 Welcome, welcome to ETC, to ETC, to ETC. Okay, I'm a very bad singer, I know, but the reference I just tried to make is of course the song from Liza Minnelli from Cabaret. And it was a film who took place exactly in a moment like today where theater was very difficult to do. It was of course in Nazi Germany. It is not a fascism who we left in the last year, but a terrible pandemic. And theaters were silent again. So very welcome to our conference about silence theater and the effects of COVID-19. I'm absolutely delighted to be your host for the next hour and a half. We will have a wonderful performance, a panel discussion and also the possibility for you all to participate with questions. You are very much invited to do this right now because we do this very specific ETC conference in partnership with whole round theater comments. And thanks to this, we have a very large international audience today who takes place. And you all are invited to add your questions from now on and during the performance and the panel discussions to place your questions and we will try to answer them in the rest in the very end. And it would be delightful if you already say to whom your question is directed to. The discussion we do right now is a part of the week of the new European drama ETC just does right now in the collaboration with the Schauspielhaus Graz and this conference is also the very first hybrid format we're doing. So this means there are people like me all over the world in my case from Berlin who participate but the panel members also are in Graz in the Schauspielhaus who is a wonderful host for this event for the whole week but also for this event. It is important in this time we are living right now to talk about silence and theaters especially of course in Eastern Europe. I think about Hungary, Poland or Slovenia. We will talk about this and we have members from these countries today to talk about how theater is possible, how free speech and expression is possible or impossible in the times, in our actual times. We will in the very first time, of course we're in the first place we will have some welcoming words and a little video from our host. It is because we are in the theater of Graz. It is Iris Laufenberg we will meet right now. She will give us a little run through the Schauspielhaus and then at the end she also will be live to say some welcoming words. So let's start with further ado from Graz Austria from all over the world with this first hybrid conference from ETC. First of all, the video from Iris Laufenberg and we will see us back in eight minutes. Hello everyone, I'm Iris Laufenberg. I'm the artistic director of this wonderful theater that you can see behind me. Let me welcome you as a board ETC board member and the host of the ETC assembly and general assembly. I'm very happy, it's great to have you here, welcome. Let me say a few words before I introduce you to a close and an old friend of our theater. Graz is the second largest city of Austria and it's a capital of Austria and it's situated very close to the Hungarian and Slovenian borders. Our program at the theater is dominated by contemporary playwrights, which fits very well in the fact that Graz has a huge tradition in current drama. We also focused in intercultural projects. Now, another expert will take you behind the scenes. Welcome, Mr. Steinbein. Thank you very much, Frau Laufenberg. Thank you very much. Welcome. Thank you. Please don't interrupt me. Oh! I'm one of the oldest subscribers of this theater. And I'm a very strict viewer of this theater. Okay. So, I'm very pleased and honored to take you on a tour through this theater. Digital technology means the possibility to reach out beyond the city. So, I will do my tour in English. If I only had known that. This tour wants to give you a quick overview so that you will find your way around easily. Well, that's a labyrinth, to be honest. When you come to visit the theater the next time. Yes. We will now start the stage entrance. Visit several places inside the building. And in about two hours we'll leave it through the main entrance. So long. Before you enter the Schauspielhaus Graz you have to check your temperature. So, we lie. Apparently, I'm dead. I'm looking for the probabühne. We have to talk in English, you know. We have to talk? Okay. I need to go to the probabühne. The first problem, there is no probabühne. What? There is no probabühne. Of course, there is no probabühne. There was always been a probabühne. No, no, no. We have house 1, house 2 and house 3. And if you want to drink something, you can go to house 4. Yes. Yes, that's the new stuff, you know. Now they call it different. How is the probabühne cold now? You know what? House 2. House 2. House 2. House 2. House 2. And how do I find house 2? What? How do I find house 2? So, yeah. That's tricky. At the moment, the technical setup for a production takes place that will have its world premiere in September at Deutsches Theater Berlin as part of another festival dedicated to contemporary authors. Solid. Today, by the way, is by Amanda Laska Berlin called Wonderful Me and How I Love Disturbing Content. This is a terrible title. Gschu, gschu. I want some privacy. Very charming. Yes, she is the reason why I have still my up on the mo. So, now we are... Sorry, sorry, sorry. I'm making my moderation now. I'm making my moderation now. No, I'm making my moderation now. It won't be long and then I'll be gone. So, now, we are at house 3. House 3. The smallest... Don't... Don't read with me. I don't like that. So, we are on the smallest stage in house 3. House 3 is located on the third floor of the building. Just opposite the entrance to the third gallery with the cheap seats. The Schauspielhaus Graz has approximately... No, exactly 550 seats. But now, due to Corona, there are only 300 seats allowed. Yesterday, there was a full house at the premiere of All ist offen. Which means translated, it is a beautiful, studio dialect. It means everything open or all are apes. I don't know exactly. And this was a very emotional moment for me. A full house and see it again. Seeing people on stage after such a long period of time, half a year of closed see it. And now, we go down to the barquette and stop for a short visit on the first floor to a very special place. The beautiful Red Dutton Saal. This is very loud, the music. This looks very exhausting. Thank you for letting us see the rehearsals. I'm sure you are not very pleased with that yet, but I think it will be great. I'm on the stage. I'm not supposed to be on the stage, but now you will see the stage. This is a post-stage design for Secretic Data. A very famous film. And now the Schauspielhaus Graz also hopes on the trend to bring films on the stage. Eight to ten new productions come out on the stage every year, plus some guest performances, mainly from well-known Austrian artists, writers and musicians. Altogether, the Schauspielhaus Graz brings out twenty new productions and performs around 440 shows during a season in Graz, plus eventually some abroad, for instance upon invitations of festivals or as guest performances. The ensemble consists of twenty actors at the moment and the theater and finds it important to even out the number of male and female performers and directors. For me personally, it is of no matter what sex the artists have. It is no matter the quality is, what is important for me as the oldest subscriber in Schauspielhaus Graz. How do I get off here? Help! It is very high. Very dangerous. Now we are in the foyer, in this beautiful foyer of the Schauspielhaus Graz. We are at the end of this tour. Thank you very much for your attention. And now I wish you, a conference. A wonderful conference. Have a nice day and bye. Servus. This is a very small schrift. But you are wearing glasses. Yes, but they are not as good as they should be. Hello back everybody. I love Mr. Steisenbein and he made me really feel good about my German accent in talking English. Thank you so much for this original tour. Great to have all generations in the Schauspielhaus Graz. And I am delighted now to introduce you to Iris Laufenberg, because she is also in Graz and can say hello to us. Hello Iris, where are you? Hi, I am in one of our rehearsal rooms here in Graz in the Schauspielhaus. Good morning to everyone. Of course, also those of you who are joining us virtually. Again, it's a great pleasure to welcome you all here and to finally host the ETC General Assembly in Graz. So you are not only here as members of the ETC, you also are here as artistic directors, as directors, as colleagues in the theater and friends of the arts. So we are framing the ETC Assembly with our drama festival that we founded six years ago. The main goals of our festival are firstly to show various forms and aesthetics of contemporary writing in guest performances, in discussions, in readings and in our own shows. Secondly, the festival is a meeting point for authors and playwrights across borders to come together here in Graz personally. By the way, you can find a list of names of playwrights who were involved in our festivals over the last six years. It's in our program booklet. I will show you. It's really an impressive list of names, isn't it? Lastly, the festival provides a platform also for young artists. Responsible for this talent springboard is our cooperation partner, Unity. It promotes young talents from the very beginning of their career and they become well known, of course. For example, one example is Ferdinand Schmeitz. He was part of the Unity a program years ago and he won the Red Sova Drama Award. However, it doesn't matter at all who the winners are, because you can be sure that you will find one of them on our stage in our program of the Schauspielhaus Graz. Finally, working on and with contemporary drama and authors is besides the classic repertoire, the main contribution we as a theater can make through the social, cultural development of the arts and for all of us in the future. So thank you for your attention. Have a good time in Graz and I would like to that you have a great and wonderful time. Thank you for your attention. Thank you so much. Also, applauding from Berlin, thank you so much Iris and so after this little overview, what all happened with the Schauspielhaus Graz. Let me just also remind you that ETC is the largest European network from public theaters with 42 members from 25 countries and one is the Schauspielhaus Graz who is hosting this event this whole week and the event this morning and so Iris is also the ETC vice president and I'm now delighted to introduce you to the ETC president, the director and artist director of the theater in Belgium and he also has a little welcome message for us. Dear colleagues, dear friends, first of all I would like to warmly thank Iris Lofenberg for hosting our international conference in our theater and of course the ETC team for their persistence in organizing this program in spite of an helpful situation for international development in which we have been living for too long now. Thank you to AD, to Elaine, Teresa, Christy and Duna. I welcome you all, dear network members and guests to the Schauspielhaus Graz and its virtual theater on drama.digital as well as the live stream audience. I'm very pleased that the ETC international theater conference takes place in the first ETC week of a new European drama. A week long celebration of new writing and the relevance of theater stories for today's society. For this program has a special link to the main theme of our conference namely the international cooperation as a key to overcome the crisis both globally and obviously for our sector. After more than one year of closed venues and theaters and following the political turmoil some of our fellow Europeans are facing we must now more than ever resist the closing of the borders the rising of nationalistic cultural policies the future national budget cuts for cross border activities the absence of planning perspectives and the production jam effect. Above all we must find new ways for European collaboration to grow and last. To sustain European theater as a fundamental public democratic space where open societal dialogue can take place and diverse multilingual voices and intercultural perspectives can be art. We need to sustain the European dimension of our work and ensure international relations beyond Europe. To make this happen we have to set up an increased advocacy for the recovery of the sector begin a strategic transformation process in venues and awareness towards a more sustainable diverse and digital practices and support the creation and sharing of joint narratives. The question we need to ask ourselves to lay the foundations for reflection would be the following. Oh can we move forward each theater individually and together connected in our European theater network. I leave you with that thought for now and pass the world to ID Wile Executive Director of ETC. Hello and welcome also from me. It's a real pleasure to welcome you to this real ETC premiere. We've heard it's a hybrid event that we're organizing here and this is just another premiere after the many new experiences that we made over the last year when we first started to switch our digital stages, digital venues simply to continue our work. And now I must admit it really feels a bit surreal to be here in Graz in the Schauspielhaus in the Probebühne that we've just seen during the tour at the Schauspielhaus with this nice stage decor behind me and seeing colleagues in front of me after 15 months of being distant and therefore we try to bring together our online community and the few lucky people who were able to travel to Graz to join this online program in our hybrid conference. So I hope you will enjoy this but I think you all agree being in the same space at the same time has been something very much debated as a condition for theater over those last months theater is for the here and now with audiences used to say and it's so fantastic that this finally can happen again at the same time our digital stages I'm sure they will remain open but don't worry I will not bore you now with all the details of Einstein's theory on the relativity of simultaneity I'm sure you all know about this anyway but I want to tell you ahead of our conference some of us will surely have different experiences and different versions of those conference days given that you're all in your own space and in your own time especially as we have audiences joining us from different time zones and this means while some of us are still in the past others are in the present and some are already in the future and while we don't know yet and honestly we will be in the future to continue doing everything simultaneously the good thing I want to remember about this is that there is always somewhere a future ahead of us no matter what we lived through especially in this last year which was very devastating a time a year in which many nearly all of our theater halls were silent, closed and no audiences allowed to enter for us in EDC this was a very direct effect of COVID-19 as in terms of cooperation we now face a prioritization and a focus towards national collaboration then much later we think again about European collaboration and eventually international collaboration the reasons for this Serge just mentioned and our predictions are the further geographically distant we aim to reach, exchange with one another the more incentives will be needed financially as well in regards to respecting the principles and values of ecological sustainability and also thirdly as we heard to overcome restrictions of cultural diversity and freedom of expression as increasingly imposed by many liberal democratic governments in the countries we work in so therefore I hope these days will inspire you and that these days will be constructive and to contradict Einstein that this time is no illusion but these days will offer the time and the space for exchanges to create new works new drama that reflects in the theater programs of public theaters in Europe the diverse notion of what Europe means based on diverse traditions languages, opinions and dialogue and that the talks that we will have and the collaboration projects that we developed during these days will help to reveal again the diverse voices on our stages and in our theater halls to ensure also the responsibility of the arts and humanities to envision an open and equal Europe we want to live in for all people thank you thank you so much thank you so much here I'm back again yes so thank you so much Heidi Willis so executive director of ETC and I agree so much with you nothing compares to be in the same room and living an artistic and creative experience together so for this very lucky few people in Graz it will be a life performance you will see for us it will be digital but we will think it will be life so I'm very happy to introduce our performance artist for today before we go to the panel discussion she has come Slovenia and is she is awarded with a lot of awards the national award for best play best libretto etc. her writing she likes to play with language and form and the theme she's the most interested in is the dysfunctional modern society this is a large field of action right now for sure but also discrimination and feminism so the stage is yours Simona Hammer from Graz for her performance named everything is possible or a play writes notes on how reality became more dramatic than fiction we will see us back in 15 minutes hello good morning yes my name is Simona Hammer I am an award-winning playwright and dramaturg and I come from Slovenia a country that was hijacked by the right-wing party leader in March 2020 and is still held hostage today I want to show you what can happen when you mix a virus fear capitalism nationalism and playwriting everything is possible or play writers notes on how reality became more dramatic than fiction prologue autumn 2019 I'm writing a comedy about an epidemic of headlines in an elementary school I'm sure you can imagine first there is one then two then parents start to panic and teachers get intimidated at a nervous attack of a principal an ambitious substitute teacher and a paranoid security guard and soon we are rescuing children from gas chambers but then real life intervened and all my great ideas about characters keeping 2 meter safety distance wearing head protection and coming up with a system of segregation no longer seemed so brilliantly imaginative it changed the genre of my play from a comedy to a documentary drama and exposed that I suck it's turned out that every Facebook conspiracy theorist had more imagination than me a professional writer at first I was pissed and depressed but then I started to see the reality of my performance I recognized the playwriting mechanisms but boy oh boy the writers of this new normality are really badass they established that anything goes through launched new genres and poetics redefined conflict boosted plot twists chopped up the narration upgraded the set introduced new venues such as sofas and wiped out catharsis I was hooked and jealous act one scene one now every great tragedy opens with a chorus but this new world order doesn't follow the traditional dramaturgy strike the chorus you're not allowed to gather or protest it's not good for public health you know so the streets are empty people are hiding in their homes obsessing over numbers of newly infected and killing each other over whose turn it is to use the computer months go by a year goes by then a few teenagers gather in a public square with masks safety distance and signs back to school back to school they should take responsibility for their illegal actions this is their first step into adulthood said the minister of education who is by the way very proud of the fact that her country had the longest online schooling in the world we are the champions no time for losers because we are the champions and then a bicycle drives by act one, scene two let's meet the characters there's not much innovation here even the acting style is well a little old fashioned please give a warm welcome to ministers I mean a dramatic persona inspired by comedy delarte vantalone a yes man that bands things no protests, no investigations of corruption, no border crossings, no thinking no no no no no no no harlequino fights for water being sold back to you in a bottle then we have ildatore who passionately engages in culture of drinking the prime antagonist is the so-called Slovenian patient, a convicted criminal and an unelected missionary that prefers tweeting over talking and insulting over well basically anything else then the protagonist well we are actually still searching for the protagonist a bicycle drives by act one, scene three costumes I won't go into details about their complex influence on the narrative characters and choreography I just want to point out one symbolic layer, uniformity now this seems to be a common threat since the government recently invested 780 million euros for military to compare this is four times the annual budget for culture the public was strongly against a new combat action movie in the middle of the pandemics but those in power ignored the constitution and forbade the referendum we are the champions of time for losers and the bicycle and another one scenes one to five an artist gets a letter Ministry of Culture is informing him that because he spends too much time protesting instead of creating they are taking away his status of self-employed cultural worker it's illegal so to us bicycles people working in the film industry are waiting waiting for the restrictions to lift so they can work again and waiting to get paid for the work they have already done it's because of covid says the government and continues to block already approved funds allocated to national film center for eight months now for all of you loving this story I'm happy to inform you that it has a sequel as well as a spin-off involving a national press agency and a crowdfunding campaign to support until the government stops blocking taxpayers money intended for this agency now it's too soon to tell how it ends but a spoiler alert if you pay close attention to the visual narrative of the show you will notice a certain flag hanging from the government buildings in support of actions that include bombing press agencies you don't like theaters are closed for seven months no live performances and then good news you can reopen today but under certain conditions if the seating capacity is 400 people 10 people can watch the performance and they have to prove they are vaccinated, tested negative or already had the virus and wear masks the government is sorry we live in exciting times is the title of art and exhibition in Brussels accompanying our presidency of the EU but then very last minute the show is cancelled by Il Dottore he doesn't like one of the artists 10 days and countless protest letters later the exhibition is back on calculated by the minister himself we live in exciting times the government is working extra hard to appoint new directors both members members of committees the speed of this process is so fast actually two per day it's not just the audience that can't keep up brand new 75 year old director of national book agency said I know a little about books but I'm no expert for that types of agencies we are going to do great as the guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2023 we are the champions X3 scene one name calling pointing fingers avoiding answering the questions rambling on about irrelevant things reinterpreting history threatening we are not watching a reality show but a political debate on national television left wing government was in power for 10 years and they weren't able to provide additional accommodation in nursing homes but our minister managed to secure 1000 new beds in only a year Slovenia had one of the highest COVID-19 death rates most of the people who died lived in those nursing homes so you do the math we are the champions X3 scene two bicycles this is how people protest peacefully and with a safety distance tens of thousands are cycling around the parliament once a week for more than a year now I guess we do have a chorus after all can you hear them we are the champions we are the champions my friend and then police sirens and helicopters and water cannons and cut I forgot to tell you this lecture performance is actually a work in progress so the next step is to open up a public debate to invite experts to share professional analysis ask questions make suggestions because if you want to exercise your privileged position to speak publicly you first have to excel at listening happy luck as an artist I am struggling with great dilemmas we all are how can theatre makers respond to this flood of destruction, hate capitalism and bullshit what to put on stage how to be political and inclusive how to satisfy the audience the critics, the actors and the box office how to step down from the hamster wheel of hyper production but still offer a variety of quality shows and performative practices to live stream or not to live stream and safety measures and covid and politics and what's the point of art anyway drama, drama, drama but in this chaos we tend to forget about the basic and perhaps the most revolutionary power of art to make us feel less alone to give us a sense of community and to remind us that despite all the wonderful unique differences we are essentially the same we can all identify with pain, fear, anger love and with the characters that are for centuries now speaking their truths from the stage it is not my nature to join in hate but in love thank you thank you so much these Slovenian artists who gave us this fantastic journey about a covid year of creation or non-creation and thank you so much for your humorful and self-derision way of telling this it is now the moment for me to introduce you to our panel members who will discuss our main topic today what was also the content of course of this performance silence theater in 2021 illiberal democracies and effects of covid-19 so first of all I would like to introduce you to Nikolas Ninas he is a member of the european parliament it is german member of the green EFA group since july 2019 and he is also very much committed to culture and education he is a part of this and I would like all the other two members also Martha Cale and Andras Dimmiter I will introduce in a moment I first would like you to have a reaction from you Nikolas to Simone's performance knowing that you also were meant to be an actor in your younger years before you decided to become a political guy please Nikolas the floor is yours thank you very much I was very happy for the little bicycle that came around all the time and if I would have known that there was the catch of the presentation I would have worn my bicycle shirt today as well I think it's a great artistic summary and so far I'm also very happy to see the creativity that is still alive thankfully in theater business to not just develop an idea but really transport a message and to really set that idea in motion I think that is so much more valuable than just talking about what's happening and you know that's also something that I'm having troubles with in political communication to just like talk about the stories that happened in Slovenia in Croatia, in Hungary in Poland, in several other member states where we have just such a huge impact on culture and on theater but people seem to forget what that means and where that leads to attacking culture is always the very first step in order to change the society as a whole in order to get rid of criticism, to get rid of freedom and to get rid of free thinking in that society and so I think it's very important to keep that in life and tell those stories so interesting that you really feel you're there and you really understand what's happening and that you really get involved because of that so thank you very much for that very creative input here Thank you, Niklas, for this first reaction the second reaction will be from Marta Kale she's a curator and researcher from Poland one of the countries we unfortunately have to talk about because all these issues are also addressed for Poland she is redefining modes of working trans-nationally because this is definitely one of our main themes today with all what's going on with Covid and with the arising populism especially in Eastern Europe the trans-national the international, the European collaboration is more important than ever so I would like Marta to also give us a little reaction to Simona Hammer's performance, please Marta Thank you so much Annette I think I would indeed follow almost all of the turn points even the most let's say hectic and the most unrealistic ones that Simona presented because indeed I do recognize the patterns and I do recognize this kind of vicious sense of humor of the government also I do recognize this pattern I wonder whether they might have maybe graduated from the same school so to speak because indeed this kind of solutions and strategies seem to be similar but maybe indeed just to echo what Simona said and to echo what Nicholas mentioned I very much agree that what is at stake here is actually not only discussing how the arts field would look like so what is at stake here when the culture is being attacked or censored or cut off from the public finances there's not only the very way we're gonna work it's not only the very way how the field is being structured and what is possible in the theaters or not but it's also cutting off the very possibility or the very space to imagine the society otherwise because this is what happens very often in the theaters no matter whether they are public theater institutions or the small organizations that do the same work and I wonder what we are losing then is the ability to conceive, to test also sometimes to experiment the alternative ways of gathering, of getting together of thinking together and therefore to create conditions for that is probably even more important nowadays than ever and then in that sense indeed kind of creating conditions for imagining the society otherwise is something that can get us out from this very vicious entanglement of the neoliberal economic system and the nationalist tendencies that we experience in Eastern Europe but I'm afraid it's not only Eastern European problem I do recognize a lot of fascist movements or right-wing presence unfortunately in many other countries too and this makes me feel really worried and therefore I think what is really crucial is indeed to try to find ways and common patterns to struggle against that tendencies and therefore indeed as you said Annette probably one of the very few tools or solutions or strategies that I have is to work together is to continue to find ways to have a contact with each other outside of the national borders because indeed during the pandemic and I'll be happy to follow that follow it up later a contact with the peers from and different transnational activities was not only what kept me standing in terms of the human relationship but this is also at the moment the very very way that allows me to continue the curatorial artistic research practice in my own local context otherwise because of the current situation was simply would not be possible. Thank you so much Marta I think we are looking in the same direction when it comes to international and European collaborations definitely a saver for us in this situation. Simone just in the beginning of her performance she said our country is taking hostage by the extreme government also there. I mean it's the same thing for peace in Poland or also what's going on with Victor Orban in Hungary and this of course brings me to Andras Dymeter and I like very much the theater actor from Hungary but he lives between Budapest and Berlin works a lot with different various German theaters also. Andras what was your feeling when you listened to Simone's performance you also feel some echoes from what she explains. It was very uncanny because just as Marta said the patterns are the same so I was I just try to imagine that and I had very often the same impression with my own works that something that's a reality for me can be an absurd horror story for for example for you Anat what's happening there. I really I really feel that this pandemic could have been a good great chance for old societies all over Europe you know to stand together and to cooperate but it was quite frightening and not only in East Europe but simply within the European Union how extremely fast this it's it turned clear that this this common European thought that we have and the these institutions that we believe in the European Union how fast and how easily just disappears and the borders are back and the yeah this we all face mentioning these patterns it was we had and here in Budapest there's a famous roundabouts on the side of the Danube and there the cars were circling and monkeying so not the bicycles but that was so it's almost the same it's not so green it's not it's not a green solution but it but the same same thing happened here so the patterns are really really the same and you mentioned already the Prime Minister of Hungary and for me it's it's really such a you know it's so bad that even if I I make a negative propaganda for him but it's still a propaganda so it's so it's so bad that we have to permanently talk about him and getting getting back to him we will have elections next year in Hungary 2022 and he's been the Prime Minister since 2010 so like 12 years there is a chance that an alliance of all the other parties which is a bit bit perverse so from the right wing right extremists to the greens like all of them create an alliance against him which means mathematically that had been also clear during these years that if this alliance is there then does not have the majority so there is a chance a good chance for for getting back to a normal life in a year here in Budapest and what he did is that he created a state of emergency as soon as the pandemic started and very much uses it's still there out there right now and as the elections are coming next year he uses the state of emergency to empower other parties to to maneuver everything into for example this huge amount of money to maneuver into foundations and like I don't know changing the constitution again and again and again so here especially here in Hungary I wouldn't say that the pandemic with the state of emergency was I would rather say that this the the most frightening thing was this state of emergency and not the not the horror of the pandemic itself I get it very well Andres by the way when you said he's 12 years in power and you need a coalition all parties to get maybe rid of them I'm sorry I'm thinking about Israel exactly what happened right now Netanyahu was 12 years in power and the actual coalition would try to push him away from this prime minister post is also from the far left to the far right so it is the same idea everybody has come together to overcome people who concentrate too much power in their hands and giving maybe not the right direction but we won't talk about Israel just sorry to interrupt you one thing that also happened in the last year is that the Trump is gone and I think it's quite important and I think it also has an effect on what's going to happen for example here it was this prime minister whose name I don't want to say it's like in Harry Potter I don't know what's the name you don't have to say the name absolutely by the way all the married commentators the prime minister of the election they do everything to avoid the name Trump they say everything you want but not the name yes don't give them before the elections in the United States he speak up very clearly for Trump and it was quite hard it was almost absurd that in the media after Biden won the elections for 3-4 days they could not clearly communicate that in Hungary what happened because the prime minister was so much on the side of Trump and I think this really the change in the United States of course will definitely have an effect on Europe and especially on East Europe that's what I wanted to say absolutely so I will ask you some great examples how these last year especially affected completely the cultural scene in Poland and Hungary but first I want to to give the word back to our youngest panel member Niklas you are also one of the youngest European Parliament members so you are involved in European politics now what we can do on the political level to support free speech, creation collaboration across borders to self-restrain yourself on being creative in countries like Slovenia, Hungary but I mean also let's say you are totally right by the way just to say this also it is not only Eastern Europe I mean in France cultural was definitely not a priority the land of all this cultural priority normally it was not at all in all this time they opened everything else before they opened theaters so there is a real problem what politics would you can do with European Parliament on national level to help these creation going back into be free and over the borders Niklas, please Thank you, very good question I also want to reiterate that we have the problem with really cancelling culture not just in Eastern European states but everywhere where want to be dictators feel threatened by too much criticism and too much liberal freedom of the arts and therefore do everything they can and use obviously every method they can find especially like a pandemic I do think that it's like for all of us it has been a curse but for them it has been a positive rain and a blessing because then they could really pick out their most favorite haunting tools in order to crush down on critics and especially the culture so this is really true in a lot of member states I'm very happy that for example in Italy we don't have a head leger at the ministry at that moment because they would probably been also very, very much bad now just one word concerning Trump and the future of votes and elections I mean one thing, one positive note that we saw was in Poland that they're also we saw for the first time with the election or again election of the current president but with only 50, 51% so really, really close elections so I think we do have a chance to change that and now for your question concerning what we can do so first of all we obviously have for example from the European Union just two weeks or three weeks ago we reaffirmed creative Europe which is a big and now even bigger program the biggest we have ever had but to be quite honest it is still too small it is still too difficult in my opinion because I know of a lot of artists especially from Poland for example they always want to apply for that because they know that they don't get funding from other national sources so therefore they go for funding for creative Europe but they always need colleagues which is hard if you are not if you're condensed in Poland and if Poland doesn't want you to step out so they have those troubles and it's always a lot of paperwork so we need to make it easier also and I think we need to ensure that we have a certain non-cross-border dimension as well because creative Europe always has this cross-border dimension which is great which I believe is very important because we want to bring European ideas together and experience the European culture but I think in order to ensure creativity and freedom of the arts we also need to support those people in their own member states who are critical of the government who are opposition and who don't get funding because member states funding is bound to certain criteria and in order to help them I think we need also a cross-border dimension free and long term instrument to support them and then this is very critical in European politics because we don't have competences in this field it's written down in the Treaty of the European Union but we can change the treaty right I mean that is always the thing of politics we don't want to step where we are and so at the moment we have the conference on the future of Europe and I'm really really hopeful for this process to be honest because it is opening speech the representative from the European Parliament Mr. Geiforff that he's a liberal not even agreeing but he said that we should rethink whether we want to open the question of more competences in culture for the European Union Monique when he founded the European Union after what he said if I could do it again I would start with education and culture because that brings people together and I also we have organized the Culture Creators Friendship Group which is a group of members of the European Parliament from all parties except from the very far right from the idea but from all six others and we have a lot of our members actually also we have a lot of our members who are also part of the conference on the future of Europe and we want to discuss whether we can ensure more on that and we actually the discussions are going on there so if you want to support that I think it's great and for competence wise of course we don't want to you know take away national identity and regional identity but to ensure that the European Union itself is the is the guarantee that there's a minimum standard that we need to set absolutely I would directly would like to give the world to Marta just before I would like to remind everybody who has listened to us right now you can ask questions to our panel members also to Simona if you would like to please write your questions in the chat let us know we will open the question in less than 10 minutes so just write your questions and we have to answer for this so Marta we have a number of very specific European programs who help artists inside of the countries even without this crossing border and plurie dimensional financial support like Europe normally always condition and this is a very good idea as said Nicholas very concretely Marta for creating in Poland today something who is not only patriotic and nationalist and in the peace way of looking to culture and what would help you to be more creative and more free in your speech for creative creativity thank you so much for this question it's a brilliant one and exactly what Nicholas just said that very much rings the bell and this is maybe I don't feel kind of in position to represent the whole field so maybe I can just kind of root the reflection in my own experience so I can give you a kind of example of how it works at the moment my situation is exactly as the one that Nicholas just described so I can basically survive as a performing art curator and continue my work my practice only thanks to the European funds no matter whether they come they come from particular national states because they do a project there or they come from the European Union and creative Europe projects and indeed but in order to do so I am and I'm seeing that I am moving slowly out of the country and I will surely also because my partner who's also a curator we both lost the festival that we've been running for five years in Lublin the theater festival we lost it for many reasons one was that we did not want it to turn it we did not want to follow the direct demands of the local government which is not right wing and that was really dangerous it was rather the local government wanted to use the festival as a tool to promote themselves and this is what we did not accept and therefore we could not continue the festival my partner just got a job that will make him continue his career as a curator but it's outside of Poland and it's happened after I guess ten competitions he took part in and ten attempts to establish something here in the country and it's not that we want to live we never thought about it and it's not an easy decision and what would help us out is definitely a kind of stability or any kind of structural found that could allow our peers colleagues and everybody being in the field to continue their work here locally because what I'm seeing at the moment is that I can't have any kind of political influence I can't help the artists I usually work with I can't support them anymore and in order to kind of root and and and nourish the local field I have to go out of the country and therefore to the certain extent that would not be sustainable also because not being locally embedded not being locally grounded will also diminish the impact of actually influencing the field actually making develop and this is what I miss a lot and this is absolutely what this kind of found that is not necessarily only cross-border would help a lot another thing I guess that is really problematic at the moment and this is again a very kind of embodied experience this is exactly what we are at at the moment we run after we lost the festival we invited four artists we used to work with a lot based also in Poland and we formed Omega Institute there's a small collective of six people and at the moment we are part of two big European networks and two big European creative Europe projects the problem is there is no way to get a matching found no matter whether on national or on a local level and we are at risk of losing the projects and therefore and it's not only our experience it's the experience of many organizations right now in Poland but also in Hungary for instance the colleagues say exactly the same thing I presume that might that might happen in other countries in the Sokot region quite soon so what would help a lot is this kind of I guess thinking about how the solidarity among the European countries can be practiced and how and the countries that don't support any kind of critical thinking and therefore everybody be busy with these topics and trying to propose an alternative to the nationalist tendencies is actually cut off of the funding how can they be supported also when it comes to the European projects how can the matching found be somehow helped that would be also a very helpful solution. Let me make another reference to Cabaret money makes the world go around I mean it is for sure funding is key here and I'm sorry to say this directly to you Niklas European funding also because we can't count on anybody right now in Poland to finance for example projects you're talking about yeah funding is key so theater to be good and to be free and to express itself needs money let's be totally facet without money no creativity we can do little things for free and whether but you can't go along with real big project so yeah I think we hurt you mother and everybody who has ideas for funding don't hesitate to give them around underage I have now a very first question specially for you I will read it coming in the chat the question is you mentioned that it's frustrating that the conversation always returns to prime minister of Hungary Hungary even if your attention is negative propaganda so do you think that now is a bad time to tell stories on stage about fascist or authority leaders because this is still propaganda for those people and ideas so it's a kind of drama talk to a question for you you got it yes I got it yes please yes very good question it there's it's it's very logical the question so I think them I my I had been always dealing with as an artist is a theater director with political questions but I'm I'm personally more interested in the in the personal personal stories that are beside the political what that are beside those tendencies that happen in the politics and I'm also not an expert I very honestly I don't want to be an expert of politics I'm not interested in politics I just think that politics should be something like this I think politicians should work unseen and visible for us sorry sorry Nicholas for saying that but making a system working for not for artists but each and every people in each and every country and I'm so much fed up with the with populism and also the in this text of Simona Facebook and so on how how Facebook and Instagram and all these platforms are used by politicians how how the political life or politics has become something that's consumed the superficial it's it's it's like pop songs it's it's it's something I can't stand and I just simply don't want to be part of it I don't want to connect to these to these simplified statements about the political lives or the political life and what I'm interested in as an as an artist is to to see or to focus on what's happening to us who are suffering because because of the systems they create I want to reflect as also more and more politically especially in your country so you can totally avoid the political themes I just thought about it's a bit like I would say like when you're in a horror movie and you see the survivors rights and you're with them how they survive and you're not don't want to analyze the monster too long but there's another question in the chat about the risk taking sorry sorry I think for example the prime minister I think it's a psychological question you know that's my real problem that we are really talking about ideologies like if there would be anything I think it's about power and money and extremely huge economical interests and corruption and all these that we are talking about it's I think it's just the package it's just what covers the I mean all but made a clear change he was this is quite that he started as a liberal cool politician solution and and then he realized that with this he won't be the prime minister too long or he can't be the prime minister so he slowly moved to the center and then from the center open up to the far far right wing really trying to to to collect everyone together and just focus on winning the elections and sitting on the top of the table and therefore it's for me I feel that I'm in in his stupid trap when I really try to in the thing that these these ideologies are serious I think it's it's your freedom of thinking I understand I lose my my free this freedom when I try to you know just to be in the frame of this I understand very well I just this reminded me also the question of what we put on stages in these times Graz I just prepared a dictator from Charlie we hope this in the introduction from the very funny introduction from these also scribal before I'm very happy that Simona also is joining us again on stage hello Simona because so you're from Slovenia facing let's easy same problem as Poland and Hungary right now all these influences and all these mind settings just under us also talked about how do you feel do you think you are ready to for some risk taking for your next pieces you will write or do you feel already like that you have to put water into your theatrical wine to survive in these these times in Slovenia for example being a freelance artist this isn't actually it's a good question but it's not the question that I'm able to answer because I have the feeling that artists all over the world are risk takers or feel the necessity to address political or personal issues as well or current affairs I think it's more the question whether this plays or performances are put on stage are being state so I guess it's up to artistic directors of the theaters if they are able to recognize how very important it is to address certain subjects although they are maybe frightened they are too political it's interesting that in Slovenia you have a lot of freelance artists or NGOs actively protesting or actively opposing some of the laws or the government but it's usually the people in institutions with certain amount of job stability are kind of you know holding back which is again understandable but then it's left to the most vulnerable people in our society to expose themselves I get it very well thank you for this idea I think even as a freelancer the question is not only because you're not theater director you don't have this problem of self restriction in your mind giving the circumstances of the society I will read you another question coming from our audience it's for all three of you or four of you I'm sorry which such a difficult context I think theaters what can we do to keep the spirit of taking in theaters alive over the coming years this is for all of you Nicholas you will even as a political representative you can answer to this question yeah I'll try to because it's a little bit I think the points that already made to ensure that we have funding available even if you are not in line with the state state's main line like only to be favorable of the government only to praise God and the state and the nation and whatever but also to be able to have projects that do something different so I think that's why it's important to have an independent source of funding available or as independent as possible and then on the other hand I also think that what's especially important during these times and maybe not so much for the theaters but more for the people working there especially for example free freelancers is to ensure social security all over Europe that we have a social security net that ensures job loss that ensures like in this time where you just don't have the possibility to get a job healthcare of course and what I also find very important is pension funds to ensure that those who are doing work right now will also have the possibility to when they don't have the power anymore to be on state and everybody wants to do it for their whole life but probably it's not possible and that's true for all artists whether you are a musician or whatever so to have a good life at the end as well and I think if you have this security in the back that's very important and that helps a lot to be more creative and be more outgoing and I also think this is also why I say like the European Union as a guarantee for freedom of the arts in all forms which also means the social security all over Europe because we do have that in members in some member states for example in Germany it's possible but also there people who are freelancing and working together with theaters they I think they have a lot of times very big problems to come into the concerns attack which is a huge problem and they also don't get a freedom for job loss and this is in a member state where we have a very good system in other member states we have it far worse and I know from Hungary for example musicians there who said well during corona I don't have any income and thankfully I was booked at this and that university to give lessons even though they're not there anymore but if Orban doesn't like you you're not booked in the university and you're suddenly gone and that is true I mean the attack on the SCFE exactly during that time is no coincidence definitely because this was the last straw to break the neck of all the artists. We totally agree we have maybe soon last question from our panelists I just will read it to you self-censorship is a great problem in Eastern Europe what do you think about it in your own context education is really a key issue what do you think about the possibility of innovative artists and educations uniting forces and working on social issues Martha, Andres, Simona what do you think about this I would definitely say that the censorship to start from the first question is an issue at the moment and will they recognize there are two levels one is let's say more direct is economic one so I mean the self-censorship that happens because you're afraid of having some troubles as a person who runs an institution for instance you're afraid of inviting some artists or raising some topics because you might have to meet some problems or you simply kind of this is what I observe a lot a lot of even very progressive so to speak whatever that means institutions kind of shift the program to a more safe zone and this I find even more problematic because it happens in this kind of almost invisible way and then the results are really severe because you lose another space once again risk or simply asking questions sometimes it's not even about taking risk but it's simply about asking questions what I realize is that if anybody does to raise questions instead of coming with a ready answer this is already treated as a very problematic because it creates a kind of feeling of insecurity so we just had a situation in one of the big institutions in Krakow where the part of the exhibition was censored by the institution or by the curator actually because it represented some of the posters from the women's strike that happened during the pandemic here in Poland and not only it started much earlier but during the pandemic we did spend much of our time exactly on the streets and just the presence of the posters from that protest was the reasons actually cut a part of the exhibition and it happened not by the intervention by the any kind of local or national government it happened because of the decision coming from the institution and the curator and this is probably the most problematic exactly or by simply this and this is this part of economic censorship you just simply don't better cut it by yourself before you meet with the consequence of losing your funding and this is very problematic this is definitely against all free creativity there is a vicious system I would say we will be talking about your three countries right now Poland, Hungary and Slovenia but we agree it is not only in this there are other countries facing difficulties I don't want to put the blame only on this country of course it's a vicious a vicious circle of self-censorship founding organizations where key member posts occupied with people on the line of the governments etc so maybe one last idea from my side could be just not only with the programming but more transparency and communication about this maybe ETC can definitely be one of the echo rooms for this that when something like this happened that all Europe knows about that it's not only the local point or just in Poland but that we have a kind of megaphone so everybody in Europe is aware about what's happened and again not only in your three countries I think this is definitely something politics play a role but ETC can also play a role here to communicate more about all these different levels of censorship I hope you agree with me yes I think we agree with you I was also thinking of the spectators because I think if you consume arts and you're interested in new tendencies let's say in theater of course you need to watch many many bad things and then you suddenly get something good but you need this you need to be open and stay open this we we always face we go to festivals and we see many diverse things and there's always something in it but there are many many times not really really good and this is I think it's natural and this is because of that we are risking or the festivals are risking and the artists are risking and this is the price and I think there are many societies and let's talk about our societies where people are tired of politics they're frustrated they don't have that much money they don't take the risk to go to many performances to watch and this might be not so philosophical but what I say but suddenly then it's a very practical thing and I want to see something that's risky to watch so I just go for that performance that where I know the name of the artist where I know the ensemble and where I get for my money that I don't have too much of what I want to get and I think this is also something that's a problem in these societies where we are from. And for courageous spectators you're totally right and for courageous spectators I think we need strong societies where we make a last round Niklas, Marta, Andres and Simona and then we have to conclude please Niklas. I just wanted to add one thing here I think it's not just to have courageous spectators but also to have the conclusion is to have a society that's not normal but I think we need to invest more or do more general education for the arts and with that I don't only mean to understand what the big art is doing but also give the possibility to experience art yourself and to become an artist and not just in a highly professional way but just like painting a picture like doing a short course at an amateur level these little things just to get involved into art and to understand how great it is and then because of that involvement to really go out and want to see more and go to the stages to the theaters and then also be critical and be like this is bullshit this isn't just playing bad but I know it was bad because I experienced it myself I tried out myself and so on and then enjoy it more and by the way we're doing a resolution at the moment preparing it in a report in which we're talking about the situation of artists and that was very important for me to include there as well and also to ensure that we have more time in our lives to actually spend on art in general and in culture to actually enjoy that I think that's also very important I think we all agree about this unfortunately we are only two minutes more so Martha your last conclusion word about self-censorship education for arts please I'm thinking actually about a fourth point which would be how to make the voices being heard and I'm thinking about the role of indeed the networks just to come back to what has been said a minute ago or two what is possibly the role of the networks as ETC and I do strongly believe and this is probably one of the experiences we might all have shared last year that indeed the single voices are not that necessarily audible and not actually don't have such an impact as the multiplicity of voices and therefore I do believe in a strong role of networks and collective initiatives that could indeed present and also the problem but also probably advocate and reach out to the ones that the singular freelancer not necessarily has access to what we would conclude in a minute after Andres give his last word please so I have 20 seconds right I think then let's stay courageous and brave and that's what I would suggest for all of us and not to be so nice and so civilized how we talk here because this is on a long term it's not changing the thing so I think we should just be radical and clear and keep together absolutely I think that's the percentage that you've described your last word Simona your last word for today yes if we leave politics aside I think the question is how we as an artistic or theatrical community can support each other on a national level and of course across the borders internationally absolutely thank you so much to all of you that you joined us today and shared with us your point of use was very enlightening for me again our executive producer because ETC just did something especially in this period we talked about you supported a wonderful project called Renaissance there's a lot of theaters all over Europe involved to make short drama films and I think you have a favorite Van Hayden please talk us about all these films are on the website of ETC please Hayden give us your favorite absolutely thank you so very much dear speakers and Annette for this important discussion and yes our Renaissance season that we launched last month together with 22 theaters from 18 countries bringing together 250 artists all came as a result of our four year project engage empowering today's audiences through challenging theater and so this is what we continue doing also in the pandemic and the Renaissance is the result of this our prompt to the Renaissance theme how theaters can relive and my favorite it changes every day we have 22 very very special productions drama films that all have been produced for this specific project and they're so different but my favorite today is the one from Göteborg in Sweden and I think it couldn't be a better conclusion to this discussion this morning and yes I think it will take a lot wonderful let's take a look I think we can actually play it now to show you do this and then we say goodbye to the other please Again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, again, make, feel it, good, again, make, feel it, good, again, again, make, feel it, good, again, again Thank you so much. I'm missing so much theatre and this kind of experience. This was a wonderful conclusion word to say, yes, we need a marathorian spirit to make theatre great again. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And Andres, everybody who just, yeah, here you are, Martha and Niklas and Simona and of course, Heidi to to have being along today for this wonderful first hybrid conference from ETC. And the program of the drama week, of course, goes on. But for our part, we will say goodbye and thank you very much for your participation. And Heidi will, in some minutes, give you the following program. Thank you so much and make theatre great again. Bye bye. Thank you so much. Good bye to the live stream audience as well. And I would like to invite all our ETC member theatre colleagues and invited guests to stay on in our conference. And after a short comfort break, we will meet at 11 45 to our next session where we'll have the pleasure to see young