A report from Richard Finch, South Africa

Richard has long been associated with AITA/IATA,principally leading workshops with Children and young people.

Richard Finch

April 2012

It was with great pleasure that at the 2011 General Assembly in Tromso that delegates heard from our friends in Argentina of their plans to host the 2015 World Festival and Congress in La Plata, a large city to the East of Buenos Aires.

The President, members of EB and the secretariat visited the city, met local government and theatre representatives and inspected possible performance venues. Their report is here on this website.

However, the decision on where the World Festival and Congress will be held in 2015 will not be taken until the preceding World Festival and Congress – in Monaco, 2013.

The Executive Board, therefore, continues to welcome all proposals to host the 2015 Congress and Festival and hopes that in Monaco, delegates will have a choice of venues upon which to vote.

Secretariat

The principal criteria for projects applying for this fund are as follows:

The deadline for the next round of applications is 1 June.

Applications should be sent to:

STOP PRESS:

Extra call for applications from different countries to express their interest to apply to Monaco. The date  by when National Centres’ must express their interest to Monaco has been extended to Monday 30 April. Note Monaco does NOT accept applications direct from Associates if their country has an AITA/IATA National Centre.

Beatrice Cellario recently wrote to all National Centres of AITA/IATA inviting them to submit their pre-inscription form for Mondial du Theatre.  She wrote:

Dear Friends,

The next edition of the Mondial du Theatre (15th World Festival of Amateur Theatre) will be held in Monaco from August 19th to 28th, 2013.

In order to proceed in the selection of the participating groups, we send you the pre inscription form, with the General Rules of the festival. You have just to indicate the selection process by what mean the National Centre will choose the group who will representate its country in Monaco, with also the names of the persons in charge to guarantee this selection. It is not needed to nominate the applicant group.

We need to receive this form by April 15th, 2012. And here is a copy of the form

Here is a copy of the rules for participation.

Sincerely,

Beatrice

Béatrice CELLARIO
Secrétaire Générale

MONDIAL DU THEATRE

1 Bd Albert 1er
MC-98000 Monaco
Tél/Fax : +377 93 25 12 12
Cell.: +33 (0)6 22 050 060

NEW EMAIL ADDRESS : mondialdutheatre@monte-carlo.mc

The Canadian organizers are led by Artistic Director Ron Dodson and Administrative Director Wendy McNaughton.  Ron is the former President of Theatre/Théâtre Canada and has long been a member of AITA/IATA’s Standing Committee for Children and Youth.  Wendy is a retired teacher from Ontario, who has been active with Canada’s Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators, the leading Ontario association of elementary and secondary teachers.

Ron and Wendy have actively developed festival plans since 2011 with the help of local fundraising and steering committees. A large number of Canadian partners have already indicated their support for the project, as well as the American Association of Community Theatre, the USA’s national center.  The Canadian supporters include the Stratford Shakespeare Festival (North America’s largest Shakespeare Festival), the City of Stratford, the Sears Canada Drama Festival, Brock University and numerous others.

AITA/IATA President Merja Laaksovirta and Helle Hauger spoke to the organizers via SKYPE in January at their meeting in the Stratford Town Hall.  Vice-President Roger Ellis also attended the meeting where plans were drawn up for fundraising, housing  the groups, scheduling, community relations and other matters. Ron and Wendy explained to the group the importance of AITA/IATA’s mission “to promote understanding and education through theatre,” and of the need to follow AITA/IATA guidelines when making festival arrangements for the children and their chaperones.

Festival organizers Ron Dodson and Wendy McNaughton meet committee members in Stratford, January 2012

The organizers are planning several unique features for their festival.  For one thing, the event will run longer than usual and  groups will arrive on 20  June  and depart on 2  July.  Additionally, two days are planned for “family friendly” activities such as tours to local points of interest where the children and adults can sample some of Ontario’s regional tourist attractions.  Also, festival participants will carry-out certain activities in the Stratford Schools which will be in session during the festival period.

Canada has now submitted its final bid for endorsement by the AITA/IATA Council at their next meeting in Midland, Texas in October 2012.  Canada’s official bid to host the World Festival of Children’s Theatre 2016 is being circulated to all National Centres and affiliated members. At the World Congress in Monaco in 2013, the hosts of  the World Festival of Children’s Theatre 2016 will present their bid to Congress during  the General Assembly.

The festival is designed to promote creativity, cultural exchange and friendship through performances, seminars, and workshops for and by children. International theatre troupes invited to present work on Toyama’s stages include ensembles from such nations as Egypt, France, Zimbabwe, the USA, Indonesia, Belgium, Ecuador, and others.

Over the past decade, the festival has been organized by the Toyama Prefectural Artistic and Cultural Association, whose President is Mr. Hiroshi Koizumi. Mr. Koizumi, a recent recipient of the Medal of Japan’s “Rising Sun with Two Rays,” has long been a supporter of the efforts of AITA/IATA, mainly through the world-famous work of the Toyama theatre company Bungeiza which he founded. This year’s Festival Executive Committee is headed by Professor Izumi Yoshida, who also serves as AITA/IATA’s regional representative from the Asian Centre. The festival is supported by a large consortium of partners, including Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Japan Foundation, the Japan UNICEF Committee, the Toyama Broadcasting Company, the Toyama Convention Bureau and numerous others.

The Toyama Festival ranks among the world’s largest and most important children’s performance festivals, if not the most famous and prestigious. Since 1983, the Toyama Festival has attracted thousands of visitors and participants from Japan and around the world. Not only does it showcase the wealth of young artistic talent—both traditional and modern—among contemporary Japanese arts troupes and schools; but it also offers a truly global showcase of children’s performance that cannot be seen on any other world festival stage.

The Toyama Festival is also distinguished by the care and attention to the needs of the children’s troupes that the organizers provide. Children’s ensembles are housed with an eye to promoting social interaction among the youngsters, workshops are fun experiences involving both adults and children, and seminars provide adult leaders and chaperones with valuable and insightful perspective on the role and importance of youth arts in fostering creativity and building cultural exchange.

National and overseas visitors are welcome to attend this festival, and visitors are eligible to receive discounted accommodations and meals if applying to the festival before April 30. An application form and more information can be obtained by visiting the festival website at www.tiatf.or.jp.

Japanese groups participating in the Toyama Festival finale

Krayon Kids from Oregon, USA, present work at the Toyama Festival

Students at the Gazaya Junior School, Uganda, present work at the Toyama Festival

It was with great pleasure that Paddy O’Dwyer and Mary Pears were appointed to this Honorary position. Their mandate will be for the period of the present AITA/IATA President and can be renewed by the new President in 2015.

Mary Pears

Paddy O'Dwyer

Council agreed that it is important for an organisation to recognise an individual’s exceptional contribution and one way of doing this is to nominate them as an Honorary Ambassador when they have come to the end of their elective role. And, when the President does not have the time or the financial resources to accept all the invitations that are received, an Honorary Ambassador can formally represent the President on such occasions.

Honorary Ambassadors will have completed at least one executive mandate; will keep themselves updated about the latest policies of AITA/IATA; will refrain from expressing their personal opinions; and will not use the Honorary position to campaign for any election within AITA/IATA. Council will validate the choice made by the President.

The EB and Council welcome suggestions for any person to be considered as an Honorary Ambassador: any suggestions proposed will be considered at the next EB and Council meeting in October in Midland Texas.

Dear theatre friends CEC members,

Surely you already know about our upcoming summer Festival (21st International Amateur Theatre Festival in the name of István Horváth jr. in Kazincbarcika (28 June-1 July 2012).  We can welcome 12 groups (including Hungarians groups) to the festival.

It is important to us to have many of you come to see the festival. Please, let us know about your summer plans and tell us about your visit. It’d be great to meet up again!

There is an application form on the website below.

Zsuzsanna Tóth

Tóth Zsuzsanna

tel: 225-6023, 30/748-0671
fax: 225-6030
e-mail: tothzs@mmikl.hu
http://muveszeti.mmikl.hu

After many years of good co-operation [with Japan?] it was a pleasure to receive important guests from [there] Japan and I was very happy to host The Theatre Company Bungeiza who participated in this most important festival.

The Theatre Company Bungeiza:

The leader of the delegation was The Honorable President of the Japan Centre, Mr. Hiroshi Koizumi and in his company were his wife, Mrs. Kuniko Koizumi, my colleagues in The Council of AITA/IATA, Professor Izumi Yoshida and former colleague Yukihito Funamoto and their wives.  Mrs. Mari Kurokawa introduced the tradition of playing KOTO and gave several skillful KOTO performances.

In their repertoire there was a classical short play by Anton Chekhov “The Proposal”. First, the Theatre Company Bungeiza made a one day visit to the capital city of Finland, Helsinki. While in Helsinki, we visited the strategic island of Suomenlinna with its magnificent fortress which is accessible by boat. It was a beautiful summer day and the sun shone especially for our visit. We had a restful day and a tiny drop of Finnish history before the real work began.

The next day we took a bus into Seinäjoki and in the evening there was a performance of KOTO music in the house of the farmer, Veli Sipilä. There, it was also possible to visit the old-fashioned smoke sauna. We Finnish people were very happy to see that our Japanese guests were brave and experienced the hot steam of the sauna!

The next day, Saturday, all actors and company assistants led by Mr. Koizumi had rehearsal at the Seinäjoki City Theatre. Theatre producer Teemu Ojala described the rehearsals:” Very meticulous, the whole group was fully concentrated towards the evening´s performance. Building the set took a long time, but it was a pleasure to see the fantastic finished scenery. It was time well spent. I had an honour to help to light the play; it was an experience I shall never forget.”

The performance was a perfect success. It was so well acted that professional theatre director, Kari Rentola asked me if the theatre group were professional. I was proud to announce that all of the actors and also the director had careers outside theatre but were well practiced amateurs with a lot of experience!

The performance was greatly appreciated and admired. The intensity and presence of all on stage was amazing and showed perfect concentration. Mrs. Koizumi as a young girl on stage, was perfection and charming to see. Also Mrs. Mari Kurokawa´s KOTO playing made a deep impact on the audience. It was very wonderful to hear from two Japanese ladies who were sitting among the audience, that the dialect used in the performance was perfect. So there was also laughter and many joyous reactions during the play. Of course, Chekhov is familiar to the Finnish people, so it was very easy for all to follow the plot.

In the evening, the guests were cordially invited to a banquet hosted by the Young Culture Foundation, a subsidiary organization of the Ministry of Culture and Education. The foundation’s responsibility is to ensure equal opportunities for young people to take part in arts in Finland and its work covers the entire nation. The Young Culture Foundation’s Executive Director, Panu Mäenpää and the Director for Cultural Affairs for the City of Seinäjoki, Aila Taivalmäki, commented on their speeches to the delegation that this was a cherished and most rare occasion: that such cultural and artistic achievements of this magnitude from the other side of the globe could be seen in Seinäjoki. The dinner guests included various professionals in the field of amateur theatre organisations in Finland and it provided an opportunity for them to exchange valuable data on the different practices in two countries.

Early, next morning the bus took us to Tampere, a big industrial city, in the middle of southern Finland: for two more performances of the play. In the audience we had many students and representatives of the younger generation.

I have to say that I admired their ability to concentrate time after time in such a short period. The jet lag did not seem to bother anyone.  We celebrated in the Restaurant Näsinneula on the last evening. The restaurant is high up in the tower which goes slowly around so that we had a chance to admire the scenery but also the twilight, when day slowly gives way to the darkness of the night.

I am grateful to Mr. Koizumi for the opportunity given to Finnish people to get acquainted with the unique style of Japanese theatre and personally to have had the possibility to meet my very dear and greatly honored friends.

Thank you so very much!

Yours,

Merja Laaksovirta

The CEC notes that in order to have a wide choice of people who are able and willing to give workshops in their own countries and abroad, the CEC Standing Committee for Artistic Development has put together a list of specialists in various fields of theatre. Names are added to the list as they are received.

The names were given to CEC by person’s respective National Centres, or Associates or  Members of CEC Standing Committee for Artistic Development.

AITA/IATA would like to add names to the list of workshop leaders. This should be done through your National Centre and Regional Centre and sent to the AITA/IATA secretariat.