Festival

The idea of the festival was born during the Velvet Revolution, in the early 1990s. It was during this period that the Theatre Faculty of the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno was restored and the reconstructed theatre space of Studio Marta was reopened, where representatives of three Czechoslovak art colleges met. It was here that students and teachers from the JAMU, the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU) and the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (VŠMU) discussed their methods of teaching and creating theatre, thoughts and ideas. Together they then initiated a new project to create an annual event that could be developed in the future in an international context. Representatives from these three schools were the first participants in the festival and are still annual members of the main programme. In 1991 the first edition took place and a year later the festival got its name SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER.

Mission

The mission of the festival is to create a long-term space for mutual meetings and getting to know each other, theatre schools, their students and teachers, and to share their knowledge and experience in the field of theatre production. In this way, the participants of the festival can enrich each other with new insights on the given issues, learn new approaches in their artistic activities, get inspiration from their colleagues from all over the world and gain much appreciated reflection on their work. At the same time, each year, relationships between institutions are strengthened, networking between students is encouraged and future professional contacts are made. The internal goal of the festival is the educational dimension of the JAMU students who participate in the festival and use the theoretical foundations in practice through the festival organization. The uniqueness of the festival lies in this kind of organisation, where for more than 30 years the leadership of the festival has been passed on to the students of the Theatre Production and Stage Technology Studio from year to year.

Over the years, the festival has grown in number of days, participating theatre schools and programme content. International contacts and the fact that every year Brno manages to welcome prestigious theatre educational institutions from all over the world are very beneficial for the further development of the festival. The schools are carefully selected by the Festival Selection Committee. Brno could thus host companies from more than 40 countries and 4 continents by 2020.

The SETKÁNÍ/ENCOUNTER festival cooperates with a number of Brno's leading theatre venues, in whose premises it organises individual festival programmes, as well as with a number of important partners at regional, national and international level.

The programme usually includes not only theatre performances of the individual schools, but also workshops, discussions, OFF programme performances and evening parties.