The evolution of online streaming platforms in the last few years, accelerated by the successive lockdowns linked to the Covid 19 pandemic, have brought to the forefront the question of theatre’s digital presence.

This trend is the subject of many debates and discussions. Can online theatre still be considered theatre? Can it exist without its immediate and tangible physical presence? Can digital media bring new ways of seeing, and even of creating plays, and by doing so broaden and enrich the theatrical experience?

The questions surrounding the theatre’s existence in the digital sphere are numerous, and remain open for the public, directors and theatre companies.

Our project, Prospero – Extended Theatre, is an attempt to answer these essential and compelling questions. Sunday the 9^th of October marked an important step in this regard, as it marked the official launch of our streaming platform prospero-theatre.tv.

The vocation of this platform is to host and make accessible, for free (during the period of EU funding, until end of 2024) and in the whole European Union, theatre-related content such as: recordings of plays, interviews of artists, and short documentaries on the theatres’ and plays’ backstage.

In particular, viewers will be able to watch the recordings – subtitled in nine languages (English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Croatian, Polish and Swedish) – of the nine plays produced in the frame of the Prospero – Extended Theatre project:

• Fraternité, Conte fantastique – by Caroline Guiela Nguyen
• Imagine – direction by Krystian Lupa
• The Silence – direction by Dead Centre
• Sorry – direction by Bobo Jelčić
• Pendulum – direction by Marco Martins
• Hedda – direction by Aurore Fattier
• Calderón – direction by Fabio Condemi
• Project by Teatros del Canal
• Project by Schaubühne Berlin – direction by Yael Ronen

This platform will allow the partner theatres to highlight the artists and productions they produce and support through high quality digital content, as well as to increase their own visibility on the European scene. This platform is also an opportunity for them to develop their digital presence and to contribute to the appropriation of this medium – rich in potential – by the sector.

For the general audience, the professionals of the sector, and other interested actors from the educational and associative spheres, prospero-theatre.tv will be a place to find high quality recordings of plays, and related contents, coming from all over Europe.

Theatre has no frontiers, and this platform will be a further example of this.

Prospero is available on www.prospero-theatre.tv.

The official kick-off press conference will take place in Avignon during the festival, at the Novotel Avignon Centre, together with the different partners and journalists from the different countries of the network.

Date and address: Thursday 8 July at 11:00 am | Novotel, 20 Boulevard Saint-Roch, 84000 Avignon.

The conference will be followed by a lunch with the participants, during which it will be possible to

exchange about the project, its artists and their creations.

The project “PROSPERO – Extended Theatre”, supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Commission (2014-2020), is a continuation of the “European Theatre Network” project supported by Europe from 2008 to 2012. PROSPERO has continued its work and has helped to support productions by, among others, Thomas Ostermeier, Teatro Praga, Katie Mitchell, Bobo Jelčić, Angelica Liddell, Milo Rau, Christine Letailleur, Anne-Cécile Vandalem, among others.

“PROSPERO – Extended Theatre” is a challenge to artists, professionals and spectators, another way of addressing the very question of possible European identity: a certain culture of openness.