Balkan Theatre Networks for EU Integration

Youth participants at the inaugural conference for the Balkan Cultural Network

Initiated in January 2011, Sharing a Common Culture: Balkans Theatre Networks for EU Integration, is a regional project that involves youth from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia in the creation of plays that highlight their common European culture while promoting cultural and ethnic diversity. Partnering with the Centre fo Drama Education in Bosnia and herzegovina and the Student Cultural Center in Serbia, the common ground theater promotes tolerance by debunking stereotypes.

Achievemments in 2011

• Produced formative research measuring youth access and attitudes toward cultures across the three countries

• Organized an inaugural conference in Skopje, brining together 40 youth and stakeholders from across the region

• Developed a curriculum for the theatre plays

• Organized a playwrights seminar in Skopje for six playwrights from the three countries

• Set up the foundation for the creation of the Balkan Cultural Network

Looking Forward

• Six plays will be written an staged by youth across the three countries, creaitng an opportuniy for hundreds of youth--actors and audience--to meet each other and learn more about the cultural traditions in their neigboring countries.

• Interactive debates will follow each performance

• Final theater event to be held in Skopje