A Swedish-Baltic exchange project for playwrights about neighbourship and prejudices 

Project Idea: Why do Swedes in general know about so few Baltic playwrights? And what do Baltic people, playwrights or not, know about Sweden  - and what kind of plays are staged here? It takes just about a flight hour to go to one or another of our four capitals, even so we know little about each other. It’s about time to meet up and start networking!

Together with Baltic playwrights, the project compared Sweden to the Baltics, explored different perspectives on the multilayered theme neighbourship, prejudices, belonging and antagonism and how professional theatre workers approach those themes in plays for young people. Trough this project we exchanged knowledge, experiences and methods, and deepened our knowledge of each other’s nations and theatrical field. What kind of plays are staged today upon those topics, mentioned above? From where do we get influences? How do we work with “pedagogical” discussions and additional material before or after the performances? How much do we involve kids and teachers, and if so, in what way? How do we refer to, and address, the young audience? How much should theatre “educate” its young spectators?

Aims: One of the intentions of the project is to build personal networks, strengthen Swedish-Baltic
cultural exchange, remove possible mental borders, and exchange valuable knowledge about our countries. Another is to compare methods and strategies for writing and discussing plays on the theme neighbourship in each country. Personal contacts between playwrights is not to be underestimated: the result can lead to interesting new plays – or at least excerpts of texts on those important themes - or to new forms of international collaboration in theatre.

The final phase of the project took place at the Arts Printing House in January 2020:

* 2020 01 11
Seminar: Scenes’ reading (9 playwrights and 9 scenes)

participants from Sweden, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania

* 2020 01 12
Seminar: Presentation of Nordic-Baltic project Neighbours