Throughout August 2026, ASSITEJ Côte d’Ivoire organised its very first edition of the Summer University of Theatre for Young Audiences : eight free training sessions, held online and in French, which brought together more than 250 cumulative connections and united a community of practitioners from across the continent.
A project rooted in regional cooperation
This new event is part of the Vogue Africaine project « Blossoming of theatre for young audiences », a regional cooperation initiative for theatre for children and young people in West Africa, co-funded by the European Union and carried out with ASSITEJ International, alongside ASSITEJ Senegal and ASSITEJ Burkina Faso. For this first edition, ASSITEJ Côte d’Ivoire wanted to create a training space accessible to all professionals in the sector, regardless of country or means.
Training, creating, passing on
Under the slogan “Training. Creating. Passing on.”, the ambition was twofold : to professionalise a sector still largely under construction on the continent, and to offer practitioners of theatre for young audiences a space for peer exchange, around concrete themes of their craft, from writing to distribution, through administrative structuring and the art of clowning.
Eight sessions, eight regional areas of expertise
Throughout the month of August, eight free sessions, held online and in French, brought together renowned speakers from West Africa and Europe:
- Thierry Ouéda (Director of Théâtre Soleil de Ouagadougou, President of ASSITEJ Burkina Faso) : Writing and directing for young audiences
- Fidèle Baha (Compagnie Pataclowns, Côte d’Ivoire / Benin / Switzerland) : Structuring a theatre company for young audiences
- Mamby Mawine (Pôle Culturel Djaram’Arts, President of ASSITEJ Senegal) : 30 years of experience serving theatre for young audiences
- Serge Zossou (Théâtre d’Afrique Association, Benin) : Administering a structuring project
- Koné Wagninlba Jocelyn (President of ASSITEJ Côte d’Ivoire) : Scenography for a young audience production
- Hugues Roches (co-founder of the Festival Très Grand Conseil Mondial des Clowns, France) : The world of clowning: definitions, styles and creation
- Jean-Louis Lokossou (Compagnie Africa Clowns, Benin / France) : Clowning: play, mediation and distribution
- Adjaratou Yerima (Centre Fiôhome, Togo) : Valuing childhood games in the creative process
Each session gave rise to rich exchanges with participants, covering both technical questions (writing, scenography, directing) and broader issues: structuring companies, funding, training, or adapting Western forms to African cultural realities.
A first edition that exceeded expectations
In total, more than 250 connections were recorded across all sessions, with an average of 35 participants per session, a strong signal of the sector’s appetite for this kind of training and exchange space, for a very first edition.
What’s next?
To build on this momentum, ASSITEJ Côte d’Ivoire is currently preparing a Summer University Notebook, which will bring together all the lessons, exchanges and testimonies from the eight sessions. A sector-wide consultation will also be relaunched with the community gathered during this month of training, in order to better understand the needs of theatre for young audiences professionals at the national level and to guide the network’s next steps.
As one of the speakers, Thierry Ouéda, President of ASSITEJ Burkina Faso, put it: “Let’s dream big, but let’s take our realities into account.”
