by Cathrin Blöss und Meike Fechner
Almost 500 directors from 74 countries and all continents have taken part in ASSITEJ Germany’s International Directors’ Seminar for TYA since its invention in 1976.
Between 1976 and 1990 the seminar took place annually with few(archive pdf)
More information and the list of participants can be found here: two thirds from abroad and one third from theaters in Germany, share six days of intense work and exchange. Smaller groups work on a text, a scene a short drama or an illustrated book and they use their time to share their approaches to directing. Ten individuals who are used to making decisions are in one room, speak English without being native speakers and organize their work for the week. It speaks for itself that this situation creates interesting group dynamics.
Lively discussions about the different social and political situations everyone deals with in their home countries add to the program of theatre shows (often a first encounter with the German theatre landscape) and exploring the hosting city. These weeks create an atmosphere where it is natural that people from different countries that might be rivals in everyday politics, i.e. Iran and Israel, meet and talk in peace.
The selection of the seminar’s topics is based on the idea of universal questions that are of interest to directors from all over the world. The seminars of the past few years have covered a broad array of topic areas from “Death and Farewell“ to “Fairy Tales,“ “Family“ and “Migration“ to “Heimat (Home)“ and “Progress.”
The selection of participants from an ever growing number of applications is an effort to bring a mixed group of men and women, experienced and young directors, and people from many countries and, if possible, all continents together. There can only be one participant from each country and you can only take part once in your life. This, to some, is sad, but it creates opportunities for many different people to meet.
The seminar is one of the many success stories, ASSITEJ Germany is happy to look back upon 50 years after it was founded in 1966. And from the very start it was the theaters all over Germany that were the hosts for directors from all over the world.
The International Directors‘ Seminar can be a model for creating a space for an artistic exchange without hierarchies which enables individuals to meet, to share ideas, methods and visions, and it creates a basis not only for friendships, but also for co-operation and co-production. All this remains long after the short encounters within the seminar.
There might be reports on the Russian director who worked in the UK, the director from Belarus who worked with a theater in Germany or the German director who directed a show in Canada and the hosting theater which was invited to Sri Lanka to perform as well as the Mexican director who became part of a festival jury in Estonia. Friendships and visits are unaccounted for and happen frequently.
And, it is without understatement that we can call the list of the seminars’ participants since 1976 a “Who is who” of international TYA.
Back from this year’s seminar in Mannheim working on “Progress,“ Jayne Batzofin from South Africa wrote:
Over the week, I made strong creative friendships that inspire and nurture me as a director and as a human being. I sincerely hope to create future collaborations with some of the directors I met there, working towards a deeper collective exchange with them. The International Directors Seminar is truly just a springboard and starting point for great partnerships and ideas to be continued. For me this is what Progress is all about: the human connections we make in order to develop and grow. I am so fortunate to have been selected for this once in a lifetime opportunity (literally, as you can only be selected for the seminar once) and having the space and time to just engage and discuss ideas and reflections with other directors who are equally passionate about the importance of work for Theatre for Children and Youth.
We should continue to create places like the Directors‘ Seminar and we would like to celebrate together with everyone who has already taken part: 50 years of ASSITEJ Germany. 40 years of Directors’ Seminar – and we would like to thank everyone involved – it would not be possible without you and it could not be as unique as it is without your contributions.
ASSITEJ Germany’s next International Directors‘ Seminar will take place in 2017. The call for applications will be published in October 2016.
More information and the list of participants can be found here: two thirds from abroad and one third from theaters in Germany, share six days of intense work and exchange. Smaller groups work on a text, a scene a short drama or an illustrated book and they use their time to share their approaches to directing. Ten individuals who are used to making decisions are in one room, speak English without being native speakers and organize their work for the week. It speaks for itself that this situation creates interesting group dynamics.
Lively discussions about the different social and political situations everyone deals with in their home countries add to the program of theatre shows (often a first encounter with the German theatre landscape) and exploring the hosting city. These weeks create an atmosphere where it is natural that people from different countries that might be rivals in everyday politics, i.e. Iran and Israel, meet and talk in peace.
The selection of the seminar’s topics is based on the idea of universal questions that are of interest to directors from all over the world. The seminars of the past few years have covered a broad array of topic areas from “Death and Farewell“ to “Fairy Tales,“ “Family“ and “Migration“ to “Heimat (Home)“ and “Progress.”
The selection of participants from an ever growing number of applications is an effort to bring a mixed group of men and women, experienced and young directors, and people from many countries and, if possible, all continents together. There can only be one participant from each country and you can only take part once in your life. This, to some, is sad, but it creates opportunities for many different people to meet.
The seminar is one of the many success stories, ASSITEJ Germany is happy to look back upon 50 years after it was founded in 1966. And from the very start it was the theaters all over Germany that were the hosts for directors from all over the world.
The International Directors‘ Seminar can be a model for creating a space for an artistic exchange without hierarchies which enables individuals to meet, to share ideas, methods and visions, and it creates a basis not only for friendships, but also for co-operation and co-production. All this remains long after the short encounters within the seminar.
There might be reports on the Russian director who worked in the UK, the director from Belarus who worked with a theater in Germany or the German director who directed a show in Canada and the hosting theater which was invited to Sri Lanka to perform as well as the Mexican director who became part of a festival jury in Estonia. Friendships and visits are unaccounted for and happen frequently.
And, it is without understatement that we can call the list of the seminars’ participants since 1976 a “Who is who” of international TYA.
Back from this year’s seminar in Mannheim working on “Progress,“ Jayne Batzofin from South Africa wrote:
Over the week, I made strong creative friendships that inspire and nurture me as a director and as a human being. I sincerely hope to create future collaborations with some of the directors I met there, working towards a deeper collective exchange with them. The International Directors Seminar is truly just a springboard and starting point for great partnerships and ideas to be continued. For me this is what Progress is all about: the human connections we make in order to develop and grow. I am so fortunate to have been selected for this once in a lifetime opportunity (literally, as you can only be selected for the seminar once) and having the space and time to just engage and discuss ideas and reflections with other directors who are equally passionate about the importance of work for Theatre for Children and Youth.
We should continue to create places like the Directors‘ Seminar and we would like to celebrate together with everyone who has already taken part: 50 years of ASSITEJ Germany. 40 years of Directors’ Seminar – and we would like to thank everyone involved – it would not be possible without you and it could not be as unique as it is without your contributions.
ASSITEJ Germany’s next International Directors‘ Seminar will take place in 2017. The call for applications will be published in October 2016.
More information and the list of participants can be found here: two thirds from abroad and one third from theaters in Germany, share six days of intense work and exchange. Smaller groups work on a text, a scene a short drama or an illustrated book and they use their time to share their approaches to directing. Ten individuals who are used to making decisions are in one room, speak English without being native speakers and organize their work for the week. It speaks for itself that this situation creates interesting group dynamics.
Lively discussions about the different social and political situations everyone deals with in their home countries add to the program of theatre shows (often a first encounter with the German theatre landscape) and exploring the hosting city. These weeks create an atmosphere where it is natural that people from different countries that might be rivals in everyday politics, i.e. Iran and Israel, meet and talk in peace.
The selection of the seminar’s topics is based on the idea of universal questions that are of interest to directors from all over the world. The seminars of the past few years have covered a broad array of topic areas from “Death and Farewell“ to “Fairy Tales,“ “Family“ and “Migration“ to “Heimat (Home)“ and “Progress.”
The selection of participants from an ever growing number of applications is an effort to bring a mixed group of men and women, experienced and young directors, and people from many countries and, if possible, all continents together. There can only be one participant from each country and you can only take part once in your life. This, to some, is sad, but it creates opportunities for many different people to meet.
The seminar is one of the many success stories, ASSITEJ Germany is happy to look back upon 50 years after it was founded in 1966. And from the very start it was the theaters all over Germany that were the hosts for directors from all over the world.
The International Directors‘ Seminar can be a model for creating a space for an artistic exchange without hierarchies which enables individuals to meet, to share ideas, methods and visions, and it creates a basis not only for friendships, but also for co-operation and co-production. All this remains long after the short encounters within the seminar.
There might be reports on the Russian director who worked in the UK, the director from Belarus who worked with a theater in Germany or the German director who directed a show in Canada and the hosting theater which was invited to Sri Lanka to perform as well as the Mexican director who became part of a festival jury in Estonia. Friendships and visits are unaccounted for and happen frequently.
And, it is without understatement that we can call the list of the seminars’ participants since 1976 a “Who is who” of international TYA.
Back from this year’s seminar in Mannheim working on “Progress,“ Jayne Batzofin from South Africa wrote:
Over the week, I made strong creative friendships that inspire and nurture me as a director and as a human being. I sincerely hope to create future collaborations with some of the directors I met there, working towards a deeper collective exchange with them. The International Directors Seminar is truly just a springboard and starting point for great partnerships and ideas to be continued. For me this is what Progress is all about: the human connections we make in order to develop and grow. I am so fortunate to have been selected for this once in a lifetime opportunity (literally, as you can only be selected for the seminar once) and having the space and time to just engage and discuss ideas and reflections with other directors who are equally passionate about the importance of work for Theatre for Children and Youth.
We should continue to create places like the Directors‘ Seminar and we would like to celebrate together with everyone who has already taken part: 50 years of ASSITEJ Germany. 40 years of Directors’ Seminar – and we would like to thank everyone involved – it would not be possible without you and it could not be as unique as it is without your contributions.
ASSITEJ Germany’s next International Directors‘ Seminar will take place in 2017. The call for applications will be published in October 2016.
More information and the list of participants can be found here: two thirds from abroad and one third from theaters in Germany, share six days of intense work and exchange. Smaller groups work on a text, a scene a short drama or an illustrated book and they use their time to share their approaches to directing. Ten individuals who are used to making decisions are in one room, speak English without being native speakers and organize their work for the week. It speaks for itself that this situation creates interesting group dynamics.
Lively discussions about the different social and political situations everyone deals with in their home countries add to the program of theatre shows (often a first encounter with the German theatre landscape) and exploring the hosting city. These weeks create an atmosphere where it is natural that people from different countries that might be rivals in everyday politics,
Almost 500 directors from 74 countries and all continents have taken part in ASSITEJ Germany’s International Directors’ Seminar for TYA since its invention in 1976.
Between 1976 and 1990 the seminar took place annually with few exceptions. It was organized by the ASSITEJ Center in the GDR and invited directors from Eastern Europe as well as from so-called capitalist countries to join a more theoretical discourse. Since 1993 the seminar takes place every other year in changing places in re-united Germany. It has taken on the characteristics of a more practical workshop where about 30 directors, two thirds from abroad and one third from theaters in Germany, share six days of intense work and exchange. Smaller groups work on a text, a scene a short drama or an illustrated book and they use their time to share their approaches to directing. Ten individuals who are used to making decisions are in one room, speak English without being native speakers and organize their work for the week. It speaks for itself that this situation creates interesting group dynamics.
Lively discussions about the different social and political situations everyone deals with in their home countries add to the program of theatre shows (often a first encounter with the German theatre landscape) and exploring the hosting city. These weeks create an atmosphere where it is natural that people from different countries that might be rivals in everyday politics, i.e. Iran and Israel, meet and talk in peace.
The selection of the seminar’s topics is based on the idea of universal questions that are of interest to directors from all over the world. The seminars of the past few years have covered a broad array of topic areas from “Death and Farewell“ to “Fairy Tales,“ “Family“ and “Migration“ to “Heimat (Home)“ and “Progress.”
The selection of participants from an ever growing number of applications is an effort to bring a mixed group of men and women, experienced and young directors, and people from many countries and, if possible, all continents together. There can only be one participant from each country and you can only take part once in your life. This, to some, is sad, but it creates opportunities for many different people to meet.
The seminar is one of the many success stories, ASSITEJ Germany is happy to look back upon 50 years after it was founded in 1966. And from the very start it was the theaters all over Germany that were the hosts for directors from all over the world.
The International Directors‘ Seminar can be a model for creating a space for an artistic exchange without hierarchies which enables individuals to meet, to share ideas, methods and visions, and it creates a basis not only for friendships, but also for co-operation and co-production. All this remains long after the short encounters within the seminar.
There might be reports on the Russian director who worked in the UK, the director from Belarus who worked with a theater in Germany or the German director who directed a show in Canada and the hosting theater which was invited to Sri Lanka to perform as well as the Mexican director who became part of a festival jury in Estonia. Friendships and visits are unaccounted for and happen frequently.
And, it is without understatement that we can call the list of the seminars’ participants since 1976 a “Who is who” of international TYA.
Back from this year’s seminar in Mannheim working on “Progress,“ Jayne Batzofin from South Africa wrote:
Over the week, I made strong creative friendships that inspire and nurture me as a director and as a human being. I sincerely hope to create future collaborations with some of the directors I met there, working towards a deeper collective exchange with them. The International Directors Seminar is truly just a springboard and starting point for great partnerships and ideas to be continued. For me this is what Progress is all about: the human connections we make in order to develop and grow. I am so fortunate to have been selected for this once in a lifetime opportunity (literally, as you can only be selected for the seminar once) and having the space and time to just engage and discuss ideas and reflections with other directors who are equally passionate about the importance of work for Theatre for Children and Youth.
We should continue to create places like the Directors‘ Seminar and we would like to celebrate together with everyone who has already taken part: 50 years of ASSITEJ Germany. 40 years of Directors’ Seminar – and we would like to thank everyone involved – it would not be possible without you and it could not be as unique as it is without your contributions.
ASSITEJ Germany’s next International Directors‘ Seminar will take place in 2017. The call for applications will be published in October 2016.
More information and the list of participants can be found here: two thirds from abroad and one third from theaters in Germany, share six days of intense work and exchange. Smaller groups work on a text, a scene a short drama or an illustrated book and they use their time to share their approaches to directing. Ten individuals who are used to making decisions are in one room, speak English without being native speakers and organize their work for the week. It speaks for itself that this situation creates interesting group dynamics.
Lively discussions about the different social and political situations everyone deals with in their home countries add to the program of theatre shows (often a first encounter with the German theatre landscape) and exploring the hosting city. These weeks create an atmosphere where it is natural that people from different countries that might be rivals in everyday politics, i.e. Iran and Israel, meet and talk in peace.
The selection of the seminar’s topics is based on the idea of universal questions that are of interest to directors from all over the world. The seminars of the past few years have covered a broad array of topic areas from “Death and Farewell“ to “Fairy Tales,“ “Family“ and “Migration“ to “Heimat (Home)“ and “Progress.”
The selection of participants from an ever growing number of applications is an effort to bring a mixed group of men and women, experienced and young directors, and people from many countries and, if possible, all continents together. There can only be one participant from each country and you can only take part once in your life. This, to some, is sad, but it creates opportunities for many different people to meet.
The seminar is one of the many success stories, ASSITEJ Germany is happy to look back upon 50 years after it was founded in 1966. And from the very start it was the theaters all over Germany that were the hosts for directors from all over the world.
The International Directors‘ Seminar can be a model for creating a space for an artistic exchange without hierarchies which enables individuals to meet, to share ideas, methods and visions, and it creates a basis not only for friendships, but also for co-operation and co-production. All this remains long after the short encounters within the seminar.
There might be reports on the Russian director who worked in the UK, the director from Belarus who worked with a theater in Germany or the German director who directed a show in Canada and the hosting theater which was invited to Sri Lanka to perform as well as the Mexican director who became part of a festival jury in Estonia. Friendships and visits are unaccounted for and happen frequently.
And, it is without understatement that we can call the list of the seminars’ participants since 1976 a “Who is who” of international TYA.
Back from this year’s seminar in Mannheim working on “Progress,“ Jayne Batzofin from South Africa wrote:
Over the week, I made strong creative friendships that inspire and nurture me as a director and as a human being. I sincerely hope to create future collaborations with some of the directors I met there, working towards a deeper collective exchange with them. The International Directors Seminar is truly just a springboard and starting point for great partnerships and ideas to be continued. For me this is what Progress is all about: the human connections we make in order to develop and grow. I am so fortunate to have been selected for this once in a lifetime opportunity (literally, as you can only be selected for the seminar once) and having the space and time to just engage and discuss ideas and reflections with other directors who are equally passionate about the importance of work for Theatre for Children and Youth.
We should continue to create places like the Directors‘ Seminar and we would like to celebrate together with everyone who has already taken part: 50 years of ASSITEJ Germany. 40 years of Directors’ Seminar – and we would like to thank everyone involved – it would not be possible without you and it could not be as unique as it is without your contributions.
ASSITEJ Germany’s next International Directors‘ Seminar will take place in 2017. The call for applications will be published in October 2016.
More information and the list of participants can be found here: los niños participan y conviven dentro
de una sociedad sumamente competitiva. A pesar de que hay muy pocas habilidades humanas que pueden ser evaluadas con una calificación, la mayoría de las personas no entienden que una calificación es el único criterio con el cual evaluar a una persona; por lo tanto hay un importante número de niños que abandonan la escolaridad aún cuando estos tengan grandes talentos.
En el teatro, no hay una respuesta correcta. En el teatro, está bien si cada quien demuestra con ánimo de lo que él o ella es capaz. En el teatro, Una persona puede encontrar, dentro de sí mismo, un personaje, y a través de este trabajo puede llegar a conectarse y a entender a los demás. Naturalmente, tal experiencia varía de persona en persona. Diez personas tienen diez expresiones diferentes y es imposible evaluarlas con puntuaciones. Así que en el teatro no hay calificaciones; nadie va a entrar en éxtasis ni a deprimirse. Por esto es que una persona puede desarrollarse de la mejor manera posible en el teatro.
Espero que los niños tengan contacto con el teatro para experimentar este maravilloso momento en el cual pueden encontrar similitudes entre ellos mismos y los personajes de una obra, y maravillarse al pensar que ellos fueran estos personajes. Y al terminar de ver una obra, habrá crecido dentro de cada uno de ellos un sentido de compasión.
A los papás: por favor lleven a sus hijos al teatro, el único lugar donde pueden crecer libres y animados, aún en esta sociedad tan competitiva.
A los maestros: por favor protejan un programa de teatro escolar del cual Japón pueda estar orgulloso en el mundo, y traten de minimizar la reducción de estos programas.
Y a los niños: por favor si tienen oportunidad pidan a sus padres que los lleven al teatro, y disfruten de este.
Hoy es el día en el cual teatros para niños en todo el mundo comparten la misma idea; y el hoy comienza aquí en Japón. Estemos a la vanguardia y llevemos esta idea a todo el mundo.
Marzo 20, 2016
