Projekt Europa announces 2023 programme supporting and promoting the work of migrant artists across the UK including Royal & Derngate in Northampton

Projekt Europa’s programme includes three performance projects, five new creative partnerships across the UK, a year-long talent development programme for migrant artists plus new editions of our migrant mentorship scheme, our national micro-commissions and our community engagement programme for refugees, asylum seekers and first generation migrants.

Themba Lo Hambo is a co-created project led by Zimbabwean artist Butshilo Nleya, developed in collaboration with displaced communities in Northampton and delivered in partnership with Royal & Derngate. Via a series of collaborative workshops Nleya will create a new play inspired by Ndebele storytelling and the Greek classics Oresteia and the Odyssey. The project will reinvent the Greek texts using African theatre elements such as storytelling, animal motifs, dance and instrumentation, poetry and proverbs. Themba Lo Hambo was first developed as part of Projekt Elevate 2022, and will be presented as part of GenFest in Northampton in autumn 2023.

Let Your Hands Sing In The Silence is a co-created project made in collaboration with Kent-based first generation migrants and a team of migrant artists, led by artistic director Maria Aberg, which invites participants to reconstruct their family tree from memory. The project will be co-produced with the Marlowe Theatre and presented as part of Refugee Week 2023.

Desire Maps is an interactive map making performance in which audience members are invited to reimagine the geographical journeys of their ancestors, led by Maria Aberg in collaboration with Coney. The project will work with a visual artist and video designer, creating an invitation for audience members to redraw the journeys of their ancestors, step into their shoes and imagine a moment of choice – this way or that? If they could have taken a different route, where would they have gone? And where might they have ended up?

Practice Lab is a year-long peer-to-peer skills exchange programme with twice-monthly free workshops by and for migrant theatre makers, offered in partnership with Rich Mix in London. These workshops are aimed at broadening the knowledge base of the migrant artist community and extending our network of creative connections, and will start in late April.

Projekt Empower pairs 10 emerging first generation migrant theatre makers with 10 of the country’s most successful migrant artists in a 5-month mentorship programme designed to build a community of support and inspiration across the country. The emerging artists will be partnered with one of the following mentors: Chipo Chung, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Roxana Silbert, Gbolahan Obisesan, Akhila Krishnan, Éva Magyar, Pooja Ghai, Hassan Abdulrazzak, Ammar Haj Ahmad and An-Ting Chang. Applications will be assessed by a panel of senior artists including Low Kee Hong, creative director at The Factory/MIF, Lekan Lawal, artistic director of Eclipse Theatre, Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso, joint CEO of Shubbak Festival, and Maria Aberg, artistic director of Projekt Europa. Applications open on Tuesday 11 April 2023.

Projekt Elevate will identify and support 6 migrant artists to develop ideas for co-created work for their own communities, in partnership with The Belgrade and Bristol Old Vic. In collaboration with the venues, Projekt Europa will commission 6 artists and provide artistic and dramaturgical support as they develop their project concepts. These commissions will broker new relationships between local migrant artists, the theatres and their communities, with a view to create co-production opportunities of participatory work between Projekt Europa and theatres across the country. Applications open on Monday April 24 2023.

Projekt Encounter is our community engagement programme for first generation migrants in Kent, offered in partnership with The Marlowe Theatre. This popular weekly workshop programme will continue to reach and connect with historically underserved migrant communities with no existing relationship to theatre. These free sessions, specifically created for refugees, asylum seekers and first generation migrants, will be led by migrant artists and culminate in a public performance at The Marlowe.

Artistic Director Maria Aberg says: “This programme of work - which stretches over a whole year - is our most ambitious yet, and we are thrilled to extend our commitment to amplifying international voices from within the UK, collaborating with local communities and creating diverse, bold and generous work both on our stages and beyond.

From Canterbury to Coventry, from Bristol to Northampton to London, the UK is bursting with talent from around the world. We will continue to support, inspire and empower migrant artists and theatre makers to claim their space, tell their stories and make their mark.

We are proud to create & present theatre that is thrillingly international and unapologetically migrant - global theatre, locally made.”

These projects are generously supported by Arts Council England.

For more information visit www.projekteuropa.org