From Jp – Goleniów Bound (thank you, TCG!)

In June of 2017, in preparation for our soon-to-be-announced community-focused festival, Christopher Shorr and I traveled to Holstebro, Denmark to observe Odin Teatret’s “Holstebro Festuge”, a weeklong festival exploring the intersection of community and art.  For those not in the know – Odin Teatret is considered by many to be a key shared ancestor in the linage of many independent American theatres, including Touchstone’s.

Holstebro Festuge

While in attendance, Touchstone had the opportunity to meet with members of Caravan Next, a European Union funded delegation of some of Europe’s top community-based theatre practitioners and academics. Amongst the Caravan Next member organizations was the Goleniów, Poland-based company Teatr Brama. It quickly became apparent that Touchstone and Brama shared a passion for community-based work, and many of our aesthetic leanings were in line too, e.g. traveling performances, spectacle-driven work, and the integration of music.

Parade held by Teatr Brama

In August of 2017, I briefly visited Brama to discuss how a relationship might grow between the two companies. It was agreed then that an excellent first step would be for Touchstone to come to “Bramat” (Brama’s community festival – August 2018) for an exchange of methodologies and an opportunity to work alongside Brama’s artists by building performances with their community that would be featured in “Bramat”.  It is imagined that this first step would lead to a core understanding of each other’s methodologies and (if successful in the first phase of our collaboration) in August of 2019, Teatr Brama would come to Bethlehem, PA and reverse the experience in our community.

Me at Brama with Artistic Director Daniel Jacewicz and Company Member Jenny Crissey

We live in an increasingly smaller world, and it is the belief of the artists at Touchstone that in order to operate at our most empathetic capacity, we need to look both locally and globally. For the last seven years, Touchstone Ensemble Members have attended at least one international festival a year. We engage with the international theatre community to experience the world from new points of view, to scout talent to present at our home theatre, as well as to present our own work abroad. When we are able to bring international companies to Touchstone for a residency, these intense periods of time overflow with workshops, practice sharing, and inevitably brainstorming about potential future collaborations.

Luckily, we are not the only ones who hold the importance of international artistic sharing dear. Touchstone is lucky to have received a very competitive grant from the Theater Communication Group (TCG) to fulfill its work in Goleniów! The TCG Global Connections grant (funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) is meant “to foster new relationships with international colleagues that will inspire each other’s work and aesthetics by creating opportunities for cultural exchange.” We could not feel more honored to receive this grant! Thank you to TCG, and to all of the Touchstone community for your ongoing support.

Stayed tuned to our e-newsletter and social media outlets to stay up-to-date on next month’s adventure!