Digital Drama Workshops

Many youth theatres faced similar problems during the Covid19 pandemic: Closures due to health protection measures and resulting precarious employment. Yet theatre thrives on interactivity and on physical but also emotional engagement!

The project "Digital Drama Workshops", funded by Erasmus+, is committed to passing on and developing the material and skills of theatre-makers online, for example to enable youth theatre in separate spaces. In this way, even after the end of the pandemic, participation in theatre can be made possible for young people who, for example, live in rural isolation, are restricted, cannot afford mobility, or come from communities where participation in theatre is stigmatised.

The Crooked House Theatre Company from Ireland, together with theatres from Austria, Spain and Norway, developed 30 digital theatre workshops, ten sessions on working under social distance conditions and ten videos on online collaboration in the context of youth work in general. All contents build on each other and were tested by the participating theatres before finally being made available for download in the free manual "Drama Workshops".
Basically, all project participants are guided by principles that do not only apply to theatre: On the one hand, they agree that teamwork promotes creativity and that active participation in particular holds the greatest potential for development. On the other hand, they see the increasing social isolation of young people in Europe as a problem that must be counteracted. Furthermore, free access to culture is a human right that should be consciously protected.

Based on this, the theatres in the project pass on their knowledge across borders with the aim of helping to shape the future of youth theatre.