Immersive theatre workshops

Building a New Theatre Language for Professional Artists

Rooftop Theatre* organizes an Immersive Theatre workshop/training, taking place in Nicosia in November and December of 2024. For 4 days, Cyprus-based and international trainers will work with a team of interdisciplinary artists, in an action funded by the Deputy Ministry of Culture. The series of training will offer the opportunity to work together as an interdisciplinary collective, to create local capacity in Immersive theatre in Cyprus. The workshop will explore, theoretically and practically, the genre of immersive theatre. Within the framework of this series of workshops, theatrical texts, archival material and personal stories of the participants will create new stories to be explored in the context of ιmmersive practices, in a space, in the old city of Nicosia.

Through theatrical exercises and practices from international and local groups, the aim of the workshop is an exploration based on the concepts of space, storytelling, the relationship between the story and the audience, and how all these can create a fully integrated performance space.

The project will take place on the following dates:

- 16th and 17th of November, facilitation Bertie Watkins, Colab Theatre, UK

- 23rd of November, facilitation Ellada Evangelou and Maria Varnakkidou, Rooftop Theatre

- 7th of December, facilitation Doros Polydorou (CUT) and George Rodosthenous (Leeds Univ.)

Eligible Artists: theatre artists, designers (set, costume, props, lights, multimedia), performers (dance, performance art, etc), digital media artists, multimedia artists, fine artists.

1000 Layers was an Erasmus + KA2 strategic partnership that started the 1st of January 2021 and involved 5 organizations in 4 countries: DW-RS (NL), Elan Interculturel (FR), YEU Cyprus (CY), Rooftop Theatre (CY), and La Xixa Teatre as project coordinator (SP).

1000 Layers project proposed an innovative methodological approach – the Creative Identities Method – to fill in the current gaps on working with identity in Youth contexts. In particular, we built on and contributed to current practices in addressing generic prevention of radicalization leading to violence among Youth at the ground floor stage of Moghaddam’s six-step model, building on EU recommendations and existing literature.

Download here the resources generated. Two ebooks that gather all the material collected for the partners and the manual of use, as well as all the design of a learning path with recommendations to use the resources in youth work.

ebook1.pdf

ebook2.pdf

LIFE. Your most important design project

This was an ErasmusPlus project, granted in 2020 but delayed because of the Covid19 global pandemic. We still were facing big challenges, but we finally completed the project successfully.

LIFE gathered in Mazotos, Cyprus from the 11th to the 20th of March 21 youth workers from 8 countries: Spain, Germany, Slovenia, Lithuania, Serbia, Polonia, Turkey and Cyprus to train them in in how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living.
This project aimed to improve the level of key competencies and skills, with particular relevance to the labor market, entrepreneurship, employability, and youth workers' contribution to a cohesive society. This project is expected to produce the following outcomes of the Erasmus+ Program for youth workers: improved competencies, linked to their professional profiles; better quality of their work and activities in favor of youth; increased capacity to trigger changes in terms of modernization and international opening within their organizations; increased ability to address the needs of the disadvantaged; greater understanding of interconnections between vocational training and the labor market; increased opportunities for professional and career development; and increased motivation and satisfaction in their daily work.

LIFE. Your most important design projectLIFE. Your most important design project.PDF - DOWNLOAD

“Burst Your Bubble. Change Through Participatory Theatre”

“Burst Your Bubble. Change through Participatory Theatre” was a training course granted by the European Commission through Erasmus + program and took place in Mazotos, Cyprus in November 2019. This activity gathered 23 youth workers from 9 NGOs 9 countries ( Warm Hands,Albania), ENO (Greece), Ways (Denmark), Sfera 66 (Italy), SferaSerbia (Serbia), Ukraine, Peti Maj (Slovenia)and IKOS (Turkey). This training course was created and implemented by Rooftop Theatre (Cyprus) and it was granted by The European Commission through the program Erasmus +.

The main aim of this training course was:

Raise awareness among 20 youth workers from 9 European countries about the need of participate
as active citizens and activism in human right using theatre for social change techniques as means to build a more just society.

Through a program of workshops and activities we showed them the methods and the strategies to use theatre in their daily work with youngsters. We wanted to make them able to use theatre in their organizations as a powerful tool for human expression and conflict resolution. We wanted to empower and encourage them in the use of theatre for social change in their projects using a suitable approach and methods.

Our last aim is to promote in Europe a generation of youngsters more aware with social issues,
proactive against the intolerance and injustice situations and who promote human values and
coexistence through performing arts using the philosophy of theatre for social change.

This training course has developed a variety of non-formal skills, knowledge and attitudes regarding
theoretical and practical frames for inclusion, involvement in the society and activism in human rights in practical youth work and we want to share the results with you.

Hyperlinks to the videos in youtube

Performance National Theatre
https://youtu.be/pHYKhfqUdQc

Performance Faneromeni Square

https://youtu.be/Np5nfwFveug

Performance Büyük Han

https://youtu.be/tD3LsZJ8ocY

Performance Saray Square

https://youtu.be/_wbcLtOoOg4

Performance Eleftheria Square

https://youtu.be/zvGPPFwtgWI

5th – 13th October, 2018

Application deadline: 1st September, 2018

Residency Concept

The district of Famagusta, once the most important port city of the island, holds traces of habitation since antiquity. From the Lusignan to the Ottoman rule, and the British Famagusta Development Act in the early 1900s to the present day, the fabric of the city has accumulated a rich and eclectic assortment of structures. Taking the built environment as a detail of the city, we would like to carry out two or three concurrent residency programmes focusing on the architectural structures, public spaces and texture of the city.

We are interested in investigating the organization and shaping of public spaces in Famagusta from the perspective of story and narrative. Authorized narratives feature in Famagusta’s built environment and the social spaces and usage of the city, unauthorized, sometimes contentious, narratives lurk beneath the surface or persist on the ‘skin’ of the city. Artists will be invited to investigate or ‘map’ alternative stories, concepts and imaginations of how the city is or can be. The output of the experience-based and site-specific programme will be to deliver a series of performance-based installations in designated sites. The participants will explore working in an interdisciplinary and cross-generational manner, combining traditional and new media in their responses to the physical aspects of the city’s built-environment.

An aim of the residency is to involve mature artists (35+) who are interested in working with new media, specifically performance-based installations, and revamping/ adapting more traditional media that they are more accustomed to using through their collaboration with younger artists and performance artists. This is to provide an opportunity for artists to regenerate their practices and artistic outlooks in a city that is also in need of regeneration.

Selection will be carried out by the curators and will be based on the Selection Criteria (see below).

The work will be carried out in English.

Conditions:
- Selected artists will be notified by September 7th. Preliminary reading and working meeting will be organised for early / mid September with the Curators.
- Full room and board are provided in Famagusta for 9 nights for selected artists, as well as travel expenses if they reside outside Famagusta.
- Artists residing outside the island must provide their own travel expenses to/from the island.
- Rights for the reproduction of imagery from the artworks produced belong jointly to the artists and EMAA/Rooftop Theatre.

Eligibility:
• Open to practicing Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot or other Cypriot artists of any discipline.
• Artists must be interested in exploring new media or performative art forms and applying their work and creative practice to locations in Famagusta’s public realm.

Selection Criteria:
• Artistic Excellence - demonstrated through work samples (please provide a link to your personal page or send us samples of your work through WeTransfer)
• Artistic Merit/ Experience - demonstrated through resume, awards, collections and honours (please attach your CV)
• Demonstrated interest relating to the project theme and in exploring new media, working on site in Famagusta with artists from different disciplines, communities and generations (please attach a motivation letter not exceeding 500 words)

Applications: please send your CV, work samples and Motivation letter to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by September 1st, 2018, 23:59.

Curators: Gulgun Kayim, Ellada Evangelou

Project leaders: Esra Plumer and Ellada Evangelou
Project coordinators: Afroditi Karagiorgi and Derya Ulubatli

FILM IT! was a Youth Workers training course where Rooftop Theatre participated as a partner organization, sending 3 participants from Cyprus for a full week course in Bacoli, Italy, on January, 2018.
The training was funded by Erasmus + KA 1 “mobility of Youth Workers and organized by Sfera Italy.

FILM IT! gathered youth workers from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Italy, Latvia, Macedonia, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain.
The main aim of the training was: “To develop the video-making and marketing competences of youth workers.” In able to reach this purpose, we set the following objectives:
• Increase video-making and marketing competencies, among participants of the project
• Gain basic knowledge on modern programs and platforms supporting video-making, promotion and dissemination as well as the basic rules of copyrights, creative commons etc., among participants of the project.
• Increase willingness to make a positive change in their communities and develop empathy towards people with fewer opportunities, among participants of this training course

From the training course participants developed more confidence in digital skills, whilst learning new ones that will stay with them long after the project has finished.

During the project's major activity, participants worked in collaboration with 6 charities and NGOs local to Bacoli. Where they took the knowledge and skills they had learnt in earlier sessions to produce promotional videos for the organisations.

Sample of the work produced by the participants can be found below; (To add as “media)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlAnK7TIem4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg3U8wsqtj4&t

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KwV6o4Sgu4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3fDlLBR2AU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohDbBDy9Cqs

Euroscola Youth Workshops was a collaboration between Rooftop Theatre and the EP Cyprus Office which aimed at bringing Tukish - Cyriot and Greek - Cypriot teenagers closer together before their planned three day trip to Strasbourg under the auspices of the European Parliament Cyprus Office

DATES: 8, 9, 22, 23, 25 January 2018
Rooftop Theatre group implemented theatre-based workshops with the aim of bringing together Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot teenagers, aged 16-18 who were selected to attend the three-day EUROSCOLA programme conferences in Strasbourg. The workshops were designed to include ice-breaker and team building activities where the teenagers got to know each other, work together, as well as have fun. The five workshops took place in the EU House in Nicosia and each workshop was attended by mixed groups of twenty-four students (twelve TCy and twelve GCy) and four teachers (two TCy and two GCy) from schools all over Cyprus.

PARTNER - European Parliament Cyprus Office
Euroscola offers an immersive experience in the Chamber of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, allowing high-school students to learn about European integration by experiencing it first hand.
Students from the 28 EU Member States are selected to become Members of the European Parliament for one day.

They take the floor in plenary and committee sessions to debate and vote on resolutions on current affairs, all the while practising their language skills and making friends with fellow students from across Europe.

Teachers also have the opportunity to meet their colleagues and exchange feedback about their own classroom practices & experiences.

This Training course gathered 25 participants in Cyprus in November 2017, to work on conflict resolution using Theatre of the Oppressed as a tool. The training approached the quality and innovation of international projects from the inclusive practical perspective, with aim to inform youth workers, and motivate them to get involved in discussion and action.
The inspirational force of the Theatre of the Oppressed, August Boal, has termed the new type of spectator that comes out of the Forum process a "spect-actor", a new type of audience who is not passive but participates actively in the process by going on the stage.
"Rainbow" is related to the rainbow flag, an identification of the LGBTIQ movement worldwide. The scope of the colours is telling of the scope of sexuality and sexual preference, and how as a flag, it has been come a symbol of acceptance and social cohesion.

The main aim of the training was:
Raise awareness of 25 youth workers from 11 countries about social inclusion, develop a variety of non-formal skills, knowledge and attitudes regarding theoretical and practical frames for inclusion, and wider implementation in practical youth work.

The learning objectives of the training course were:
• Gaining more knowledge and developing new skills regarding discrimination, prejudice, stereotypes recognition
• Empathizing with the position of the oppressed, and her/his personal, social and professional development during different youth work activities;
• Promoting an anti-discrimination, inclusive speech and approach on every level, particularly on the basis of sensitive social groups identity, as the only acceptable method of communication and of resolving conflict;
• Developing skills on creating stories, theatre plays, workshops, and informational campaign for promoting tolerance, politically sensitive and no hate speech and action;
• Encouraging young people’s active participation in society, and especially to empower youth to take an active role in their communities in fighting discrimination;
• Gaining knowledge and developing new skills on Youthpass as a recognition tool for non-formal learning;
• Raising awareness of the key competences and develop different methods that can be used in practice within sensitive group activities;
• Offering the opportunity of meeting possible partner groups among EU and EECA countries.

Rooftop Theatre Group, in collaboration with “TOMOE SHIZUNE & HAKUTOBO” Butoh Company, and the support of the EU Japan festival (through the Home for Cooperation), hosted a weeklong workshop at the E.KA.TE. space starting on Nov. 27th, 2017, on the dance /movement performance discipline of Butoh, with a final public performance held at Point Centre for Contemporary Art on Monday 4th December, 2017 at 8pm. The workshops and performance were directed by Sanae Kagaya, a Butoh dancer and member and practitioner of the TOMOE SHIZUNE BUTOH method, created by the “TOMOE SHIZUNE & HAUTOBO” Butoh Company.

BUTOH, Japan’s original modern stage art, is an avant-garde dance movement that emerged from Japan in the 1960’s that expanded to becoming an internationally recognised art form. Master TOMOE SHIZUNE, founder of the visiting Butoh company, is the only Butoh dancer among those who learned under one of the original creators of Butoh, Hijikata Tatsumi, who then inherited and further developed the art form establishing the “TOMOE Butoh method”. The upcoming workshops will provide an opportunity of experiencing the TOMOE BUTOH method to learn a comprehensive creative method of Butoh. Their work becomes relevant for Cyprus and Rooftop Theatre, as they mention, “we believe that this opportunity will contribute to Peacebuilding through the development of the techniques for creative physical expressions”.

“It’s is an honour and wonderful experience to have Kagaya Sanae carrying out these workshops, I really look forward to the experience and hope that we can develop future works from our experience”, says Polly Flourentzou, a Rooftop Theatre Group board member and lead of the organizing team for the event. The collaboration for the upcoming workshops is under the generous support of the EU Japan Fest, and through the Home for Cooperation.
The public Butoh performance by the artist and workshop participants was hosted by the Point Centre for Contemporary Art, Evagorou Avenue 2, Nicosia, on Monday 4th December at 8pm.

The workshop was made possible with the kind contribution of Synergeia Media and the technical support by Pandelis Kotsireas.

Project Coordinator: Polly Flourentzou, with Katherine Kotsireas, Leda Koumides and Ellada Evangelou

Rooftop Theatre, in partnership with the NGO Support Center, serves as co-head of the Cyprus Network of the Anna Lindh Foundation.

The two organisations took over from the University of Nicosia-CEIA in September 2017 and have emerged as co-heads of the Network through an election process and in consultation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who sits on the Board of the ALF.

The co-heads of the Cyprus network are in a coordinating position, and are therefore open to dialogue and ideas in relation to the Cyprus network and organisations in Europe and the Middle East / North Africa Region.

On the Anna Lindh Foundation: http://www.annalindhfoundation.org
On the Cyprus network members, their events, as well as news from ALF: https://web.facebook.com/alfcyprus/
For more info, email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.