A new International Festival for Young Audiences is born in the region. This fact, which could be read as an isolated incident, or like a lost letter in an incomplete alphabet, is itself the result of the exchange and the encounter between the makers of Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) led by ASSITEJ in its effort to promote it.
Independent Theatre is a particular movement in Argentina. Its epicenter is in the city of Buenos Aires. The movement was born in the ’40s and it has the particularity that its work is done without the government’s economic support, and it offers an autonomous artistic work, a theatrical proposal far from the commercial theatre circuit. This movement provides theatres with an infrequent quantity of different poetics.
TYA emerges from the Independent Theatre movement as a specialization. It starts as a creator, and becomes a renovator of the creative imagination of TYA, thanks to the work of directors such us Hugo Midón, Carlos de Urquiza, Héctor Presa, Manuel González Gil, Andrés Bazalo and many others, that since the ’80s have been proposing a different way of understanding TYA.
ATINA (Asociación de Teatristas Independientes para Niños y Adolescentes) was created as an initiative of people within this group, and then the association became a member of ASSITEJ. Since its foundation, ATINA’s work has been the creation of networks; first, amongst the founders of TYA, and between the emerging experiences; afterwards in a regional level; and last, but not least, in an international level. ATINA has always looked for the exchange with other regions, with other aesthetics, other systems of production, giving and receiving art, to make our TYA grow.
Within this framework, The XXI Encounter of Theatre, Puppets and Stories is born, organized by the UPeBe (Universidad Popular de Belgrano), and sponsored by ATINA. This 1st International Festival will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from July 18th to 22nd, with the presence of casts from Italy, Chile, Uruguay and Mexico.
This new festival has the imprint of the region and was born from the depths of Argentinean independent theatre, and it has the strength and charm of a seed that sprouts.
