ARENA... of the Young Arts

ARENA...of the Young Arts is an international theatre festival based on Erlangen, Germany, that showcases physical theatre, dance and performance as well as other multi-media art forms, workshops and celebrations. Organised by Friedrich-Alexander-University students, the festival takes place annually in Erlangen over the course of a week.

ARENA 2008

The theme for ARENA... of the Young Arts 2008 is "Freiraum/ Open Space". Works have been selected in line with this theme, which allows for an emphasis on unconventional forms of expression as well as unusual performance spaces. With public performances taking place all over the city, during the week of 24th-29th June 2008, the festival atmosphere will characterize and transform the Erlangen cityscape with acts from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Argentina, Canada, USA, Norway, France, Portugal, Belgium and the UK. [ [http://www.erlangen.de/en/ Erlangen Town Portal] ]

History

ARENA… of the Young Arts has a history of 18 years to reflect on. In this time, the festival’s number of members has risen to over a hundred, 21 of which are currently active. The festival has undergone a number of developments and changes such as the introduction of a coproduction and jury of international standing to increase the festival’s competitive edge. Though the team receives approximately 100 applications each year, ["Mit der Arche durch die Sinnflut", Christiane Hawranek, Erlanger Nachrichten, 14/07/07 p7 ] on average, they must narrow their intake down to 10-15 performance groups, who come from all over the world. In addition to the countries listed above, the line ups in previous years have included groups from Poland, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Japan, Israel, Macedonia, Yugoslavia, Australia, Brazil and Russia. [Contact ARENA for Festival Programmes] The physical nature of the festival also allows for an international audience, in the region of 1500 festival visitors each year. Alongside its own festival magazine, ARENA Spots, and audio-visual documentation team, ARENA Zoom, ARENA has been attracting increasing attention from local, regional and national papers [Bavarian Regional Papers: Erlanger Nachrichten, Nürnberger Nachrichten, Fränkischer Tag, Abendzeitung German National Papers: Süddeutsche Zeitung, Theater heute.] and radio stations. [Radio Stations featuring ARENA: Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bayern 1, Bayern2 Radio, B5 aktuell), AFK max ] It has also recently been linked with the German company responsible for theatre related media and broadcasting, ZDFtheaterkanal. [ [http://www.theaterkanal.de/promo/arena---theaterfestival-in-erlangen/ ZDFTheater Website] ]

Timeline of significant events

1989: ARENA e.V was founded by Erlangen theatre studies students during the Student Stage International Theatre Week’s fortieth anniversary.
1991: The first ARENA festival took place. The well known German stage director, Jan Bosse was a member of the festival committee.
1992: In cooperation with a group that had appeared the previous year, (Centro Drammàtico Elvira) the first ever coproduction took place.
1994: ARENA e.V. was awarded cultural sponsorship by the city of Erlangen.
1995: Coproduction with the famous theatre group, The Living Theatre, New York (Your House is Mine)
ARENA’s festival magazine, Spots was also established this year.
1998: The plays started to be judged by a jury made up of five international theatre and media practitioners, who award a prize to the best group, alongside an award voted for by the public.
2001: After show talks, “TalkArts” were established.
2003: ARENA Zoom (formerly known as ARENA TV) was introduced, an independent team who films the festival for a documentary.
2005: In order to provide for a wider variety of art forms, the festival was renamed ARENA… of the Young Arts, (formerly International Week of the Young Theatre/ Internationale Woche des jungen Theaters). [ARENA '07 "Sinnflut" Festival Programme]

Finance

The volunteers organising the festival finance the costs of travel, accommodation and board for the performing groups, who do not receive fees for their performances. It would not be possible to finance the festival purely on the income of the festival itself and therefore ARENA e.V relies on the support of partners from cultural, political and economic fields. [ [http://www.arena-festival.de ARENA Homepage] ] Should donations ever fall short, the committed ARENA team members are more than willing to shine a few shoes to increase their budget. This was first the case for the ARENA festival in 1996, when it worked with the theme of ARENA Hits Rock Bottom. [ARENA '96 "ARENA am Boden" Festival Programme]

External links

* [http://www.arena-festival.de/ ARENA Homepage] de icon
* [http://www.fortreasoning.com This year's coproduction] en icon
* [http://www.goethe.de/kue/the/reg/reg/ag/bos/deindex.htm Jan Bosse at Goethe.de] de icon
* [http://www.erlangen.de/de/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-113/ ARENA at Erlangen city portal] de icon

References