About

The concept of Social Community Theatre is to use art and theatre to make community empowerment. It is an art form that expands the traditional concept of both “theatre” and ”audience” and rethinks theatre in a process of social and artistic meetings between local citizens and professional artists. In Social Community Theatre the theatre process is made with and in the local community. Artists and citizens meet in a process of mutual exchange and the nal performance or artistic creation is the result of the participators from the community being both co-actors and co- authors. Thus, Social Community Theatre is also a way to get into contact with the present challenges of the different communities and a way to establish new networks within the community. Social Community Theatre often takes place outside regular theatres and includes activities such as parades, theatre festivals, square performances, workshops, visual installations in town, cultural barters and other forms of artistic creations.

With a circulation of at least 300 cultural professionals and more than 300 cultural events Caravan Next will connect Europe and other countries in the world and create thousands of new relationships. The activities will be performed in 16 different European countries: Belgium, Bosnia, Greece, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany Italy, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia and The Netherlands. Furthermore there will be 5 international conferences to share knowledge and experience in United States, Uruguay, Taiwan, Australia and Morocco as well as in 5 countries within Europe. During Caravan Next activities, people who do not normally attend cultural events will be engaged: old and young people, children, families, foreigners and people in a condition of social fragility. 800 people will be involved during each MICRO event and 8000 people during each MACRO event. Furthermore, many of the activities will be live streamed and be viewable by citizens from all over Europe.

Caravan Next use digital technology to expand the range of participants, audience and creative contributions. We use digital technology as: a tool for direct interaction and engagement with the Caravan Next project, a way to create cross-country collaboration and connectivity and as a mean to enhance and expand our capacity of community engagement and project improvement. This will be done by: developing a digital Caravan Next puppet to be an integrated activity in the different events crossing Europe, by using various live streaming technologies in both the artistic events, conferences and in community workshops and by a continuous process of App development based on feet back from participators and new explorative ideas formed from the speci c needs of each event ad by experimenting with the use of a digital mascot.

The process of living methodology plays an important role in Caravan Next. The methodology of Social Community Theatre in itself connects existing knowledge and theories with the living experience and the practical knowledge emerging from the artistic and community life. With methodical supervision the partners are provided with a common cultural background about Social Community Theatre as well as with the possible strategies and various instruments to keep a direction in the artistic process. Furthermore, the process of exploration, research and reporting from an academic point of view is prioritised in order to strengthen the academic knowledge base of Social Community Theatre. Much may be discovered in the process and by the end of the project; the methodology itself will be improved.