25th anniversary logo and 2020 celebration planned activities

CBTIJ/ASSITEJ Brasil has just celebrated 24 years of activity, on December 9th, and has released its 25th anniversay logo. Created by Demetrio Nicolau and Miguel Vellinho, the logo will be used all over 2020.

The Association begins a whole year of celebration, with several actions planned:

– Constitution and expansion of the Regional Representations (from the existing representations in Uberlândia / MG, São Paulo / SP and Porto Alegre / RS, new ones are being articulated in Salvador / BA, Brasília / DF, Curitiba / PR and Belo Horizonte / MG);

– Consolidation of CBTIJ / ASSITEJ Brazil’s international action through ASSITEJ itself and its professional networks (ITYARN, WLPG, IIAN, Small Size and Next Generation), and the Red Iberoamerican Regional Theater Networks for Niños y Jóvenes and Vincular – Latin American Red of Scenic Creation for Los Primeros Años;

– Production of a commemorative video of the 2020 World Theater Day for Children and Youth, which ASSITEJ will distribute among its members;

– Commemoration of the World Children’s Day Theater Day in March 2020, along with the ceremony of the 6th CBTIJ Children’s Theater Award (for the Rio de Janeiro 2019 season) and the Special Tribute to artists, collectives, events and/or institutions that contributed to the qualification and the develpment of the Theater for Children and Youth in Brazil;

– Continuity of the CBTIJ Children’s Theater Award which, from 2020, in its 7th edition, will be called CBTIJ Theater Award and will include the evaluation of early childhood/baby theater and youth theater;

– Release of a special book about the 25th anniversary of CBTIJ/ASSITEJ Brasil and the 5 first editions of the CBTIJ Children’s Theater Award;

– The ASSITEJ Regional Workshops will held in the second half of April in Rio de Janeiro, in partnership with the ASSITEJs of Argentina and Cuba (dramaturgy and theater for early years workshops will be taught, with artists from South Africa and Mexico);

– A series of staged readings of new texts for childhood and youth will start in May;

– In June, we will start the 25 Years Memory Project, with testimonials from 25 artists, producers, managers and technicians who have contributed to our centre’shistory;

– An International Festival of Performing Arts for Children and Youth will be held in October, including shows, workshops, round tables and the first national edition of the Next Generation Program.

Nominations for 6th CBTIJ Award

The nominations for the 6th CBTIJ Award have just been released. Created and maintained with the entity’s own resources, in this sixth edition 48 eligible shows were evaluated, among the 78 presented in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The Award brings as an innovation the awarding of all professional areas of TYA, in a total of 25 categories. The awards ceremony will be held on March 25, 2020, during the celebration of the Theatre World Day.

“Ombela – the origin of the rains” (Ombela – a origem das chuvas) has had the most nominations, a total of 15 nominations, including Best Show, Ensemble, Costume, Set and Light Designs. Created from the children’s book of the same name by Angolan author Ondjaki, “Ombela – The Origin of Rains” tells the story of an African girl goddess, the rain goddess, who begins to question the origin of her tears.

Regional Representations

At the second semester of 2019, the Brazilian Center of ASSITEJ started a work of decentralization by opening regional representations. At the South of Brazil, the activities, coordinated by Viviane Juguero, where centered in three targets of action: cooperation, qualification and contextualization. The ideia that theatre for children needs to be embased in both childhood and artistic knowledge was discussed in many meetings led by Juguero as well as ways of thinking about the Brazilian reality of theatre production and ways to improve it by actions of collaboration. In this path, meetings were done at the FESTECRI, Theatro São Pedro’s Festival of Theatre for Children,  and the FESTE, Theatre Festival of Mario Quintana Cultural Centre, in Porto Alegre; at the Student Theatre Festival of Gravataí, at the State Theatre Festival of Erechim and at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Beside these actions, Juguero also taught a course about dramaturgy for children at the CBTIJ/ASSITEJ Brasil headquarter, in Rio de Janeiro and gave a lecture about the Specificities of Theatre for Children at Unirio – Rio de Janeiro State Federal University. Our goal is to promote new reflections and actions that respect the way children relate to the world and the specificities of each context of production by strenghting our bonds of complicity and the commitment with childhood. To contibute with these reflections, we share the studies of Juguero about this theme available on this link http://bandodebrincantes.com.br/?pg=11232

Fourteen years of “A Window to Utopia” – São Paulo

Paideia Company will produce, in the second half of September 2020, the 14th Paideia International Theater Festival for Children and Youth: a Window to Utopia. Groups from Belgium, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Mexico, Uruguay and Brazil are invited.
The Festival, in addition to showing different plays, intends to be a space for exchange between companies that are dedicated to research and work on theater for children and youth. Many long lasting exchange projects have already emerged from this event through which the groups involved are dedicated to understanding theatrical language for young people and children when immersed in different cultures, economic systems and organizations. An example of this was the staging of the show “The Treasure” in the intercontinental exchange with D’Haus Junges Schauspiel (Germany), Company-ma Tokyo (Japan) and Cia. Paideia (Brazil), which will be part of the 20th ASSITEJ World Congress 2020.
On May 2020 young people from Paideia’s Theater Experience Center will participate in a youth congress at the World Theater Festival in Düsseldorf. By 2020 we intend to strengthen the ties already started with Belgium through the La Casquette group and with Uruguay by CUTDIJ Uruguay.