 Det er så herlig, for at du kommer med hver kampe, men nå kommer bare med bilder, som bare har kjent etter bilder, og så er det sånn. Og det er også verdens møteutryggere, det er det. Som både bremme som dikk, og fra tider med en kasse, så er det bare sånn, at du kommer bare med bilder, men ingen som har kommet med bilder, sånn. Nei, nei. Nei, da måtte vi nok ha et bedre plan, at folk kunne... ... måtte vi nok ha en måt. Nå er det noen her fra kjunden som er kassur området. Skæmmer det så eller ikke? Hvorfor er det? Det er mange projekter. Det er mange aktiene-skjønner. De sender inwards, energiser og ember. Hvordan vet du at jeg liker denne musikken? God morgon, alle. God morgon! Thank you, Stefan. Gold star. I the U.S., the teacher would give you a gold star for that. God morgon. How are you and welcome to our artistic encounter here in Christian Sand. We are so excited that you are with us this morning. Before we begin a few introductions, my name is Ernie Nolan. I'm from Nashville, Tennessee. I don't know if you can tell, by the way I see. But I'm a member of the project group. And right now, if each of the project group members could come forward and say their names and where they're from. God Cecilia. Hello, good morning. I'm Cecilia, and I'm from Norway. Thank you, Spanish. My name is Daniel Fernandez. My name is Daniel Fernandez from Argentina. Nice to meet you. I'm Stefan from Germany. Good morning. Good morning. I'm Kengiro Otani, from Tokyo, Japan. I'm Kengiro Otani, from Tokyo. Don't mind Kengiro. I call him Kengiro. He's in Nigeria, actually. Hello everyone. My name is Pamela. I'm from Nigeria. I'm sure you can tell I'm an African. So we're going to spend the next four mornings together. Hopefully you'll be able to spend each of those mornings with us. If not, no worries. Come back and join us by Friday. But hopefully you'll be so excited and so inspired by the conversations we're going to have. You won't want to miss a single morning. Also know that sometimes when you come to the room, have no fear. There might be chairs. There might not be chairs. Who knows what will happen at an Asatash artistic encounter. Today, so we wouldn't scare you all, we started with chairs. But by no means is this formal or scary at all. Wait till we start the fun. Which is going to start now. So friends, some of you may have, so some of you may or may not know that Asatash operates on a three year dramaturgical plan, which inspires all of our gatherings, the Congress and the publications that come out of those events. And this year's current dramaturgy for the past three years is towards the unknown. And then it's further broken down for three topics for each of our gatherings. So in Beijing, we imagined the future. Now in Christiansund, we're confronting the present. And in Tokyo, we're going to begin the journey together. So let's confront our present today. Are you ready? Yes! If you would take out your phone. And hopefully all of you have a phone, an iPad, or a laptop with you. And are all of you perhaps also on the public internet? The password is right up here. But if you could go to your browser. I am Safari. I'm going to open that up. And then I'm going to search for a website called P-O-L-L-E-V.com Backslash Er ni no one? 353. No period. Sorry. No period. The wifi password. M-U-I-M-U-S-I-K-K-T-E-A-T-E-R-A-T. We will. Today is a first for Assatege. We are live streaming. So friends at home. And anyone watching now. You too can get on P-O-L-L-E-V.com Backslash Erni Nolan 353. Do you have to put our name? Yes, it's going to ask you for your name. Just so you can participate with us. Don't worry, I'm not keeping score. You won't be followed. Are we all on? Are we all on at home? And after putting in your name. Do you currently see this question on your phone? Oh, oh, people have started. No gold stars, not following directions. Is this your first? Yes, the page change, yes. Because people ask for the address. But there are some people starting to ask some questions already. Yes, what's happening? Yes, let's go over there. It had a question up when you wrote it. That wasn't the first one. The advocate's question. The advocate's question. When you first logged in, that one came up. And now it's working. Everyone logged on? Is this your first gathering? Do you see, is this your first Assatege gathering? Do you answer yes? Or no? No. Do you answer yes? Or no? So we're about 50-50 this morning. Next question. Oh. The polls are coming in. Oh. Yes, when you vote on your phone, the results are up here on the screen. So the votes are still coming in. For those of us who said no to this question, we've been to a gathering before. If you've been to an artistic gathering, how many? One, two, three. So many I've lost count. Including World Congress. Sure. Sure. So many, Stephens. We're saying with Congresses, great. What do you believe children have a right to? So this would be a word you typed in. Feel free to type it in in the language of your choice. Sure. We have so many languages. Yeah. You can actually type in your own language too. I love the Chinese, some Japanese. Right? Beautiful. We could watch this all day. I'm just going to jump for the sake of time. How well does your country recognize children and young people as full members of society? Excellent. Very good. Good. OK. Pick which one or vote twice. Back to you. For you, how often are young people a part of your creative process? Always, sometimes, never. Thank you for being honest, thank you. We're confronting. Interesting. How generous are you sharing ideas, resources, and perspectives with other artists in your home countries? Are you so generous? I try to do what I can, or I'm a Scrooge, I don't share. Again. Can we know how many people are similar? Why did you say that? How well does your work or workplace reflect all voices and diverse perspectives? Excellent. Very good. Good. OK? All voices and diverse perspectives. How often do you embrace imaginative and challenging aesthetics? Always, sometimes, never. How often do you create a space where free expression is possible and ideas are shared openly? All the time, whenever I get the chance. Oh, all the time? I've never thought about doing that before. How often do you follow your own curiosities and inspirations? All the time, sometimes, every now and then, never. How often do you enlighten gatekeepers, meaning the teachers, politicians, families, theaters, decision makers, and funders, about issues related to TYA? So many times you've lost track. When you have an opportunity, if you have to speak, you guess you will. Or just leave me alone and let me create. You ask for the reality, not for the wish. Everybody wishes the last. Yes, exactly. Great. All right. So before we confront more in the present, let's go back to the past. And in Beijing, the encounter dreams together. The first thoughts were recorded and typed into a document which became the Beijing Manifesto. And now Stefan is going to talk us through the points of the Beijing Manifesto. It's not about going through the Beijing Manifesto. It's going about a reality check. This was what we were dreaming. This was what we were dreaming. Oh, there's a camera. Hello. This was what we were dreaming. And I wanted to make a reality check, and I think it's, you know, you see that I go this way. I go goodbye. No. Stay in the frame, though. Shut up. Is he okay? Step back. Okay. Reality check. I wanted to put some questions. You know, we start with many, many, many questions. And my questions to the seven issues, the seven themes from Beijing Manifesto are the following. First, respect. Are we respecting children and how do we show this to the children? Are we, how are we, artists respected who are working in TYA from the society? How are we respecting artists with different ideas and other backgrounds? Accessibility. Access to culture. Are we really open for all children from all social classes? What is missing to realize the idea of culture for all children in our city, in our country, in our theater? Inclusivity. Are we really barrier free in our theater? And what does that mean for the rooms, the issues, the aesthetics, the representation on the stage? Even the marketing or the guide system in the theater? And what means barrier free if you think it radically? Innovation. Innovation means renewing or going unknown paths in order to reflect the time we are living in. So how do you reflect the time we are living in concerning aesthetics, the formats you do in your theater, the artistic disciplines and the issues? How are you working with innovation? And the next point, exploration, I translated into artistic research. And how are we including children in our artistic research? And what kind of formats, networks, ideas do we have to make artistic research as artists? You know that Brecht was dreaming about a combination of science and arts. And he said this has to work together. If we try to understand the times we are living in, we need the science. Freedom, not the silence, but the science. Freedom, how are we defining freedom in the context of our artistic and political work? How are we defining freedom of speech? And what keeps us away from thinking free and speaking free? And the last thing is advocacy. And this is again the question we all don't like. But how are we addressing the gatekeepers, the teachers, the parents, the journalists, the politicians? And how can we be heard better addressing these people? Maybe it's not only the fault of the others that we are not hurt. So, thank you. That was my questions. And I hope that this raises questions in the audience that we will work on in the next hours. So, after hearing about the Beijing Manifesto, thank you, Stefan. Thank you. So we asked seven of our colleagues from around the world to speak about those topics from the Beijing Manifesto. But how they deal with those topics in their own countries today. So now we're going to hear from our friends who have prepared small presentations, two, three minute presentations with slides. We tried to do a little Pechakucha. There are many Pechakuchas for us all. So we can not only hear about what they are doing, but also see their perspectives as well. And so I'm going to say the topic, and if that person can come forward, I'm going to DJ the PowerPoint slide. Help me. And then if you can say your name and where you're from before you begin your presentation. So our first presentation is respect. While we're waiting for Kristina's presentation to come up, Bebe had a wonderful suggestion. It's a bit lonely on the live stream. So if you think this would be interesting for any of your friends around the world, please share the live stream and say that they can join on to this and look at this right now. And Bebe, where do you do that? In Facebook. In Facebook. Great. Thank you, Kristina. Or do you share the whole community? Okay, so I'm Kristina Hjelsberg. I'm from Norway. I create and do children's and youth theater with the same seriousness as I do with adult theater, as I suppose everyone else here in this room does. Unfortunately, I experienced that children's theater does not have the same status as adult theater. And this makes me actually very surprised. I think that our job is to lift TIA to the same level of respect as theater grown-ups. It does not mean that it should be the same. It means it's supposed to be different. Maybe even more difficult to level up to a child's frame of experience. Is it anyone here tried to play with a three-year-old for an hour recently? It's really hard work. I utmost believe that we have a problem in our society of increasing polarization between ages, between gender, between different cultures, between urban and rural. This polarization is due to fear. We might call it racism. I call it the fear of the unknown. The fear of what is different. The fear of what does not resemble me or reminds me of me. It seems today that the antidote to this fear is sameness. The eagerness to fit in the same frame. To say that everything is a social construct that has manifested itself a bold truth of time. This makes people confused. Because if you take a really good look, with wide open eyes, you will see that we are actually different as homo sapiens. Some have dark skin, some have pale skin, some have red hair, others black. Some have wrinkles, others not. Some fall in love with the same gender, others fall in love with the opposite. Some believe the purpose of life is to glorify God and the afterlife. And some believe life on earth is the only paradise we have. We are different. Our diversity creates energy. It is a great asset that we should cherish. It makes the world exciting. Who actually wants to a world where everyone are the same, where everyone are alike? Well, I don't. My point is this. We are different, period. Stop trying to make us being the same. Let's learn to respect differences. No one is less valuable, even if they are not the same. I think we can get there. Respect for differences, instead of trying to make everyone be the same. Then empathy and respect for other forms of life also will become a natural extension of this. Greta Thunberg, I admire her. She's a living and only a rubber daughter from the famous Swedish novelist, Astrid Lindgren. She risks so much for what she believes in. Maybe the truth is so simple that only a child can see it. Like in the fairy tale for the emperor's new clothes. Let's support the children, respect them, and through it teach them respect for others. Thank you. Our next speaker is on accessibility. Hello everyone. My name is Yuk, I'm from Mozambique. Now I'm talking my bad mantra. My English is very bad, but it's okay. I'm talking about accessibility. In Mozambique now is a big problem for performers, for children, and young. But people and work and theater and performing for children, she's look is a business. Because in my city Maputo is a too much center cultural from Portugal, Brazil, and France, and Germany. And this center is no include children outside for city. But these performers free, but people outside for city no go to town. Because this space and center cultural and theater is very elitist space. But me I'm talk people and theater about this. And the letter from center cultural because it's very important to take this performance outside for city. And invite people and outside for city to come to visit your center cultural or theater. But I'm talk people and theater or artist. I'm talk about you create and something perform for children. Include the children. No much outside children, children from city, or children from hospital, or orphanage, or special children. Because this performance is very important to connect to children, no exclude children. But I'm work in hospital and orphanage and performance to take my performance in hospital or orphanage. Or invite people in orphanage to come to see my performance and connect another company in Mozambique. But I'm take my job in another country in another city in Mozambique. No stay in Maputo and Nampola and Sofalla and Niasa is another city in Mozambique. But I'm take performance for outside for city and talk and children and teaching children for performance. I'm call this project is Iliad Mozambique is a beautiful place in Mozambique. But people she is living in Iliad Mozambique. It's no money, it's no space to cultural. But me I am work and children from Iliad Mozambique. And teaching is possible to go to see the beach and take people she is eat and put as is possible to work. This in theater on enjoy something because it's a very important to talk about this. Now I'm sing one music for me. There is an inclusivity. Hi everyone. My English also is not the best one. Like my Mozambique colleague. My name is Yetsu Ortueta. I'm not from Brazil. I live in Brazil the last 16 years. I'm from Basque country. I say that Basque country was north of Spain. It's because I also speak Eustera, a very old European language. And for me to say that I am Basque Nehuon is I think that is a good thing. I work with children last seriously for the last five years. And I have two works. Directly thinking for to do or to play with children that is flow. And the other one is this work. And the other one is Campo. It's a new work that I have premiered months ago. And to talk about inclusivity. I wrote some words here. And the technology helped me to read in English. So let's go. I think of my aesthetic works as open structures that meet the meeting and the collective event. That's why I might be invited to speak here. Making inclusive art is one of the characteristics of my research and artistic vision with early childhood. To work directly with the uniqueness of each child and to do it collectively. From this singular point of view I think of the power and characteristics that each one of us has. And the change that takes place together. I start from the idea that every child chill is an artist and that every chill is a special. Regardless of specific characteristics. But that thinking about inclusive art. Maybe what I do is a collective art that does not exclude anyone. That depends on the other to assist. Or rather that invites us to create and play collectively beyond the specificity of each one. Yeah, this is Campo. It's my second work. In my second work Campo. Campo is filmed. Decide the children. I include also co-creators accompanying adults to create together structures of affection. My idea. I have only done this work a few times. But it's just started that a mother or father can play with a child who is not their son. The idea of my work is to create unique events that can only be generated with the presence and active relationship with the other. And this is, and this other one, and this other, we can be all. But me reading English is like, I don't know what I have. I don't know also if you have understood something. It's a strange experience. But just to finish I think that, just to say that for me, my work is always collective. Like I need the other to play it. I can play alone. And also it's like free creative songs or spaces. So I play flow for example in Palestine in refugee camps. I was very strong. You see how the specificity of the other, of the children or also sometimes with adult, is the real power of the possibility to make the play and to create life together. Ja. Next point, innovation. A quick warning before I start. I had to make an automatic 20 seconds slide. It never matches with my text. But maybe today, but before it never matched. I will do my best. But if the pictures run away, never mind. I will keep on talking. So this is Master Gerhard. He is the first builder of the famous dome in Cologne. And he started construction in 1248. And envisioned a building that today is the most famous and most often visited spot in whole Germany. So the man with the plan started construction and this construction process worked for over 600 years. And this actually means that the poor Master Gerhard and neither of his grand-grandchildren or following builders were ever able to see the result of what they had started. But they had a vision of the future and they kept on building. And so they imagined what the future would look like. So this inspired me of the definition of innovation as caring about the future. Like something, this is a possibility for the future different from our present. And yeah, I think this can be helpful in TYA as well as TYA innovation today. Often it's more like a marketing strategy, like enforcing ourselves, like being competitive on an economical capitalist logic. Track the new themes fast, deliver a new place. Reach most people as possible to be successful in the eyes of our gatekeepers and be competitive. So I think what we need in innovation is another type. And I think that today's theater is going on, recreating the expressions, recontextualizing our narrations. But also too often we become like historic museums or living museums of theater or like just adaptation factories of school literature or school yard problems. So this is a problem in innovation. So what we need more is time for really digging into the fields that are interesting to us. Innovation often comes like a checklist, like create one baby play, check, do one play with refugees, check. This is like we rush through, in one season we take this topic and next season we switch to the new type. And we never really get to the complexity of the thing, so this is a problem. What we need when we do construction is say no to competition and go more to collaboration. And from what I've observed in the past years, this is starting already. We have lots of groups and theaters interesting in working together, exchanging. And it becomes like a working habit to do that. But still the word fair often is here. I'm sorry. I'm far behind. But the term fair today still is more of a fantasy than actually a fact. So we have to work on it. And in Germany the ensemble network is pointing out very bad working conditions. So there's still lots to do in this field of collaboration on a real fair base. Okay, so before we start sustainability, I think that if we really care about our future, we as artists have to ask if our construction plan do consider things like repairing, recycling, renewable energies, green travel, hello. And to us if our constructing building plans actually leave any resources and spaces for others, often they don't. So, once before, can we talk about it? Yes. So the innovation I'm talking about is not comfortable and it's a big change because we need to question ourselves and our habits and our basic theater system. So we need to be uncomfortable for ourselves and we need to become more disobedient with the gatekeepers and say no to the consume we should produce. My big question about these things is how can we as artists and parts of society as members of this world and citizens, how can we create or bring ourselves to fancy a concept of innovation that actually cares more about the future and less about our own present comfort. So how will we like to embrace an idea that actually needs us to voluntarily say no to our own privileges and say no to wanting it all here and now. Thank you. Next is exploration. Good morning. Good morning. Hello, I'm Ria Harada. I'm the, what's the name? Alumni for next generation and also the member of the company. And so I'm talking about exploration. I wanted to talk about international collaboration work. I believe the work takes you to the whole new world where you have never been to. First I should say I'm very lucky Japanese one because I'm here for the energy and for the performance and I'm in the process of the international work among Germany, Brazil and Japan. So we just finished the two weeks excellent rehearsal in the do so though with Stefan. We are going to San Paolo in September after this for the premiere. So how did this wonderful opportunity fall to me through our stage. And I have been seeing the many, many motivate artists and international wonderful shows from all around the world through our stage. So I should appreciate our stage. Thank you very much. At the beginning I said I'm very lucky one. I had such a great collaboration work experience for the UAE. But in general it is very difficult for the other Japanese artists to have. There are so many issues. But today I just wanted to highlight the two things. So we didn't have like a group photo yet. So to have international collaboration, English is a universal language to communicate. But English communication level in Japan is quite low. So there are not so many artists for the UAE can speak English very well. Having a translator is cost money. And having said that money thing, I want to switch the financial issue. Japan is a country that not support for art and artists. That's from my point of view. Especially for children. And I feel Japan is more local focus than international. I believe international collaboration work, it is very important for the artists to expand your artistic view and possibility. You work and see the people who have a different background. You get very inspired and often you open your diverse vision more. So as an artist for the UAE or for children, you must have it. So this chart is in Japanese. But it's a rate of the committed suicide rate for young age from 15 to 24 years old. So Japan is highest rate. Second is Korea. And third is the US, UK, Germany, France and Sweden. And this rate is going higher and higher. This is terrible. But why? I think young people in Japan feel lonely living their life. It is because I believe they live such a small world and don't feel diversity through their life. Now we have internet connection, we can access the world that people said. But it doesn't work. So we have to show them the world is big and full of possibility waiting for you. But how? Study English hard? Maybe not. I think one of the solution is the Astage Congress in Tokyo 2020 is coming. This is a great chance to get a young audience and artists and come to the many diverse shows and collaboration. We have to nail it. I believe theater has the power. Next is Freedom. Hi, my name is Christian. I'm from Bendigo in Australia. Bendigo may be the only city in the world named after a bare knuckled boxer. So bear that in mind. I'm going to talk about context first. This is the first slide. Freedom in my country, your level of freedom can be connected to your cultural heritage. This is a photograph of Indigenous young people in the detention centre. Number two, where I'm from, your freedom can depend upon how you entered the country. People who entered by airplane have more freedom than those who entered by boat. And these are children that tried to enter Australia who are on the island of Nauru. And this is a contrasting image. This is also in my country, but it is the city where I live in Bendigo. These young people who are free to engage in political demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience. And in today's world we don't take that for granted. So you can see that in my context there is a huge array of difference in the freedoms that you might have. That creativity. So many creatures, including humans, play. Scientists tell us that play is essential to our social evolution. After all, free play is sometimes dangerous. If free play wasn't so important, creatures like us wouldn't have evolved to do it. Freedom is a space where people are empowered to take risks. Risks that make the impossible possible. Risks that make the imagined real. Creativity is often referred to as thinking outside the box. But I think there is a lot of freedom to be found inside the box too. There is freedom in simplicity. And there is freedom in shared imagination. There is also freedom to be found in anonymity. Performance can be very, very intimidating. But just sharing in a moment with others, that can be transformative. It also seems to me that a child's freedom can be inversely proportional to the weight of expectation of their parents and their elders. Expensive schools, narrow definitions of success, exclusive accelerated programs. These are all things that probably come at the expense of the freedom of children. And finally, this is my daughter who coincidentally is named Liberty. We're not sure why we called her that. It just got right at the time. But over time, I've come to realize that there is incredible freedom that comes with the commitment and the focus required to nurture children. The commitment to nurturing our young has set me free of so many of the trivial and slightly egomaniacal things that I previously spent all my time on. And last but not least, is advocacy. Hi everyone, my name is Jonathan Chapman. I'm from the USA. I just want to say it's an honor to be here, and I'm so inspired by hearing from my colleagues. Hello to my colleagues at home, where it is in the middle of the night, but hopefully you'll be watching in the morning. So, how is advocacy currently playing out in the US in terms of TYA? In the United States, we continue to advocate for respect, support and appreciation of the value of TYA in the lives of young people. We have a lot of challenges. Arts funding at the government level remains extremely low, given our scale. The arts continue to be cut from school curriculums and budgets, and where it is in schools, we fight against the domination of the title in the content that's chosen by schools. The wider theater community doesn't really see TYA as artistically significant as the work for adults, and that perception and stigma associated with TYA affects arts criticism, training opportunities, and artists' participation in our work. And the major private foundation funders in the US who fund theater exclude TYA, seeing it as arts education and not art. So we have a long way to go. TYA-USA considers advocacy for TYA with funders, the wider theater community and society at large, one of our primary functions, as Assates USA. So considering our size and diversity as a country, we also see the importance of advocacy within our field, unifying the TYA community across the US, and ensuring our continued development. This map, the green states are where we have members in the Assates USA network. So what's kind of interesting is it also overlaps our political map. So one way we achieve the internal advocacy in the field is by hosting an annual festival and conference in the US. Because we find that our members are actually so siloed across the US that often they're the only TYA practitioners in their state. So bringing everyone together annually within our country is actually incredibly important to unify our message, inspire our members, and think about how we're advancing the field within the US. This year our event was held in Atlanta, Georgia at the Alliance Theater. And one of our key advocacy initiatives this year that we focused on was ensuring that the TYA-USA field in the US represents the diversity of our country. And that means on stage, in our theater leadership, and in the artistic voices that we champion. We also addressed how TYA should be focused on the issues that are facing young people today, and that we're pushing ourselves in terms of the content that we're putting on stage. This year's event was majorly galvanizing for the field and unifying, and off of the energy of that we hosted a groundbreaking initiative with the National Endowment for the Arts, which is our major government funding body. We partnered with them on a symposium that would advocate to journalists, the wider theater community, and funders about the value of TYA. So what was great was that in May at our event we were able to unify our message, even though we're incredibly diverse in terms of practitioners. Think about how we would present a case to outside stakeholders, and then brought all of those people together for a one day symposium that the National Endowment for the Arts sponsored. And this was a big moment for us in terms of presenting a unified message, and having a funding body that represents the entire US speaking on our behalf. Who will actually be printing a report about the event and going on our behalf to other funders. So we hope to see our advocacy efforts grow from this event. We're now meeting with all those major funders in the US as part of this initiative, advocating for the case of funding for our member theaters at the same level as our partners who create work for adults. And one of the ways that we can better articulate that message is through a new wave of research that's happening in the US, advocating for the benefits of TYA. We conducted our own study this past year, polling our members to basically present a snapshot of the industry in the US. From everything from ticket sales to the number of audiences we're serving to make a case using data about our impact. And then one of our member theaters, the New Victory Theater in New York, just finished a landmark study on the intrinsic impact of TYA on young people. That study will be published pretty soon, but one of the key findings of it, which shouldn't surprise anyone in the room, is that young people who experience theater at a young age have increased hope for their future. Which seems obvious, but having data to support it and demonstrate that is hugely beneficial to making a case outside of our field to the people who might not understand the value of TYA in the lives of young people. So we are amplifying this research across the US within the field and externally to try to make the case on behalf of our members. And we're really looking forward to thinking about how we can partner internationally now to advocate beyond the US and work with our colleagues to amplify this message worldwide. Thank you. All right, we're going to take a brief stretch break. We're going to take a quick break so that we can also read the room. Yes, so we're stretching five minutes. That would be 10, 14.