerable groups like the Roma people.

During the training we familiarise 12 youth workers and 4 university lecturers with the applicability of the genre of storytelling. Several researches have proved that using personal stories both in formal and informal education, knowledge transfer is much more effective than just transferring social facts and data.

We invited 4 Roma and non-Roma storytellers to hold a training. They share their experience about the technical and professional aspects of their work, and the importance of knowing how to represent their interests.

The programme is supported by the Federation for European Storytelling – FEST.

SUMMA ARTIUM

(Finished)

the name of the project

The complex, european-level opearation of the Independent theater hungary

cooperating partners

ABOUT THE PROJECT

After having realized two Roma Heroes International Storytelling Festivals, and a chamber theatre festival, in 2020 we intend to organise a new chamber theatre festival. Altogether 8 pieces of art from different European countries will be performed and recorded, which contributes to the implementation of a Roma theatre archives.

The preparatory work related to the festival will take place withing the realms of the project. As part of the project the play called „THM „ will be revived and performed at the Roma Heroes- IV. International Roma Theater Festival.

Judit Durst has conducted a research on usury in the villages of Borsod County for more than ten years. In 2015 she placed at our disposal the audio materials of the in-depth interviews she had made with about 30 moneylenders. Her purpose was that the Independent Theater Hungary can write a theatre play based on the materials and perform it, maintaining the integrity of the interviewees. The play presents the vulnerability of the disadvantaged localities, including the Roma communities where only usurers provide loans to the majority. In vulnerable settlements the only way to escape poverty is to start an informal money landing activity since other commercial activities are unsustainable due to the slow financial market and the lack of an outlet market.

The programme is supported by the Summa Artium Private Art Fund.

VISEGRAD FUND

(Finished)

the name of the project

Roma Theater – Secret Values of the Largest Minority in the Visegrad Region

cooperating partners

About the project

Although Roma theatre has a 100-year long tradition and there are active Roma theatres all over Europe, it is invisible in the cultural and educational mainstream, in most cases the initiatives remain isolated.

During the project each partner performs a play or holds an exhibition in Prague, Presov or Budapest. The Czech partner has put several professional performances on stage, but this is the first occasion when we can perform our plays in the partner countries. The Slovakian partner has the richest but unfortunately unknown collection focusing on Roma culture, besides, they have dramatized and staged some Roma literary works.

As in these countries the historical and social context is similar, all the performances and the collected cultural heritage is relevant, and their dissemination can have a stronger impact in these countries than a separated, national initiative could have.

The programme is supported by the Visegrad Fund.

European cultural foundation

(Finished)

The name of the project

European Family

cooperating partners

Sonia Carmona Tapia, Lakatos Lucia, Richard O’Neill, Sebastiano Spinella

about the project

The project will create an online theatre video series presenting the life of a multi-ethnic Roma family with its members living in different regions and facing different challenges in current times related to education, digital tools, housing, employment and other issues. The innovative artistic format will connect Roma artists across Europe and will reach audiences that offline theatre would never be able to.

The programme is supported by European cultural foundation