Online and offline hate speech, divisive public opinions, and conflicts in society are rising. Decisions are being made about our lives and yet, where is the voice of young generations in all of this? They are the voices of the future that will mostly be theirs and yet they have little or no say about it.
Glej Theatre (Slovenia), Stichting Theaterschip (Netherlands) and Ateliér NDM (Czech Republic) have been active for many years in the field of working with youth in theatre, mostly focusing on producing youth performances and developing inclusive methodologies of working with them in theatre.
With Future = NOW! A Youth Manifesto, a project co-funded by the European Union, Creative Europe Culture programme, we worked together with the young generation to form a cross section of art and activism about topics that are in the centre of their future concerns. We want to redefine forums of the 21st century through the help of artivism and performance arts practices, engage the audience in a site specific action and start discussion through the help of participatory practices.
The project Future = NOW! urges all of us to really connect, not only on a local and national level, but also transnationally and cross-sectorally. The project is focusing on gender, environmental crisis and inclusivity. Throughout the project we built youth manifestos based on thorough research.
Other outputs of the project are international co-productions connecting professional artists with young people, students. Under the guidance of professional mentors (directors and scriptwriters), The Garden radio play and the Screaming spring performance were created.
In short: this is a FuN way to tackle today’s most vibrant social issues of the future. With the young, by the young, for the young.
