SETKANI ENCOUNTER International Festival

Brno, Czech Republic

Organised by ENCATC member, the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts, this festival focuses on talented young performers from art academies and universities from all around the world. It gives them the opportunity to meet their student colleagues and also meet the professionals from the international theatre field. 

The International Festival of Theatre Schools SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER is an annual event that takes place in Brno. The 28th edition of the festival will be held from the 17th of April to the 21th of April 2018. The festival focuses on talented young performers from art academies and universities from all around the world. It gives them the opportunity to meet their student colleagues and also meet the professionals from the international theatre field.

They can inspire and get to know each other during the festival and it is one of the greatest  benefits of the project. The festival has changed a lot during the 27 years of its existence. The most significant change has been the transformation from a competitive event to a non-competitive one. This change supported the main idea of the festival: to create a place for meeting, inspiration and discussion between theatre performers and artists.

The theme of the SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER is Losing Ground. "Loss of ground" means stagnation and lagging. This theme is understood in a positive way as personal development through erasing the old and finding new values in a world that is hectically changing. Three characters – Nature, Culture and Future – are going to acquaint us with the theme. The location of "common land" is a step forward, innovation. However, finding this "common ground" does not mean an unambiguous agreement, nor the creation of universal truth, of one theatrical poetics. It means the ability to accept the other's opinion, the ability to talk about our differences. Mutual inspiration.

The young theatre makers who meet at the festival stand at the threshold of their entry into the professional theatre. They find their own themes and ways of making. The SETKÁNÍ/ ENCOUNTER is an opportunity to rip its sharp edges. It’s a platform where they can make their criticism of peers in a similar situation but in a different context. That's why, together, as festival participants, creators, visitors, and  organizers, try to ask questions, not answers. We are losing our ground to find something new and exceptional.

SETKANI ENCOUNTER International Festival